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  1. #1
    Senior Member Danger731's Avatar
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    I can't describe it you have to see for yourselves - 56K - Death

    If anyone wants to see the pics with the article give me a email addy.
    This is awsome.

    Scroll, read and look Lots of pics. Check out the scooter at the end......



    This is a my street-legal jet car on full afterburner. The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back. The idea is that you drive around legally on the gasoline engine and when you want to have some fun, you spin up the jet and get on the burner (you can start the jet while driving along on the gasoline engine). The car was built because I wanted the wildest street-legal ride possible. With this project, I was able to use some stuff I learned while getting my fancy engineering degree (I have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University) to design the car without the distraction of how other people have done it in the past - because no one has. I don't know how fast the car will go and probably never will. The car was built to thrill me, not kill me. That doesn't stop me from the occasional blast on the highway though.


    The car is licensed here in California. In California, new cars have bi-annual smog inspections so if you modify the engine, it is likely to fail the inspection and you won't be able to drive it on the street. There are some exempt engine modifications (ex. after-cat mufflers - big deal) but none that will allow you to add 1350 hp to a new car.


    Car was built to look as if VW delivered the car this way. It handles fine and is safe. I was thinking of putting it into an import car show but the promoter told me that it looked too plain and recommended that I put some decals on it, lower it, and put on some aftermarket wheels. Sure kid, put on some flimsy wheels won't take a curb and don't center on the hubs, lower the car so the tires rub and get cut by the body using springs that bounce me all over the road, and advertise for companies that couldn't engineer themselves out of a paper bag. I would have thought the 14" diameter tailpipe was enough for him but I guess it wasn't. Response from the hot rod magazines has been slow. One editor told me that is because I didn't use anything they advertise. But the response to driving it on the street and going to the hot rod shows (San Francisco Custom Car Show, Grand National Show in Pomona, and the Detroit Autorama) has been fantastic. This car attracts crowds better than any '32 Ford, '69 Camaro, or decaled Honda.



    The Beetle was chosen because it looks cool with the jet and it shows it off well. Remember the Hurst wheelstanding Barracuda "Hemi Under Glass"? Well, this is "Jet Under Glass". Air for the jet enters the car through the two side windows and the sunroof. It's a little windy inside but not unbearable.



    The production hatch release switch on the driver's door activates two new latches (one on each side) and the hatch pops open just like a production car. The "hatch not closed" warning light works too.



    Here you can see the split in the tailpipe after a particularily rude burner pop. All fixed and reinforced now. The heat blanket keeps the plastic bumper from melting when the jet is operating.



    The back of the gauge panel was kept open to give the car a techie look. Something to talk about. The car's an engineering device, let's see some engineering thingies. The aluminum panel was designed in SolidWorks and cut out of billet, bead blasted, clear annodized, and then the labels for the switches were milled into the front using a font matching the VW cluster. Little details like the holes having flat sides so the switches don't spin and exactly matching the contour of the dash added time to the project. Several versions were made out of styrofoam first to get the layout and lighting right. From the back, the panel reminds me of the 1970s McLaren CanAm cars.



    The first thing I did when I got the car was to cut the hole in the back for the engine. Made a fancy jig out of a tripod, a rod, and a lawnmower wheel to mark out the cut and went at it with a pneumatic saw. Then finished it off with jeweler's files. No paint required. Didn't even chip. The hole was tricky because it goes through 3 layers (bumper and two layers of metal) and it's a circle projected onto angled surfaces. Just finding the centerline of the car wasn't trivial. Worrying what my neighbors would say if I ruined the back of a brand-new car made me REAL careful. I believe the hole is within 2 mm.



    There are three gauges for the jet: %RPM, Oil Pressure, and Turbine Inlet Temperature. The most important is turbine inlet temperature. If you exceed about 650 degrees C for very long, you damage the engine. This is critical on start-up. You don't want a "hot-start". The throttle for the jet engine is located next to the gear selector. It is a lever and has three buttons: Cool, Big-Fire, and Afterburner. "Cool" leans out the engine and is used to lower the turbine inlet temperature if you get a hot-start. To light big-fire or the afterburner, you hold a button down and 1/2 second later, press the hot-streak button on the floor. Then things happen! Notice the kerosene level gauge in front of the gear selector (jet fuel is mostly kerosene) and the bud vase missing a rose. Where did it go?




    Lotsa stuff back here. The force from the jet is tied to the vehicle through sandwich plates inside the car bolted to contoured aluminum billets that were slid into the frame rails. You can see the billet on the left side with a hole in its center, welded to the plate with 4 bolts. Used helium as the inert gas and a lot of current to weld that chunk of aluminum. To return the car to its production height, adjustable spring perches were used. Same spring rate, just corrected the ride height. Drives and handles fine. Kerosene is stored in a custom 14 gallon, baffled, foam-filled kevlar fuel cell in the spare tire well. Two fuel exits in the back: a -12 on the left side and a -10 on the right. The -10 goes to a shutoff, then a Barry Grant pump (one of the few hot rod parts on the car), then up into the car where it sees a filter, a regulator, and an electrical shutoff valve before feeding the engine. The -12 goes into a shutoff, then a 1.5 hp, 11,000 rpm, 24V custom electric pump. Pump is magnesium and can maintain 100 psi at 550 gph. From the pump it goes into the car to a filter, then a large regulator, and then to the afterburner solenoid and the big-fire solenoid (to left of pump and feeding bottom of tailpipe through orange covered hose). Fuel system was tested for flow capability. Above the big pump you can see the relocated gasoline cap actuator and all that black stuff on the right side is the stock fuel evaporative control equipment. All circuits feeding solenoids and pumps have fuses, relays, kick-back diodes to minimize contact arcing, sealed connectors, and use automotive wires of a gauge giving a maximum of 1V drop over the circuit loop.



    The engine is a General Electric Model T58-8F. This is a helicopter turboshaft engine that was converted to a jet by some internal modifications and a custom tailpipe. The engine spins up to 26,000 RPM (idle is 13,000 RPM), draws air at 11,000 CFM, and is rated at 1350 hp. It weighs only 300 lbm. It grows as it warms up so the engine mounts have to account for this. The mounts in the front are rubber and the back are sliding mounts on rubber. The structure holding the engine was designed using finite element analysis and is redundant. Strong, damage tolerant, and light. Second battery and fuse/relay panel on the right, halon fire system and 5 gallon dry sump tank on left. 24V starter motor is in the nose of the engine. 700 A of current goes into that motor for 20 seconds during start-up. Due to heat, must limit starts to three in one hour. Big screen is to avoid FOD (foreign object damage). Jet keeps sucking the rose out of the bud vase on the dash!



    A lot of attention to details in the car. Note the aluminum block holding/protecting the halon gas line, pull line, harness to engine, and oil pressure line. Rectangular tank under inlet screen is for various fuel drains. Note temperature gauge and shutoff valve for dry sump tank. 3 gallons of turbine oil at $25/quart (ouch!). Two-stage PPG paint matching exterior of car was used inside the car. It is not easy to paint around a lot of bars, etc while crouched in a car, in your dusty home garage, avoiding drips, and with your wife screaming that the fumes will cause brain damage in the kids. Especially with two-stage where you have multiple coats and critical drying times. Kids passed their grades so I guess damage was minimal, but more importantly, the paint turned out great!



    Street racing action. The other guy wimped out after a few "big-fire" demonstrations. What you see in the picture is about one-twentieth the full size of the fireball. Guy standing beside car had never seen it run before and was smiling ear-to-ear throughout the show. Had I launched, I would have burned him to a crisp. Well, live and learn.



    We get this a lot. A police officer picking at his nose while trying to figure out what to charge me with. Notice the hopeful anticipation of us on the right. We're rooting for him and offer suggestions but unfortunately, the California Department of Motor Vehicles did not anticipate such a vehicle so he's out of luck. Hmmm, the car has two engines making the car a hybrid so maybe we can drive in the commuter lanes along with the Toyota Priuses.







    Bitchin' from the back too. Should get the scooter going. On one jet engine alone, this engine will get a kart up to 60 mph. Looks like I have a lot of spare wire left over from the Beetle job to do the scooter.

  2. #2
    Senior Member MadSeason's Avatar
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    pics?

  3. #3
    Leaving for Lackland soon
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    Black
    2000 Z28 M6

    2000 Black Camaro Z28 - !Cags, Spec Stage 3 clutch, Drill Mod, Smooth Bellows, High Flow Lid, Free Ram Air Mod, 150 Wet Shot Cold Fusion Nitrous

    N/A 333rwhp 340 RWTQ
    N20 476RWHP 493RWT (Finally got it tuned)
    http://www.dakotafbodies.com

  4. #4
    Teh Combustinator MarkuzLS1's Avatar
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    Black
    2002 Trans Am

    Seems like having the intake right there in the cockpit wit you isn't the best idea. Wonder if you can feel the pressure drop when you really open it up?

  5. #5
    YOW Pookie's gone postal! Motrv8d Steve's Avatar
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    Black
    1998 Camaro Z28

    holy shit Batman!


  6. #6
    Leaving for Lackland soon
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    2000 Z28 M6

    I am 100% positive you would have to wear hearing protection when driving with the turbine "on"...... that thing has to be loud as shit.

  7. #7
    Member norm43a's Avatar
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    Mystic Teal Metallic
    1998 Z-28, 2010 SS

    I have one question, what is the handling like when you light up the turbine and take off? With the tires pictured in the photos and the fact it is a VW, I would be very wary of lighting this thing and rocketing down the highway. What kind of suspension? Does it corner? Do you only run straight shots? How about slowing down, chute, oversized brakes and rotors?

  8. #8
    Senior Member ss~zoso~ss's Avatar
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    SS: NBM, tan top
    1998-SS, 2010 Jetta TDI

    Danger7321

    is that car really yours?

  9. #9
    Member
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    Haha

  10. #10
    Ahh crap... needmorepwr's Avatar
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    '57,'63,'70,'91,'01

    why, just why?

  11. #11
    Senior Member Danger731's Avatar
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    no not mine, haha, why would you "stall it" , lmao

  12. #12
    DisCrete
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    I really have nothing to say...

    except...


  13. #13
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    00 WS6

    That thing is great! Maybe it can't stop very well, will kill your hearing faster than 4x15's would in an old vw van and will send you right off the edge once a corner comes up too fast, but who else has done something like that! Hell just the fact that he left the stock engine in there to keep the smog nazi's here in cali at bay is funny as hell. I can just see his first smogging. "What the hell is that thing sticking out of the back?", "O, just a cat back " Ya stick your prob in there and see what happens. LMFAO!

    Edit: Woah, didn't notice how old this post was, just saw it at the bottem of another post. O well it's still great! Wonder how it's been going for him and his ride. Did anyone ever hear anything else about this guy again or was he found smashed into the side of a mountain somewhere like the old muscle car + jet engine story went.
    Last edited by Mayron; 09-07-2008 at 09:39 PM.

  14. #14
    Detailing + Design third_shift|studios's Avatar
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    My life is a
    Ben Stiller movie.

    i could see this puppy having a lot of benefits...

    • No one, i mean NO ONE would tailgate you. Ever.
    • S'mores
    • If somebody pissed you off, back it up to their house and throttle-up
    • Cliff jumping would be at the flick of a switch.

  15. #15
    I like turtles GTP231's Avatar
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    09Ram 1500 83 Thunderturd

    What's with the reviving of 2+ year old threads?

  16. #16
    El Toro Grande jaslivers's Avatar
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    1958 chevy pickup 283
    02 gmc z71 5.3L white

    Quote Originally Posted by GTP231 View Post
    What's with the reviving of 2+ year old threads?
    you can thank the new members

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