It's a real thing.

[andyborris]

What is?

A turbine jet engine that bolts to your rear axle to improve performance.




It's like something out of "Wacky Racers".

More here

And here

[Darkspeed]

[akku]

If you can find the info, theres a whole rabbit hole you can go down on this guy and his various jet/rocket related inventions. He ended up in jail on mail fraud. A very colourfull character. There was a website with a lot of material about him and his projects, but sadly I think it is no longer there.

I recall he did a rocket powered turbo - the rocket was an anti-lag device. Madness but brilliant.

[ratchart]

My rudimentary grasp of car mechanics and GCSE physics are struggling to understand how this is "supposed " to work.

Is it a gas turbine engine driving the rear axle, which is still connected to the regular engine. In which case how can you have two separate power sources driving the same axle? Would you just put it in neutral when the jet/turbine device is fired up or are you meant to have both running to achieve the magical 1350 horsepower?

The line that this fits "Any stock American or import car" is a big red flag to me. Really? Any car? Corvair, VW Beetle? Mini?

[andyborris]

I think it's bolted/strapped/cable tied to the rear axle. You light blue touch paper and hang on. Make sure the springs hangers are in good condition.

The Beetle that had it fitted, launched at 180+ MPH, pictures of this incident were used in advertising by the company!

It got banned from the drag strips after a few fatalities. (according to Wikipedia)

[88gtx]

Dec 22, 2023 12:08:53 GMT ratchart said:

Is it a gas turbine engine driving the rear axle, which is still connected to the regular engine... Would you just put it in neutral when the jet/turbine device is fired up

Yes and yes.  IIRC, they did say it could be used at the same time as the regular engine, but that does sound like a recipe for disaster.

The "Tobacco King" Galaxie:

[pseudonymous]

Dec 22, 2023 16:08:51 GMT 88gtx said:

Dec 22, 2023 12:08:53 GMT ratchart said:

Is it a gas turbine engine driving the rear axle, which is still connected to the regular engine... Would you just put it in neutral when the jet/turbine device is fired up

Yes and yes.  IIRC, they did say it could be used at the same time as the regular engine, but that does sound like a recipe for disaster.

The "Tobacco King" Galaxie:

I really, really like that 

[andyborris]

Imagine popping the chute, before you turned off the flame!

[crockpot]

Dec 22, 2023 15:48:23 GMT andyborris said:

I think it's bolted/strapped/cable tied to the rear axle. You light blue touch paper and hang on. Make sure the springs hangers are in good condition.

The Beetle that had it fitted, launched at 180+ MPH, pictures of this incident were used in advertising by the company!

It got banned from the drag strips after a few fatalities. (according to Wikipedia)

It's a complete axle assembly. The turbine drives the axle.
Go to YouTube and look for a guy called Brian Lohnes, he has some great drag racing videos covering rare and oddball stuff from the 60's and 70's mostly. Turboniques are covered well.

[crockpot]

Dec 22, 2023 15:48:23 GMT andyborris said:

I think it's bolted/strapped/cable tied to the rear axle. You light blue touch paper and hang on. Make sure the springs hangers are in good condition.

The Beetle that had it fitted, launched at 180+ MPH, pictures of this incident were used in advertising by the company!

It got banned from the drag strips after a few fatalities. (according to Wikipedia)

The main reason for the ban was they were uncontrollable in that there was no throttle. It was either on or off. 

[akku]

Claims about "universal fit" being "doesn't actually fit anything without significant re-engineering" and so on were part of the reason that he ended up in court.

I think the guys who managed to make them work, and even work acceptably well, were people who had access to the appropriate engineering facilities to sort it all out.

Absolute madness, the sort of thing we like.

[pseudonymous]

Dec 23, 2023 8:54:13 GMT crockpot said:

Dec 22, 2023 15:48:23 GMT andyborris said:

I think it's bolted/strapped/cable tied to the rear axle. You light blue touch paper and hang on. Make sure the springs hangers are in good condition.

The Beetle that had it fitted, launched at 180+ MPH, pictures of this incident were used in advertising by the company!

It got banned from the drag strips after a few fatalities. (according to Wikipedia)

The main reason for the ban was they were uncontrollable in that there was no throttle. It was either on or off. 

[crockpot]

Dec 23, 2023 18:21:28 GMT akku said:

Claims about "universal fit" being "doesn't actually fit anything without significant re-engineering" and so on were part of the reason that he ended up in court.

I think the guys who managed to make them work, and even work acceptably well, were people who had access to the appropriate engineering facilities to sort it all out.

Absolute madness, the sort of thing we like.

I found the record of his appeal. It seems he was a bit of a wrong 'un and also deluded (he represented himself in his original trial).
But as you say, absolute madness of the highest order 
law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/500/1355/112200/

[crockpot]

@akku here's a promotional film for turboniques showing some of the madness of the time. The sound is incorrect, it's best with it off.