Man Equips His VW Bug With Navy Jet Engine

[matcom]

<snip>

Ron Patrick is approaching the age of 50, a time when many men begin thinking about minutiae like pensions and second homes and third cars. But Patrick is far more interested in telling you why it is that he has stuck a big jet engine in the back of a prosaic silver Volkswagen.

He's standing out in a parking lot, waving his arms with wild enthusiasm, pointing at the car as if he were a 15-year-old who's just had his first ride in a Corvette, his eyes spinning in delight. This car consumes him, he loves the completely outrageous idea behind it, and for a moment, his infectious mood makes you think, gee, anybody could do this and it sounds like a great way to spend a few years, not to mention $250,000.

Patrick is a 48-year-old Stanford-trained (Ph.D.) engineer who owns ECM (Engine Control and Monitoring), a Sunnyvale firm that makes electronic instruments used by auto manufacturers to calibrate their engines for performance, fuel economy and emissions. He knows cars. He knows how they work. He's an animated man who has a seasoned sense of humor, a wry view of the world, mixed with a dash of the absurd and an absolute passion for things like, well, jet-powered cars.

The Navy surplus General Electric T58-8F is that menacing, giant cigar-like item sticking out of the VW's hatchback. When he fires it up, standing next to it is a bit like standing next to one of the engines of a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320 while the thing is about to back off from the gate. This, however, is a Volkswagen bug with a 1,450-horsepower jet engine sticking out the back, idling away at 13,000 RPM.

It's a perfectly street-legal VW, too, with current California registration and smog-approved gas-burning front engine made by Volkswagen. It's just this humongous big thing projecting 23 inches rearward from the hatchback that makes it different from any other bug. The "thing" is what Patrick describes as "essentially a baby Lear jet engine, a couple steps down from the engine on an F4 Phantom."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/30/MNGJGII7BB1.DTL

[bridgit]

1. funny...

:-)

[DrDebug]

2. 0 to 60 in 2 seconds?

It does give "keep a safe distance" a totally new meaning, because if you tail gate this beatle, it'll burn you :rofl:

[matcom]

3. let a Hummer start riding your bumper and flip the switch

:rofl:

[Mutley]

4. How in the world could that be street legal?

:wow:

[JVS]

5. What a fucking idiot!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. There was a darwin award winner

that did more or less the same thing with his Chevy Nova, or some damn car. They need dental records.

There's this guy in Seattle who took a couple of those hobbyist remote control jet plane engines and attached them to his bicycle. I don't know how that turned out.

[DS1]

8. The Nova with the Dental records story is an urban legend

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Yeah, I'll bet.

As are most Darwin Award winners, I'll bet too.

[Kellanved]

7. $250,000 to drive a 230 kph fast VW Bug?

Sounds a tad expensive, if you ask me. Most VWs (including the "new beetle") can get well beyond the 200 kph out-of-the-box.

Tuned beetles with a maximum velocity around 250 kph are known; they get that fast without leaving the ground.

[Initech]

10. I'd like to see him take that thing out on the California freeways!

[ps1074]

11. Idiot

eom

[Blue_Tires]

12. that makes no sense

talk about more money than brains.....I'll take the quarter mil and spend it on a Ferrari 430 and still have cash left over, thank you....

[lpbk2713]

13. The mpg rating must be a killer.

A car that size probably has enough storage capacity to hold enough JP-4/5 to get from one side of town to the other. The AAA motor club probably won't deliver jet fuel.

[auburngrad82]

14. and wins this year's Darwin Award

Liberal bumper stickers

[bmbmd]

15. This is how Bob Lazar got his start.

Next thing you know, Ron will claim to have been an employee of Area 51.

http://www.serve.com/mahood/lazar/jetcar.htm