August 29th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
This is awesome! Ron Patrick, a PHD Mechanical Engineering major from Stanford created a jet engine and fitted it to his silver VW Beetle adding an extra 1350 hp to the car.
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.
Ron did write to me to say that he’ll be on The Late Show with David Letterman tommorow night (8/30/06). Tune in to watch it!
Just make sure that if you do ever see his car, don’t stand behind it or you won’t know what hit burnt you! His next project? … to make his wife’s Honda Metropolitan Scooter jet powered as well. More pictures and details of his car/next project can be seen on his website.
[Pictures courtesy of Ron Patrick]
8 Responses to “Want to buy a Jet powered Volkwagen Beetle?”
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Michael said: @ 5:01 pm
August 29th, 2006
This gave me a good chuckle. Thanks!
Angela D. said: @ 11:02 pm
August 31st, 2006
I saw this on Letterman and was absolutely blown away. What a wonderful tribute to Americana- I LOVE IT!! Thanks! I must say, smart people RULE!
The Foo said: @ 8:10 am
September 1st, 2006
Wasn’t it great but I couldn’t help but laugh! I think it wouldn’t have been as funny if it wasn’t a VW bug. I could just imagine the guy who tries to steal this car, thinking that he could go faster (and outrun the police), he’ll try to switch on the jet only to forget to wind the windows down - he won’t know what hit him i.e. with the massive suction.
Angela D. said: @ 8:28 am
September 1st, 2006
While driving to work this morning, I seriously thought about how I could convert my 2006 VW Golf TDI. If I could get it to run off of, say, compost and water and give it about 100 lbs. more torque….
Alas, I must wait until my warranty is up.
The Foo said: @ 8:43 am
September 1st, 2006
Yup, create an outroar from the car manufacturers and the oil industry. It’ll make you rich and famous. It’ll be like Doc’s “DeLorean” of the Back to the future trilogy, where his car ran on trash and just about everything else. No, that would just be too easy. It could have been done years ago but no one probably wants to do it with our money driven economy and company shareholders breathing down their backs. It is all about the money - building a car that will use (natural) resources that is abundant is just “too easy” , “too convinient” and the least profitable.
Angela D. said: @ 9:02 am
September 1st, 2006
What is so unbelievable is that our society has become money driven by those that don’t really have it. The illusion of wealth has been created by credit cards and debt at the expense of STAYING IN SCHOOL and getting a good education. My dad is a rancher and my little sister and I are 14 years apart; when I grew up, wealth was measured by how great an education you had and how much you could contribute to society. Despite the general sentiment of the population during the early 80’s, my generation was the first where we were not encouraged to go out and be rocket scientists and engineers. I grew up with Cookie Monster and Snuffalufagus telling me to eat cookies and that GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE. Now, Cookie Monster says that eating cookies is an occasional treat, and that Great Minds think for themselves. What ever happened to teamwork? What happened to our rocket scientists- my best friend in the whole world is 10 years my senior and he grew up during the 70’s during the height of the space exploration era, post landing on the moon. I know more engineers in their mid-late 30’s than any other age group. Then there’s the whole Los Alamos thing- the average age of our rocket sceintists is somewhere in their late 60’s!! We have no more professors!! I did my undergrad at one of the few remaining universities with a program in Aerospace engineering. I want to see American innovation trump everything else….especially American greed!!!! We have bar none the most brilliant people here (once we get beyond the lazy ones) with EVERY opportunity to be something!! Only in America can someone come from humble beginnings, go to college, buy a home, a car and secure a future all before the age of 25. Of course, that implies the person has to make good decisions along the way, but if he or she has the drive to be it, he or she can and will!
God bless Ron Patrick! I love it when we push the limits of our home garages. I bet the cure for cancer is in some strip-mall startup lab, and the FDA and the drug makers won’t allow the product to reach development phases….ok that sounds too ‘conspiracy theory’, but I’m serious. The next big innovation will come from some engineer with free time–and then the news will be broadcast on Youtube! :)
The Foo said: @ 9:32 am
September 1st, 2006
You could NOT have said that any better! I completely agree with you a 100% … even with the cure of cancer being in some strip-mall startup lab ;-). I’ll add the cure for aids with that too. It’s all about the money and people are just made to think that way (starting from the highschool, college level) instead of expanding their minds, to think outside the box to the edge of technology (and beyond).
Technology we have today could probably have been “released” years ago but was staggered to slowly build on profitability and marketbility. I’ll go as far as to say that we’ll be in flying cars and “Jetsons” style envronments today if it wasn’t for the money driven society. Ok, maybe that is stretching it a little but you get the idea.
“wealth was measured by how great an education you had and how much you could contribute to society”
Yes, you hit that right on the spot. Such was the thinking of old.
I watched American Inventors on TV this year, and was amazed that some good inventions were not chosen to go into the next round because it was useful but not profitable enough. I am not an inventor but it just made me think of the negativity of the notion i.e. to supress an inventor’s mind by telling him to invent to be profitable - that just closes his mind down, boxes him in and doesn’t make him “think outside the box”.
Angela D. said: @ 10:28 am
September 1st, 2006
I LOVED watching American Inventor. I hardly watch the tube, I used to make the exception for Will & Grace, which was the almost-too-much-like-my-life story of me and my friend, except we met in 5th grade and not in college. We’ve been together ever since, except just like in W&G, everyone moves on and now I’m faced with my friend and his partner moving to California—3010.17 miles away! Having never been apart for longer than summertime since we were 10, I don’t know exactly how we’re gonna handle it. Long live free nationwide long distance! I digress, American Inventor was great to watch, but a bit too cheesy for me. But, if we’re going to talk cheesy, the one invention that got me was this stuffed purple teddy bear looking thing that told you that everything was gonna be alright. It hung around your neck, giving the illusion it was hugging you. I spent a lot of time in the hospital when I was 20, and I remember getting so much bad news from the doctors I would just lie in bed at night and cry, wishing I could hear the words over and over that everything was going to be alright. You can only be so strong and fight for so long. Your family HAS to go home at some point. You ARE going to break down and whether or not you actually believe you’re going to be alright, hearing it over and over is so comforting. I remember when I saw that silly little bear thing, all I could think of was how nice that would have been to have during those awful days. I couldn’t have my dog at the hospital, the silly bear would have been a good second to him.
I totally love seeing companies that let their creative staff have work-time to play with things. I always think of 3M and the post-it-note invention. I know it’s just nominal stuff, but just like the programmer who was making webpages and discovered a way to have the calendar pop up when you select a date for your flight, it’s all these little things that contribute to something far more amazing.
What I hate is how kids are so busy trying to be grown-ups, they miss the point. The best book I’ve ever read is by the former CEO of Hallmark cards, I think by Gordon McKenzie. It’s called “Orbiting the Giant Hairball”. My favorite passage recounts a story of how Gordon went to a kindergarten class and asked who was an artist- every single kid raised his hand. By fifth grade, only half, and by high school—get this, the kids looked around at each other and then ONE kid barely raised his hand. My little sister—who lives on a RANCH in the middle of NOWHERE, TEXAS worries about what she is wearing to 9th grade. She stresses about how her hair, sunglasses and shoes look. She can’t wait to go to college, so she can have FUN. She’s on a swim team so she can stay thin!!!! How things have changed in 10 years! We wore clogs and corduroy and wool and thought J.Crew was just fine. Now it’s this barrage of labels, couture and fakeness! I thought she’d swim and run track to follow in her big sister’s footsteps, to break my records and swim in college. Nope, it’s rec league swimming, one hour 3 times a week after school. “I don’t want to get up at 5 a.m. for practice like you did. I’d miss out on all my TV shows the night before”.
UNBELIEVABLE.
She is an alien, her whole entire generation is an alien to me! Granted, I’m in the mid-late 20’s group, many of which think they’re living the Sex and the City lifestyle. Hate to tell them, most of NYC isn’t nearly as label conscious as you’d think. New Yorkers LOVE their H&M!! You will always have the socialites that wear the big labels (that they can actually afford and they don’t go around FLAUNTING), but seriously!!
Know what will save innovation? UNIFORMS. Put the kids in uniforms, send them to school to learn. Take away the stupid distractions, cut the red tape. Everyone has their panties in a wad about being so sensitive to this and that. I am so moved by this whole jet engine in the car thing….
And what ever happened to the great orators and writers of our time?? While we’re at it :)
Sorry for my rant and rave. I love my virtual blog friends.