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Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
- dang 9y agoDiscussed in 2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=831185 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=831185.
- zaroth 9y agoSaw this linked in the comments yesterday, not surprised at all to see it hit the front page today :-) Love the pic of the cop scratching his nose wondering what to charge them with! The way this guy fucks around with jet engines really puts a B.S. CompSci degree in perspective (and not in a good way!). Admittedly he did get a PhD from Stanford. Did he ever build his wife that jet-powered scooter?!
- yitchelle 9y agoHe sure did. Go back in and scroll right down to the bottom. There's an awesome picture of it.
- codezero 9y agoI didn't downvote you :( but I am guessing the reason people did (ugh) is that the last picture is just the initial setup, and they want "real" finished products, anyways, thanks for trying!
- ufmace 9y agoI think that's just a mockup, trying to figure out how to mount the engines and route the various wires and lines and such.
- yitchelle 9y ago@codezero & @ufmace, thanks for letting me know. Failing fast here... :-)
- TylerE 9y agoJet engines are actually in most ways a lot simpler than an internal combustion engine. Just tighter tolerances and potentially...nasty failure modes.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoNitpick, a jet engine is an internal combustion engine. See second paragraph, first sentence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine
- tyingq 9y agoDoesn't mention anything like 0-60 or 1/4 mile times. I can't tell how well the 1300+ hp translates into real world stats. Impressive for sure though. Being reported to Homeland Security is funny.
- stephencanon 9y agoInterview here: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/When-bugs-fly-Auto-geek-hits-highway-for-2498201.php https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/When-bugs-fly-Auto-ge... Of particular note "you drive the car up to about 90 miles an hour and you spool up the jet"--it will just slide at lower speeds, and you will have no control. So the 0-60 and 1/4 mile times are just whatever you get in a stock beetle carrying an extra 300 lbs.
- jsmthrowaway 9y agoNot only were the guys at the air base trying to sell Patrick an SA-2, "they were saying, 'you want a MiG 21 (fighter jet)? I'll sell you two tanks and a MiG.' " . "So they wanted $2,000 for the missile," Patrick said, "and I had a bottle of ouzo and after a while I got them down to a grand." He still hasn't got the 35-foot-long missile, but he does know what he'll do with it once it clears U.S. customs. (Good luck.) "I want to build a missile silo on my front lawn," he said. "It'll have those electric-opening silo doors and I'll have a set of lights for it. Then, at night, I open the silo doors and raise the missile up, with those lights on it." This guy is a dream come true. He's like a version of Woz with a flair for surplus weaponry. It's fantastic. Also, imagine having the connections to buy a Mach 3 missile that shot down Gary Powers for less than a Macbook. I wonder if a launcher is included.
- tyingq 9y agoAhh, so this bit of an add on only helps after 90mph? Guessing he is single, close to it, or coupled with someone just as adrenaline powered :)
- stephencanon 9y agoThe end of the article we're commenting on is literally: "here's my wife's Honda Metropolitan scooter. She wants it to go faster than 40 mph. So I have these two little JFS 100 jet engines and I am thinking how to put them on the scooter."
- dangerboysteve 9y agoForget the Beetle, his plans for his wife's Honda scooter sound way better.
- lb1lf 9y ago-Agreed; there was something about the aesthetics of the scooter which just looked... ...right, with those twin turbines attached. Looks like a Jetsons prop. Absolutely, positively beautiful. Here in Scandinavia, some people have taken a more redneckesque approach - pulse-jet powered sleds. These Swedish blokes look promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O-JWddgagk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O-JWddgagk
- tim333 9y agoI was thinking combine that with a powered paraglider parachute and you'd have something cool https://www.poweredparaglidingcolorado.com/about_ppg/about_ppg.html https://www.poweredparaglidingcolorado.com/about_ppg/about_p...
- ebrewste 9y agoWhat a blast from the past. I actually worked in the same office park they did. Hearing an afterburner blast when working late one night was quite a suprise! I must say that it made my day to wonder out investigating only to find a Beetle with a jet engine doing afterburner blasts :)
- test6554 9y agoDid they ever get that baby up to 88 mph?
- ada1981 9y ago"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. "
- narag 9y agoJealousy. Not for the jet engine, YMMV I guess, but for living in a country where you can do that. I've been doing some research for converting my old car to electric. Bureaucracy costs more than double what parts+work do... assuming it's possible at all.
- radiorental 9y agoReading between the lines, I don't get the impression he filled out any paperwork for the ability to transport a fully functional jet engine on the back of his otherwise totally normal 4 cylinder production VW beetle. The fact it turns on, is bolted to the vdub and so forth... mere details. Converting a car is a completely different kettle of fish. As someone who's built a couple of personal electric vehicles I can attest, the US has plenty of regulations of what you can do on the highways and byways.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago> As someone who's built a couple of personal electric vehicles I can attest, the US has plenty of regulations of what you can do on the highways and byways. It depends. If you're starting with a rolling chassis that's already road legal 99% of the work is done for you. In CA you can drive a death trap as long as it doesn't pollute. In MI you can drive a vehicle that burns tires and is lubricated with whale oil as long as it has mud flaps. It's not like some places in Europe where applying for a mortgage has less paperwork than installing aftermarket control arms. I mean, I'm all for less regulation for DIYers but we do have it pretty good here.
- as3bg38da9 9y agoBonus if you have a government that supports the notion its citizens are exceptional, and will manipulate the world to get its way such that citizens have access to rocket engines. Cause you know, freedom is all about convincing the world anyone specifically should have what it takes to build a rocket car. And mocking the government or anyone else that would suggest it's a foolish waste, by a self-aggrandizing asshat, is free speech.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- aeontech 9y agoVideo link from previous thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJyAA0oPAwE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJyAA0oPAwE
- radiorental 9y agoHoly crap, that thing can book it!
- zaroth 9y ago“How fast can you go when you turn that baby on?” “It’s hard to say, because I just pin the speedo at 140 miles and hour, laugh hysterically, and then hope the cops don’t nail me.” “Now, can you drive around the surface streets of California with that jet engine activated?” “You could do it, but I don’t know what would happen. My runs are at night. I’ll leave the office late at night, and I’ll spool it up and nail it on a highway, and then sorta drive back on the gasoline engine and... go to bed.” A fine engineer, for sure!
- mirimir 9y agoI wonder if some control surfaces would help.
- thomasjudge 9y agoHave to pick a small nit, not entirely correct to say that no one else has put a jet engine in a street legal car, there was in fact a "production" jet-engine based car 1962-64, the short-lived Chrysler Turbine (seen on "Jay Leno's Garage", CNBC)
- mr_toad 9y agoTo nitpick a bit more, these engines would have had a secondary power turbine added to produce mechanical power. This would have reduced the exhaust pressure, so they wouldn’t have used a jet for propulsion. Rover actually produced the first car turbine engines back in the 40’s. http://www.rover.org.nz/pages/jet/jet5.htm http://www.rover.org.nz/pages/jet/jet5.htm https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover-BRM https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover-BRM
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- skookumchuck 9y ago> I have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University I should refer to this article the next time there's a thread on HN insisting that a college degree imparts useless knowledge.
- stergios 9y agoHere's Ron's company: http://ecm-co.com/ http://ecm-co.com/ He makes state of the art ECM systems used primarily by the big auto makers.
- senatorobama 9y agoIs he rich?
- stergios 9y agoRon is an old friend. He's a very sharp and funny guy too. Ron was on the David Letterman show and Dave was cracking up while interviewing Ron right before he ran his bug down the track at the old Altamont Dragstip https://youtu.be/XTzxptdvt3c https://youtu.be/XTzxptdvt3c I always enjoyed visiting Ron's lab at Stanford and chatting him up. Between talking with him and Fritz Rinehart at the other engine lab down the hall in bldg 500 I always felt I learned something new about combustion. Personally, I preferred his 572 hemi mid sixties Chrysler. Now that was a scary car! edit: spelling.
- jgable 9y agoDuring my undergrad and masters, I worked for Chris Edwards, who took over the IC engine lab from Fritz. It was a fun place to be -- running a single-cylinder research engine and a chevy LS1 on the dynos, setting up a miniature turbine engine and a hybrid rocket motor stand for the advanced undergrad thermo class. I arrived too late to meet Fritz, and I never had the pleasure of meeting Ron. I wish I had.
- stergios 9y agoHey jgable, nice to meet you. We must have missed paths in Fritz's lab. I wrote the control software for that LS1!
- oneiric 9y agoHey stergios, I replaced your (DOS?) code with a modern aftermarket ECU.
- stergios 9y agoNice oneiric! Here's a screen grab from 1990 when we were breaking in the supercharger. http://www.marinopoulos.net/gallery2/d/15735-2/DUMP0000.gif http://www.marinopoulos.net/gallery2/d/15735-2/DUMP0000.gif It was a DOS program, written in C. Fritz asked me to write it for Windows 2.1, but I said: "no thanks, all I need is a frame buffer and a GPIB IO Card". I made my own simple little graphics subsystem with fonts borrowed from X11. Here's a little picture gallery I have of the ICE lab from 1990: http://www.marinopoulos.net/gallery2/v/Cars/StanfordEngineLab/ http://www.marinopoulos.net/gallery2/v/Cars/StanfordEngineLa... Enjoy!
- joshu 9y agoI met Ron at a track day once! Very cool guy.
- teeray 9y agoSo the 11,000 CFM that it draws comes through the windows and the sunroof? I'm sure they did the math, but it amazes me they didn't have to remove the windshield to keep it running.
- devenson 9y agoThat screen on the intake doesn't look like it can handle the 11,000 CFM that engine is rated for.
- smoyer 9y agoI have a '71 Super Beetle (and aa '71 Karmen Ghia). Doubling the horsepower in the car from the factory's original 38HP makes the car a bit scary ... I can't even imagine that extra push in the back!
- maksimum 9y agoYou'd probably be fine, scariness overflow.
- userbinator 9y agoThe 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. This is a great example of why jet engines are used on planes - the power-to-weight ratio is far higher. The original flat-4 VW engine used in the "old" Beetle is already > 200lbs, and including the rest of the drivetrain is well over 300.
- chivas 9y agoWow, GTA V IRL.
- pasbesoin 9y agoNothing like the same scale, but for a chuckle, this reminds me of the New Zealand fellow who build a small jet engine in his shed to cool his beer (or, that's how I remember it...). Um... http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/ http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/
- Synaesthesia 9y ago“Air for the jet enters the car through the two side windows and the sunroof. It's a little windy inside but not unbearable.”