This van has been retrofitted with a Rolls-Royce Nimbus helicopter jet turbine by Chris Krug, who should really be working for 
Mar 4, 2008 09:50 AM
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This van has been retrofitted with a Rolls-Royce Nimbus helicopter jet turbine by Chris Krug, who should really be working for Tony Stark. The jet turbine has about 1,000 shaft horsepower at 2,100 RPM, which allows it to do 1/8th of a mile at 103mph in 7.14 seconds. Not bad for a Dodge Caravan, especially one that can ride with the normal combustion engine, then reveal the turbine flipping its rear window. The turbine exhaust doesn't provide any thrust, however:
The jet exhaust is at wide angles for the helicopter application it was in. They wanted the exhaust to go away from the tail boom and have just enough velocity to keep the hot exhaust from being recirculated into the intake. The exhaust provides no thrust, it's all shaft driven but I do spray fuel into the exhaust to make some smoke and fire. It's funny how people think a jet engine isn't working properly if fire isn't spewing out the back, unless it's the engine on the passenger jet they're sitting in.
According to Chris, it can do the 1/4 mile in 11.17 seconds, and it topped at 113mph because he hasn't adjusted the rear axle ratio yet. "I have about $17,000 in the whole thing," Chris told us, "I got the turbine from a friend who deals in Government surplus. This all came about after being on the TV show 'Junkyard Wars' where i built a jet powered tricycle with a jet engine made from an old truck turbocharger." [RunRyder via Hacked Gadgets]
Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.
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