Volkswagen Beetle. Jet engine. Well, why not?

[dianeduane]

A gentleman with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford has created a street-legal Beetle with a jet engine stuffed in the back.

Best line from his erudite and fascinating discussion of this subject:

Jet keeps sucking the rose out of the bud vase on the dash!

And just wait till you see what he wants to do to his wife's motor scooter.

Now playing: Alan Parsons Project - Voyager

Comments

[navigatorsghost.livejournal.com]

Given how much time I've spent playing Burnout 3 lately, that fills me with glee. I want one!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*bursts out laughing at the motor scooter* That is the BEST THING EVAH.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

It's really cute - pure animé.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

I would so drive that... except that I have long hair and don't relish the type of trim that inlet would probably give me. The scooter, on the other hand, is just what I need to survive traffic around here. :D

[buran.livejournal.com]

This popped up a few weeks back. Wish it'd show up at Chicago VW Treffen.

I don't think I'll be doing that to my Golf any time soon. But I do want a Stinger launcher to use on tailgaters.

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Me too! Especially tail-gating semis going 70 mph in the right lane in a 55-zone!

[buran.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Don't get me started. Today on my way to work a guy in a red Chevy Monte Carlo with racing stripes and an "8" on it (not even the nice-looking ones; the awful redesign) got two inches off my bumper, then passed on the right (in an exit lane) because I was actually doing 53 in a 55!

You may be a Dale Jr. wannabe but that just makes you look like a pretentious jerk. The highway is not a race track, and you are not Dale Jr.

[xnamkrad.livejournal.com]

In the 70's I saw a gem which was the front of a Rolls Royce merged to a VW Beetle. It was perfect - heard afterwards that RR forced him to break it up as it infringed copyright.
Love the look of this one, but could you imagine trying to drive in Dublin (or any other city for that matter)

[buran.livejournal.com]

heard afterwards that RR forced him to break it up as it infringed copyright.

I doubt that. It's your car; you can do whatever you want with it. And I have some pics!





Not bad, but to be honest I prefer the lines of a flawlessly-restored gleaming-paint full-chrome mid-60s Bug or Deluxe Microbus.

[occams_pyramid]

Rolls Royce are supposed to have successfully forced John Dodd to take the RR front off The Beast - and that did have a Rolls Royce engine. OK, not a Rolls Royce *car* engine ...

[buran.livejournal.com]

Do you have a reference for this? I can't think of any grounds for a judge to rule that way. When you buy something, it's yours to do with as you see fit -- it's the entire basis for, say, used record/CD/tape and book shops.

[occams_pyramid]

I don't remember seeing any explanation of the law involved. But there's quite a lot of mentions on the web. Google: "John Dodd" "The Beast"

[buran.livejournal.com]

I found a few references that say it was a copyright case, but that doesn't make any sense. I've seen lots of mashups driving around out there, stuff like people putting Audi TT front ends on VW Golfs (hard to do but possible as they're the same platform underneath) and driving around on public streets, and that kind of thing has been going on for a very long time. Beetle engines are also used to power all kinds of things and were even used by the German Army to power the erector arm used on the Meilerwagen that transported V-2 missiles and set them on the launchpad. (I have a photo of one that I took at a museum a few months ago).

Also, that car wasn't a Beetle at all -- it was a custom job with some off the shelf parts (makes the job easier) and a Merlin engine of the type used for powering a lot of famous 1940s warplanes. There's no way that that engine would fit in a Beetle!

[xnamkrad.livejournal.com]

It was something like that, but as I recall it was a smoother job. As I said it was the 70's and in Ireland so the laws may have been different. Also Rolls Royce would have had more 'clout' than now.
Different time, different place

[kayshapero]

Looks like one way to ward off tailgaters. Or incinerate them!

[buran.livejournal.com]

Could you afford the fuel?

[azurelunatic]

That is one fine piece of hardware hacking!