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

[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!