Spotted at the recent Dax open day...

Jet turbine engine from a Bell Jet Ranger popped into a standard Dax Rush chassis - allegedly 300bhp and 400 ftlb in a motor weighing the same as an R1...

Insane!


Chris

is that thing road legal?

WOW

Nutters,

Suprised its only 300BHP to be honest, I appreciate helicopter engines are rated in shaft horsepower, but even then.

Cant imagine it being much fun to drive expect in a straight line.

[Edited on 8/4/07 by RichieC]

quote:

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Originally posted by cadebytiger
is that thing road legal?

WOW

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Seen one before in a Striker....

I once went to a tractor pulling contest, once was enough.... so boring it was untrue.

Anyway they had a gas turbined tractor, huge whoosing noise and span the wheels like nothing else, however when it got off line he could not shut the bloody thing down quickly and it launched towards the crowd.

Can you even use these in a car if they take a long time to slow down.

Regards Mark

Have to confess, as clever as it is, I never saw the point of putting a gas turbine into a car.

Jet powered drag cars are one thing but a "road" car?

Turbo shafts are moderately less prone to spool up/down reaction but I cant see how it would be particularly drivable. I can only assume youd be winding it up and riding the brakes to control progress as theres no engine braking to speak of. Otherwise youd be off into the nearest tree, wall, school......................

[Edited on 8/4/07 by RichieC]

Well they Y2K has a chopper turbine and that is road legal :-)

Wow, I always though those engines were a lot bigger? They probably look bigger with all the exhaust pipes and shielding, as well as a ginormous transfer case as they are fitted in helicopters...

Terrible mileage with that thing.

On small turbines the spool up time is not really that bad, think big diesel engine kind of thing. When their under load at high speed there is so much drag from the blades that when the fuels cut the rpm drops rapidly, but after that it can take a while to stop spinning.

As for the fuel cost, around twice the mpg of a conventional engine but remember these will run on any old rubbish, from paraffin to autogas which at half the cost of petrol makes up for the poor mpg.

The tricky bit really is what to do with all that hot air blasting out rather a hazard to just about everything around.