For the past 17 years a Canadian motor enthusiast named Ryan McQueen (hopefully not a nickname) has been building a homemade dragster with two Rolls-Royce jet engines that could reach 400 mph.
Fed up with his Corvette failing to live up to his expectations, McQueen was inspired by the jet-powered Shockwave trucks to build his own monster machine. His wife aptly named it Insanity Jet Car.
The company was not easy. McQueen claims that it took him five years to manufacture the fiberglass body from scratch, reminiscent of a Ferrari Enzo, with a wheelbase of 3,302 mm. He bought a pair of Rolls-Royce Viper jet engines from a friend and strapped them to the chassis he built by hand.
These thrusters deliver 13,442.5 kW, (18,276.7 HP) and 18,980 Nm of torque to a vehicle weighing just 1,723 kg. It is expected to reach 6G forces by accelerating and reaching 643.7 km/h. We don’t know how many tries he’s going to make, but it will cost him dearly since the Insanity burns 400 liters of jet fuel in two and a half minutes.
They are all scandalous figures… that come from McQueen himself (without verification of any kind). However, knowing the data for vehicles powered by jet engines like the Shockwave trucks, they are not implausible.
McQueen had completed construction a few years ago, but his plans were stalled by the pandemic. Since then, he has tested the vehicle in various conditions. In a video from last July he claims that his Insanity Jet Car reached 215.6 km/h at a show:
The dragster will need more testing before reaching its target speed. Among the safety concerns, keeping the car from catching fire, finding tires that can handle those speeds, and being able to control those g-forces in the driver’s seat, it’s not just stepping on the accelerator.
Whether he succeeds or not, it seems like an engineering feat for someone who learned how to build this car from YouTube videos.
Via: TechEBlog
