This isn’t even a joke. Colorado car enthusiast Bill Berg came up with the idea to equip his tiny Smart Car with a 2,000 horsepower (1,490 kW) strong gas turbine engine taken directly from a helicopter.
Partnered with a General Electric T58-GE03 afterburner, the turbojet engine accelerates the car to 160-170 mph (257-273 km/h) in around nine seconds and can ultimately take it beyond 350 km/h (215 mph).
The one big downside of the new engine is that it manages to consume over 55 liters (14.5 gallons) of fuel in five minutes.
Now, the helicopter engine may sound like a crazy enough thing to equip a supermini car with, but the madness doesn’t quite end there. Bill Berg somehow actually managed to get the driving permit and the number plates for the car, so it is officially street-legal. Granted, that huge turbojet engine is totally off-limits on public roads, but you may always revert to using the original gasoline motor which the car has kept without modification, so that’s not an issue.
Photo: motor1.com