My buddy (a car guy) from Mountain View told me he could hear this thing on 280 late at night every now and then. Anyone else?
Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
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Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#52Discussions on similar submissions: Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28349589 (August 29, 2021 — 2 points, 1 comments) Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16513835 (March 4, 2018 — 156 points, 60 comments) Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5384390 (March 15, 2013 — 6 points,…
Thanks! Here's a great subthread from one of those: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16524533
(I just added it to https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights)
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#53Seems like a good time to ask this question that has been bugging me forever, since all the HN jet nerds will be drawn to this thread: Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine? I'd imagine that hooking up such an engine directly to the drivetrain like in a Prius would be difficult, but surely a small turbine with one hell of…
Sounds like you just described a hybrid, only needs a larger tank.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#54Seems like a good time to ask this question that has been bugging me forever, since all the HN jet nerds will be drawn to this thread: Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine? I'd imagine that hooking up such an engine directly to the drivetrain like in a Prius would be difficult, but surely a small turbine with one hell of…
I've been wondering about this very same question a lot myself and accidentally stumbled across the answer just a few days ago:
Efficiency of turbines smaller than grid scale is simply not anywhere close to what piston engines can do at e.g. car size. Even at naval scale, turbines only win in use cases where power density is more important than fuel efficiency. Helicopters are deep in the (specific) camp of power density beats efficiency because carrying a heavier but more efficient engine would easily eat the fuel savings. Fixed wing aircraft gain range by climbing high, but up there both efficiency and power density of piston engines decreases dramatically with decreasing air density, so they are also in the camp of power density over efficiency (turbines are also affected, but not quite as much).
Note that despite all this, the Otto Aviation 500L that is all about fuel efficiency at high altitudes uses a piston engine (they probably put a lot of effort into their turbocharger, those can lessen the impact of thin air)
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#55"The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back."
Careful wording to give the impression that the drive shaft of the helicopter turbine would be connected to the rear wheels, without actually claiming that it is. So it's a car with a large flame thrower in the back, minor The Boring Company vibes.
Well possible that the author might have had more fun writing than building/driving. (I do love the incredulous tone of "#1 Does this mean I’m the right hands?")
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see > I don't know how fast the car will go and probably never will. The car was built to thrill me, not kill me. That doesn't stop me from the occasional blast on the highway though. but I am unsure if that means he has never driven it using the jet engine, or whether the engine even will power the car or just kinda runs on its own. I'm curious to see it go at all under jet engine power. Edit: maybe this is it htt…
I think he means he's used it plenty, but hasn't tried to max out the speed.
That's my reading as well.
I have a vague memory of this site or an interview previously saying he got up to 130 mph once, before deciding he'd rather not find out what speed a VW Beetle lifts off the pavement.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#57"The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back." Careful wording to give the impression that the drive shaft of the helicopter turbine would be connected to the rear wheels, without actually claiming that it is. So it's a car with a large flame thrower in the back, minor The Boring Company vibes. Well possible that the author might have ha…
I don't think so. In another part he mentions
> This is a helicopter turboshaft engine that was converted to a jet engine
I can't see a way to get rotary power out of this engine after the modifications.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#58Seems like a good time to ask this question that has been bugging me forever, since all the HN jet nerds will be drawn to this thread: Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine? I'd imagine that hooking up such an engine directly to the drivetrain like in a Prius would be difficult, but surely a small turbine with one hell of…
To add to the discussion - the M1 Abrams tank uses a turbine. I don't know how that's linked up to the tracks though.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#59Seems like a good time to ask this question that has been bugging me forever, since all the HN jet nerds will be drawn to this thread: Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine? I'd imagine that hooking up such an engine directly to the drivetrain like in a Prius would be difficult, but surely a small turbine with one hell of…
To add to the discussion - the M1 Abrams tank uses a turbine. I don't know how that's linked up to the tracks though.
Former M1 Abrams crewman (19K). It has an automatic transmission.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#60Discussions on similar submissions: Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28349589 (August 29, 2021 — 2 points, 1 comments) Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16513835 (March 4, 2018 — 156 points, 60 comments) Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5384390 (March 15, 2013 — 6 points,…
Thanks! Here's a great subthread from one of those: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16524533 (I just added it to https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights )
@dang I wonder why we don't just generate these things at the bottom of every article? My extension does it already, but I feel like it would help a lot as a core feature.