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Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)

ronpatrickstuff.com

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Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)

#141

Post by xattt »

playworker wrote: post #75
xattt wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t have the source at hand, but a gas turbine is ridiculously inefficient for variable loads. At idle, fuel consumption can be ~35% of what it is at full power. It would only need to charge for short time, and subsequently shut off. When a charge top-up is required, startup would be another rigamarole. Now, rotary engines, that’s a different story…

https://www.mazda.co.uk/cars/mazda-mx-30-r-ev/

> As Mazda’s first fully electric vehicle, the MX-30 is the complete opposite of a hit in North America. The company’s U.S. division has in fact decided to axe the model after just two years.

No R-EV on this side of the pond either.

Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)

#142

Post by Hinrik »

hrichards wrote: post #40

Seems 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…

>Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine?

The current engine formula (2014-) in Formula 1 racing might be of interest to you.

> During acceleration of a Formula 1-car, the turbo charger is performing at its peak and is spinning at about 100,000 rpm. The MGU-H (Heat) functions at that moment as a generator. This is connected to the turbo charger and converts the energy, generated by the turbo, into electricity; that, in turn, is stored in a battery or sent directly to the MGU-K.

> This MGU-K (Kinetic), connected straight to the crankshaft of the turbo engine, acts as an electric motor that supplies extra power to said engine. This MGU changes into a dynamo, which stores the energy that is released during braking in the battery. This stored energy, can later be used to support the turbo engine during acceleration or overtaking.

Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)

#143

Post by btbuildem »

This is wild, but I would strongly disagree on the aesthetic of it. In my opinion, he picked pretty much the worst possible car for this. Managed to make a jet-powered vehicle look... lame, somehow.

Imagine an El Camino or even an AMC Eagle with this contraption in the bed, how much cooler that would look? But really, how could you not use a Delorean as the base for this project??

Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)

#144

Post by Feuilles_Mortes »

btbuildem wrote: post #143

This is wild, but I would strongly disagree on the aesthetic of it. In my opinion, he picked pretty much the worst possible car for this. Managed to make a jet-powered vehicle look... lame, somehow. Imagine an El Camino or even an AMC Eagle with this contraption in the bed, how much cooler that would look? But really, how could you not use a Delorean as the base for this project??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_(style)?wprov=sfti1

Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)

#145

Post by btbuildem »

Feuilles_Mortes wrote: post #144
btbuildem wrote: post #143

This is wild, but I would strongly disagree on the aesthetic of it. In my opinion, he picked pretty much the worst possible car for this. Managed to make a jet-powered vehicle look... lame, somehow. Imagine an El Camino or even an AMC Eagle with this contraption in the bed, how much cooler that would look? But really, how could you not use a Delorean as the base for this project??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_(style)?wprov=sfti1

> The car was built because I wanted the wildest street-legal ride possible

> The Beetle was chosen because it looks cool with the jet

It really does sound to me like this person was genuinely going for "cool" and "wild", not "campy"

Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)

#146

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

olyjohn wrote: post #38
mindslight wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We live in a society where things are legal by default. Why would adding a jet engine to a car be a priori illegal? If he harms somebody or otherwise causes damage, that itself is what's illegal and he'd be liable regardless of motor vehicle regulations. If this mod became a larger trend, especially consumer-available, then regulations would be implemented to head it off. But for a few lone instances it's not particu…

In this case the law has already been written. It's not a CARB-approved, nor EPA compliant engine. You're not allowed to run it on the street. The law is written so that everything you do to a car's emission system is illegal by default. To make any engine modifications in California, the part must be CARB approved and have a compliance sticker on it. Engine swaps in California are legal, as long as the engine being…

The stock engine — and the emission control system attached to it — are entirely untouched.
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