Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Want

Rover's Jet1 1950 jet turbine-powered car. Sure, it'd be a maintenance nightmare, but it'd look just as good pulled onto the berm as scooting down the freeway at 125+ 88 mph!

Bayou Renaissance Man has blogged about this very car, and has additional pictures of it and some related designs.

(And for those of you at home following the box scores, I'm alternating 102 temps with freezing chills on about a three-hour cycle. Sheesh. Had to leave the bed before I burned up.)
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13 comments:

  1. perlhaqrMarch 23, 2011 at 1:40 PM

    That is a fairly attractive little beastie.

    I had a brainstorm a number of years back involving a Karmann Ghia and a helicopter GPU, but it never went anywhere.

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  2. NorthMarch 23, 2011 at 1:51 PM

    Very sorry to hear about your temperature. I hope it drops and you feel better very soon.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 23, 2011 at 2:06 PM

    Ooo! How about this one:

    Rover-BRM Gas Turbine

    Mike James

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  4. Tango JulietMarch 23, 2011 at 2:18 PM

    You HAVE seen a Doc, right?

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  5. Turk TuronMarch 23, 2011 at 3:02 PM

    You'll need some leather goggles, and a polo helmet, like Sterling Moss used to wear.

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  6. Roberta XMarch 23, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    Mike James: That'll do! Though the older one has a little more of that certain...something. (Which reminds me, there's a Fiat dealer in town now, I am soooo gonna test drive a 500.)

    TJ: Yep. She said it was a virus and to treat it symptomatically. I went into this thing off of working swing shifts and short on sleep and it's just hitting really hard.

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  7. Wayne ConradMarch 23, 2011 at 4:00 PM

    Roberta, Two things:

    I just got done reading my paper copy of "I work on a Starship." Thanks for the wonderful inscription, the one too secret to write down.

    Second: I've just discovered this affliction called "glowbug," vintage ham radio with vacuum tubes. Do you know anything about it that you would like to tell someone thinking bout getting into it? I'd love to do CW with equipment I built.

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  8. PeterMarch 23, 2011 at 8:53 PM

    I did an article about the Jet1 and its successors a couple of years ago:

    http://preview.tinyurl.com/5s8ry9e

    More pictures there, plus an interesting diagram of how the jet turbine worked in a car.

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  9. Roberta XMarch 23, 2011 at 9:04 PM

    Peter: Wow! I'll link to it.

    Wayne: Old ARRL Handbooks and "Editors and Engineers" handbooks are your friends. There are some listservs still (I think).

    In general, the 6L6 is a good starting point for a Glowbug transmitter. Kits show up on eBay from time to time. Crystals are the big challenge -- at one time I had most of the CW sections of 80 and 40 covered, every 5 kc/s. Since crystals are scarce, avoid "tri-tet" oscillators -- a simple Jones or Fred Sutter type 6L6 job will do the trick. (More info on Retrotechnologist, by and by)

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  10. KenMarch 23, 2011 at 9:42 PM

    Don't forget the Granatelli racing turbines!

    I have a real affection for the unconventional cars entered at Indy: the turbines, the Novis, the Cummins diesels from the early '50s (the 1952 entry set a track record and qualified on the pole).

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  11. Guffaw in AZMarch 23, 2011 at 9:55 PM

    You shouldn't be up blogging! Rest, Fluids, meds.
    Know we care out here!

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  12. Wayne ConradMarch 24, 2011 at 10:20 AM

    Wait, You've got _another_ blog? Color me clueless!

    Thanks for the tips. I need another hobby like I need a hole in the head, but I can't help myself. I've got a lot of reading to do now... see ya!

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  13. CrucisMarch 25, 2011 at 12:21 PM

    Chrysler built a turbine-powered prototype in the mid-1960s. I was attending college and one was brought in for a demo for the School of Technology (SIU-Carbondale, IL)
    Here's a wiki-URL about it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Turbine_Car

    It really had poor performance. It's 0-60 acceleration was wanting. It took too long for the turbine to wind up.

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