Turbonique

[Cornelius Van]

Last night I went to a local car show and saw a beautiful 1971 Lamborghini Espada.

I can not describe how infinitesimally cool that car is. There's nothing else quite like it, and it reminded me why, deep down, I love Lamborghinis so much more than a Ferrari.

Intensely gorgeous and more than a little quirky.... I love the thing. Had a nice chat with the owner about it.

Then after he left I continued to wander around the show, which by then was winding down, when I saw...... something.

Just something.

Something that, upon realization of what it was, completely and utterly eclipsed the classic Lamborghini Espada I was absolutely swooning over just a few minutes prior.

I saw, this:



It took me a good couple seconds to figure out exactly what it was.... and then shat me a nice brick. My jaw hit the ground and it has yet to return.

And upon learning more about the company that crafted the above machine, my jaw has since been glued and riveted to the ground.

If you haven't got it yet (and I don't blame if you don't), the picture I posted is of a Go Kart, estimated to have been produced in 1964.

Instead of a gasoline engine, it is powered by two rockets.

Yes. Rockets.

The car above has run a ~9 1/2 second quarter mile at a little over 150 mph.

In the sixties. As a stock vehicle.

The company that assembled this thing is called Turbonique, founded in 1962 by a gent by the name of Gene Middlebrooks - he did some work for NASA. They dealt primarily in superchargers and rear differentials (more on that shortly), but they did make a small handful of these rocket powered karts. No one's quite sure, but it's less than ten. And a good chunk of those blew up.

The dude picked it up at a garage sale two years ago for an amount he said "You probably have the cash on you right now."

I offered him $400 in cash on the spot. I was absolutely deadly serious.

He didn't take it. Prick.

Turbonique also made this:

The Turbonique Auxiliary Power Supercharger was shaped like turbocharger, had it's own spark plug, and a switch on the dash engaged it.

Unlike conventional superchargers (which are driven by a belt from the crankshaft and take some crank horsepower to run), and unlike conventional turbo chargers (which use the exhaust energy to spin up the turbo), the Turbonique Auxiliary Power Supercharger had it's own fuel source to power itself ...

When the switch was flipped, liquid oxygen and a rocket fuel named Thermolene were fed to the supercharger.

Reported testing in 1963 on a Chevy 409 showed a horsepower gain from 405 horsepower stock, to a mammoth 835 hp with the supercharger engaged.

Brilliant.

And THEN they did this:

The Turbonique Drag Axle (pictured above), was a diff centre section, with nothing less than a thermolene powered rocket nozzle mounted to the diff.

At the touch of a button, it would add an extra 1,300 horsepower (yes that's one thousand, three hundred).

The power was not purely thrust power like a jet engine on a plane - instead the power was passed through the diff housing to the rear tyres, which resulted in many cars smoking their tyres the whole way up the 1/4 mile on 1960's drag slicks.

A stock VW Beetle, fitted with one of these axles, ran a 9.36 quarter, beating out the four engined Showboat, which was the fastest gasoline dragster in the world.

Here's a '64 Galaxie fitted with a Rocket Drag Axle, among other goodies:











More info on the Galaxie here.

Turbonique and all their products were banned on NHRA sanctioned tracks and events (...pretty much all of them) in 1970. Their biggest problem was that you as a customer would order their parts (the most popular being the axle) through their catalogue, and then the assembly of this ROCKET STUFF was up to you, and if you did anything wrong (which isn't hard; it is rocket science) you were liable to explode.

It didn't help that the company proprietary fuel Thermolene was iffy and a little unstable.

"It could be stored in jerrycans, in the shadow. It had, nonetheless, some peculiar side effects: it was irritating to the skin, it would melt most plastics, rubbers, etc. and it would react under certain circumstances if in contact with some metals, like mild steel, in the presence of water."

The company was shut down and the owner was sent to jail.

He later got out and made a rocket kart good for 240 in the quarter.

-------


As a car enthusiast among other enthusiasts, I thought this odd and obscure chapter in racing/modding history needed to be shared.

More reading:

http://www.tunersgroup.com/TunerWire...urbonique.html <--- Best

http://www.vaiden.net/rocket_gokart.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009...-axle-and.html <--- great catalogue cutouts.

[Ravenous]

Great post. Good read.

The picture looks so innocuous. It's obviously a rocket, but you just think of something with firecrackers, even with the two tanks right there. But sub 10s... Jesus.

I offered him $400 in cash on the spot. I was absolutely deadly serious.

He didn't take it. Prick.

That's when you say, "How about you take the $400, I'll take the kart, and you go back to your wife and family in a single piece."

[Beaver]

Thanks for sharing that, great read.

Bet that go kart is one of the scariest things in the world to drive, would love to have a go though!

Cant believe the guy didnt take $400 for it.

[Eos Rebel]

Thats got to be scary as sh*t to drive especially considering those tires look like large rolls of electrical tape.

[Driftster]

they put bigger tires on it EOS there's videos on youtube..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiVRv1ZPtWw

this also means it'll benefit from newer/lighter rubber..
and since it works off of THRUST and not spinning power of the tires....it wouldn't need "huge slicks"

[Verbotene]

This is quite litterally one of the most batsh*t nuts things I have ever read.

Great post.

[Kaoss]

Wow, that's really something. Lucky guy eh?

Thanks for sharing, must've been a great experience

[AESG]

those superchargers are a great idea. pretty cool stuff. but that diff rocket thing is just completely insane. he indeed was a great inventor. up to date, i believe no one has had those thoughts. i´ll google the company, or his name out, im actually very interested.

[ElctrcTelsa]

Good read corny, I enjoyed that.

Pretty interesting stuff right there.

[6x7]

thanks for posting that, now i want one!!!!!

one of those carts would be great fun!

[VTEC_Dreams]

Originally Posted by 6x7

thanks for posting that, now i want one!!!!!

one of those carts would be great instant death!

Fixed that for you.

Awesome write up, Cornbread. Thanks for posting it.

[millmAn]

Great write up Corndogg.

...

The company was shut down and the owner was sent to jail.

I gotta ask, what did the owner of the company go to jail for?

It had better be something badass like too many people killing themselves from going too fast or exploding rocket fuel. But it's probably tax evasion or something like that.

EDIT: I found my answer.

I had hope...

Those days are long gone. Turbonique seems to have ceased operation around 1969. Original Turbonique equipment is extremely difficult to find, in part due to their extreme heavy duty use, and possibly because of deliberate destruction to avoid liability judgments. Details are sketchy, but I've heard various stories that the company folded after a series of customer explosions/accidents/deaths and the subsequent lawsuits. Even more depressing: Turbonique's "Thermolene" trademark lapsed, and is now a brand of weight loss pill.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk...real_acme.html

But then I found the truth...

It all came to an ignominious end in 1970, the details of which are dryly and dutifully recorded in the transcript of the Federal appellate case “431 F.2d 299, U.S. v. Middlebrooks, (CA5 (Fla.) 1970).” It recounts how one Clarence Eugene Middlebrooks, Jr., mechanical engineer, was found guilty on sixteen counts of Federal mail fraud relating to the sale of Turbonique speed equipment. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined him $4000 on eight counts. His appeal was denied.

The government alleged Middlebrooks misled consumers into believing Turbonique products were of finished quality and ready to install, where the actual products came in a kit that needed significant machining and assembly. The truth – according to several people I spoke with for this article – is that Middlebrooks became so obsessed with designing new applications and products that he sacrificed production budget to fund expensive research and development.

http://garagemagazine.com/archive-the-real-acme/

tl:dr

Yep, mail fraud.

[AaronH]

But it's because he was a mad scientist who was too busy inventing (in the name of science!) to assemble his products.

Awesome thread, Corny.

[6x7]

Originally Posted by VTEC_Dreams

Fixed that for you.

Awesome write up, Cornbread. Thanks for posting it.

cheers.

He sounds like a dodgey guy but theres been worse i spose.

Maybe if one just had a single rocket it would not be sucha an instantaneous death machine?