It’s time to up the octane at Mission Park Raceway with some jet-powered dragsters.
Demons and Hellcats are all well and good, but they don’t quite have the power to hang with these rocket-powered dragsters. At some point, internal combustion just loses its charm and you need some good external combustion to get the job done. That happens somewhere around 3,000 horsepower or so.
On the right, we have the Tomahawk, a 2001 Chevy Camaro that has been utterly gutted to make room for a Pratt * Whitney J-60-8 turbofan. That’s the same engine that powers the T-2B Buckeye and T-39 Sabreliner jet trainers for the US Navy and Air Force. It’s rated at roughly 3,300 lb-ft of thrust, which is a fair amount when compared to your average muscle car.
On the left is the EarthFlight Jet Car. We’re not quite sure what’s powering this beast, but judging by how the car is at least a few decades old, it’s likely an older jet engine from a US Air Force fighter. Maybe the J85 GE jet engine from an F-5 fighter jet, which is rated at 3,500 lb-ft of thrust.
When it comes to turbofans and jets, it’s really hard to actually have both crafts launch at the same time. Jet engines aren’t designed for exact timing (at least not older jets like these ones), so the Tomahawk lets off the brakes a little sooner than the EarthFlight. However, both cars put on a great show and finish a quarter-mile drag race in around 6 seconds. Eat your heart out, Demon drivers.
Next, we have the BoneShaker, a semi-truck that’s been fitted with a J79 GE turbojet taken from an F-4 Phantom II (or possibly an F-104 Star Fighter--they used the same engine). It’s rated at a whopping 12,000 lb-ft of thrust, which is a good thing since the truck weighs a lot more than those featherweight jet cars from earlier.
The BoneShaker is also able to put on a great show thanks to its flaming exhaust tips. Check out the video above to see what real power is all about.