Ever hear of Turboniques? Literally a functional turbine seperate of the engine, giving upwards of a 1,300HP boost directly to the rear axle #BlogPost

Liquid fuel rocket tubine, designed for production cars. These were basically NOS back in the ‘60s, except that additional power was put directly through the axle instead of starting in the engine. These turbines revved to 60,000 rpm with PSIs exceeding 600. These devices were powered by Thermolene, which was a name brand for sopropyl nitrate monopropellant. Very neat devices, but with a troublesome history. Being based off of cutting edge rocket technology, they had the tendency to explode. Most commonly, this would occur if the vehicle was subject to wide open throttle (wot), let off of wot, and then back to wot. This would essentially turn this device and it’s highly flammable fuel into a bomb.

Unfortunately we never got to see how this company evolved as the owner, Gene Middlebrooks was arrested only six years after starting his company. He was charged with fraud related to the axles being both harder and more expensive to fully install as was described in company advertising.

Some people discovered that the smaller Turbonique turbines could fit on a go kart. The fastest Turbonique equipped go kart ran the quarter mile in the five second range at over 240 mph (386 kmh). The particular kart that hit that milestone cost less than $2,000, and still survives to this day. No word on if anyone has been brave enough to attempt to beat the ‘60s record.

In the modern day, these are very hard to come across, being even more rare as a complete unit not attached to a historically significant drag car. The only one that I’ve found through a half of an hour of research was put up for auction, reached $6,300 but did not meet the reserve price. If you find one of these, buy it while you can. As for actually using it, that’s up to you. Just make sure your will and life insurance are up to date…