Jet Powered Car Legality

[rexhunt]

Hi,

I'm looking (Long term) at getting an old car and putting some kind of free power turbine into it. Does anyone know what the legalities of replacing a normal piston engine with a gas turbine?

Cheers,
Rex

[Richard OConnell]

what are you intending to use it for? If you want to make it into a public road vehicle, you'll need to consider noise and the fact that a free turbine isnt going to respond to throttle changes the same way a piston engine would, which poses a significant safety concern.

[turbochris]

there are no turbine specific rules per say. Engine swap laws will apply which are very emission control based in the states. Running your turbine on veg oil for emmisions workaround, make sure it's not loud and dangerous and it should be no problem.

[rexhunt]

richard I am thinking a general purpose road vehicle. However I am planning to build at least one prototype motor on the workbench and get that set up to respond fairly well. I understand that when Chrysler made their jet car the last version of it had reasonable throttle response.

chris I'd imagine that there'd be similar rules in in Aussie land. That's a good idea with the veg. oil, might be something for me to look into

Cheers,
Rex

[wolfdragon]

Look at local laws for street rod engine restrictions and prohibitions.

Provided you can pass emissions (some areas don't care about emissions from a vehicle older than (local statute here) or if it is classified as a street rod) and there isn't a noise concern, then you should be good.

[gidge348]

Hi Rex, If you are here in Australia, I recommend your first read should be this:

www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/vehicle_regulation/bulletin/street_rod.aspx

I think you may have a few issues if you want to use it as the only engine as NSW has a 94db limit and all their rules are around IC engines but it may be worth talking to a engineer that deals with hot rods and kit cars. I think you will have very little help from the clubs as unless its a "Big Block" something or other they wont be able to and wont want to understand.

I think the best solution is what Chris has done and have the turbine as an ancillary engine that you can positively disconnect from the wheels (dog box or something) and only run the engine when you want a bit of fun.

Another thing if you want to run it all the time you will need to get shares in a oil company.

[rexhunt]

Hi gidge,

Thanks for that link, that looks like what I've been looking for.

At this stage the car would just be a project car so all the driving would be for fun pretty much.

On the fuel issue I might do some experiments with various fuels and see if I can find something cheap and hopefully renewable during bench tests of the motors...

[racket]

Hi Rex

Where in Oz are you ??

My mate Andrew whos constructing the turbine bike might be the guy to talk to if in Victoria as he's spoken with "engineers" who know about whats required .

Cheers
John

[rexhunt]

Hi John,

I'm in Bathurst, NSW.

Cheers,
Rex

[racket]

Hi Rex

Bathurst is a nice town , lived there for a few years back in the '80s , a few doors up from the Fire Station in George St , I'm on the Mid North Coast these days .

LOL.......how are the fogs in Bathurst at present ??.............I still remember those freezing cold all day'rs :-(

What turbine engine are you thinking of using ??

Maybe use an old Rover for the vehicle to make your own Jet 1 , something >30 years old so you can maybe get it on Club Plates and do your road testing on all those nice quiet country roads surrounding town .

Cheers
John

[rexhunt]

Hi John,

The fogs aren't too bad now, not many this time of year thankfully. Still some frosts though.

No idea what engine yet. At the moment I'm in the middle of rebuilding the controllers for my CNC lathe and mill and (with my brother and father) am building a small scale steam loco. So right at the moment free time and cash are commodities I don't have masses of.

Considering I'm getting close to the point with the CNC's that everything will pretty much be buying the last few things and doing the final assembly I'm planning on building/buying an engine once I've got those done and moving on from there.

I was thinking about something older... and rock solid. So even if I bump into a shed or something or put a ding in the body I'm not too worried. Plenty of nice quiet roads to go driving on for testing particularly if I can keep it on my mate's property if rego becomes an issue - plenty of paddock space and close to some nice quiet dirt roads...

Cheers,
Rex

[rythmnbls]

Nice quiet country roads, like Conrod straight That'd be an awesome place for a test, legal concerns aside.

Regards.

Steve.

[rexhunt]

Hi Steve,

It just needs to be registered and not go over 60 or wait till Autofest comes around again and see what I can do down Pit Straight.

Cheers,
Rex

[gidge348]

Hi Rex,

Why not talk to John about one of his 666 engines in a light frame like a lotus 7 (Locost/Westfield), Mini, Austin A30.....

What do you think John??


Regards
Ian...

[turbochris]

i'd give that a shot. I love the scary shit!