Meet the Whirl: the world’s first side-by-side ATV powered by a screaming 114 dB turbine
Posted 06.30.2009 at 11:45 am
18 Comments
Don your Nomex firesuit and industrial-grade ear protection: It’s time to soak in some nature at 60mph. PopSci staff photographer/madman John Carnett has realized an unholy dream long in the making: an ATV powered entirely by a jet turbine.
And then he took it to the woods and pushed it to the limit; to the edge of logic, control and sanity.
As if intent to cement his internal reputation as the resident DIY crazy man, Carnett told me last year that his next project was going to involve a jet turbine and something he could drive. Unsurprisingly, Carnett didn’t feel the least bit hampered by the fact that he lacked a turbine, a vehicle, and any real knowledge about how to put a turbine on a vehicle. But after ten months, untold thousands of dollars, a big hand from our buddies at QUAD magazine and the equivalent of a college degree in jet-power gleened from dozens of grizzeld old shop guys around the country, Carnett’s turbine-powered ATV, dubbed the Whirl, ripped up some ground in upstate New York last week, reaching speeds of 60 mph and torque that would launch it over an obstacle like the Duke boys escaping Boss Hog.
The vehicle is built around a donated Polaris RZR, a two-person quad that’s been stripped of its engine, roll cage, suspension, shocks, battery, drive axels, wheels, tires and electrical system. When Carnett tried to buy a new turbine and explained why, manufacturers hung up on him, but he soon discovered the gray market of jet-power enthusiasts. His turbine, a former military powerplant manufactured in the 1960s, came from a guy who’d been using it in his Honda CRX and was trading up. The rest of the parts were either fabricated in John’s Philadelphia shop, custom made by someone sympathetic to the project (like the shocks Elka whipped up just for him) or acquired from the far-flung reaches of the Internet (parts for a 40-year-old turbine being typically out of stock at Lowe’s).
Beside the obvious logistical challenges of cramming a jet turbine spewing 1300°F exhaust on a small platform inches behind the driver’s head—throwing off the weight and balance of the entire vehicle—and accounting for an entirely new set of mechanical and electrical systems, is the fact that small single stage turbines like to run at 102 percent of power 100 percent of the time, but it’s a little hard to steer a four-wheeler going balls out through the woods (well, for very long anyway). Carnett’s solution (and a good portion of the ten-months spent building it): install a hydraulic drive system in between the turbine and the built-in gear box. A single axis joystick style controller, like those that control massive mining equipment, acts as an accelerator, adjusting the current flowing to the hydraulic pump, which regulates how much of the turbine’s power makes it to the drive shaft.
After an initial cop-taunting run around the streets of Philly, Carnett took the beast to the woods for its initial off-road run last week, and sent back this note, which pretty well sums it up:
"This past Saturday I took the WHIRL to a 14-acre area for R&D. The machine exceeded my dreams, scared a few people and made me smile so hard that it hurt. It's rather like standing next to a 114db hot dog cooker that could explode at any time: tens of thousands of RPMs by your head, 8,000 RPM by your ass. The danger seems to defy the logic of the device. You get into an adrenaline rush that is unlike anything you could imagine—faster thru the woods, mud flying- at the very edge of control; then still faster; you get to the point of almost crashing prior to slowing down. Limits appear; the blurr stops; the turbine whine slows; you get out then fall to the ground with a body bruised yet feel no pain... J"
See more photos of the Whirl Here
Want to read more articles like this, plus tips and tricks, home hacks, DIY projects, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!
18 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Regular Features
Download Our iPhone App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Become a Fan On Facebook
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
December 2009: Best of What's New
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
Check out the best of what's new here.
Popular Science Photo Pool
Featured
DIY
The World's Fastest Remote-Control Car
A shrunken speedster revs up
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
DIY
- Amazing Aerial Photos from a Homemade Gas-Powered Paraglider
- Great Gifts For Electronics Geeks For Less Than $20
- Guess This Part, Win a Tool
- Video: Make a Metal Bowl with a Tree Stump and a Mallet
- Tool School: A Quicker Way to Cut Steel
- The Dissection: Air Pressure Gauge
- From the Junk Bin It Came
- Gallery: Confessions of an Electronics Junk Collector
- The Secret To Beautiful Steel is Found at the Bowling Alley?
- Guess This Part Revealed: The Tank Bung
Most Commented
DIY
- Guess This Part, Win a Tool
- Tool School: A Quicker Way to Cut Steel
- Video: Make a Metal Bowl with a Tree Stump and a Mallet
- Great Gifts For Electronics Geeks For Less Than $20
- Gallery: Confessions of an Electronics Junk Collector
- From the Junk Bin It Came
- Amazing Aerial Photos from a Homemade Gas-Powered Paraglider
- The Dissection: Air Pressure Gauge
- Guess This Part Revealed: The Tank Bung
- The Secret To Beautiful Steel is Found at the Bowling Alley?
Most Emailed
DIY
- Great Gifts For Electronics Geeks For Less Than $20
- Gallery: Confessions of an Electronics Junk Collector
- From the Junk Bin It Came
- Guess This Part Revealed: The Tank Bung
- Guess This Part, Win a Tool
- Amazing Aerial Photos from a Homemade Gas-Powered Paraglider
- The Secret To Beautiful Steel is Found at the Bowling Alley?
- Tool School: A Quicker Way to Cut Steel
- Video: Make a Metal Bowl with a Tree Stump and a Mallet
- The Dissection: Air Pressure Gauge
Events and Promotions
This Week in the Future, October 30- November 6, 2009
Leave a comment to win a TWITF T-shirt!
This Week in the Future, November 16-20, 2009
Leave a comment to win a TWITF T-shirt!
This Week in the Future, November 16-20, 2009
Leave a comment to win a TWITF T-shirt!
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
I hope he runs out of fuel while pissing off a bear at the same time. Bears can run up to 30 mph.. ;)
Cool! I like it. You did a great job. Now it's time to move up to something a little bigger: say around 1400HP.
When are you going to start your gas turbine boat project?
TurbineDood
My turbine powered boat:
www.TurbineFun.com
John,
JUST GREAT. AS THE HYDRAULIC'S GUY AND THE DRIVE BELT MAN I AM GLAD TO SEE IT IS ALL WE THOUGHT IT COULD BE. TAKE IT OUT AND JUST ABUSE YOUR CLOSED LOOP DRIVE AND I KNOW IT WILL JUST KEEP GOING AND GOING AND GOING. I AM ALSO READY TO SEE A 1400HP MODEL OF ANYTHING WITH WHEELS. THANKS FOR ALLOWING ME TO BE A SMALL PART AND YOU DID JUST A GREAT JOB OF PUTTING IT TOGETHER. WHAT A RUSH Gene BoyceIII
Yeah, like thats not going to scare away all the criters in 8 states on your next hunting trip. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan, but other than bragging rights, it doesn't have much purpose in the bush.
http://prosportnutrition.net/?a=633808700294218750
I think I'll steal a few ideas for my flying car project. Thanks Carnett. I love how it sounds like the original Batmobile. As he clicks the buttons, just like Adam West, I can hear Robin say, "Atomic batteries for power. Turbines for speed." Click Click, "Ready to move out" [cue cool music]...
I want to see a boat with a jet turbine created by this guy now. An ATV with an old military jet engine sounds awesome, so a boat or a jet ski with a jet turbine would be sweeter.
*spies Jay Leno's motorcycle as inspiration for the jet ski/jet turbine combo*
from avondale , az
from that video it didnt look like it had any cajones at all. it looked cool but slow. I wuld bet an ATV wuld b funner and faster then that.
As luck would have it, I just happened to be at the site in NY the morning that John and crew were giving this baby a test ride and photo/video shoot. Words can't describe it and I'm sure the neighbors didn't like the noise from it (they kept looking up for some reason). My 2 kids got a chance to sit in it, stationary of course. I laughed when my 6 year old son said "Dad, can we get one?".
Roger
What a treat for the 4th.
Inventiveness--check
Pushing the limits--check
'Rascal-class' fun factor--check
Making the Friends of the Earth cry--check
Thanks PopSci. Happy Independence Day!
WOW! I have herd of turbine powered boats,planes,cars but never in my life have I herd of a turbine powered atv!
"Discoveries are often made by not following instructions,by going off the main road, by trying the untried"
-Frank Tyger
"The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new fronttiers."
-Arthur Koestler
HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY!
This is one of the greatest stories I have read in a while. I put concrete saw engines on my mountain bikes and what not, but this is great. If i could only do something like this to my VW Golf. My kids would love it. As for the fuel consumption... Who cares it surly would go verry fast in the correct hands. Not to say the builder isn't willing to go ape@#$% in it.
This reminds me of an ebay ad I ran into about 5 years ago. This small car(I think it was a Toyota Supra, which is already a ridiculously fast car), had twin jet turbines built into it. They were older Vietnam era helicopter turbines, so they weren't super powerful, but for a car they had to be quite speedy. The car was being salt near the salt flat lands of Utah, and there was a warning that this was the only place you could drive it.
http://www.ehow.com/members/suzyjenkins.html
Back in 1964, Chrysler came out with dozens of turbine powered cars that they gave out to families to try for a year. I got to see and ride in one during a demo that they made in my old uncle's dealership. Since it was jet powered it supposedly can run on anything liquid that burns so it would have been economical to maintain regardless of mileage rating the turbine car could get.
It would have been the answer to high gas prices if Chrysler had a similar model today. While a novel idea, nevertheless it did not catch on because of low and abundant supply of gasoline at that time. Eventually, Chrysler destroyed all the cars just like what General motors did to their first pure electric car, that was known as the EV-1.
Those models probably could have saved GM and Chrysler today if only they foresaw what would be in store for them over the years for producing nothing but gas guzzling vehicles.
that is an epic win. i want one.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHTQMWLn2m0
Why just one?Plenty of room to mount another underneath that one.
from syosset, NY
Whats the milage it gets?
it gets up to 60 mph it siad it in the paragraph learn to read numnut jk =]
Congratulations. That's so wrong & so right all at the same time.