This is my question,,,, about thirty years ago i seen a picture/ad of a supercharged rearend. And looking through my fathers 50 plus year car magazine collection I can not refind it?!?!?! My father says there is one in the don garlits museum????? Is this true???? I have looked through pictures of the garlits museum but no pictures of it!!! Does anyone know what I am talking about??? Have seen one? Know where there is one? Can post a picture of one? Etc,etc????????? Thank you for any help.........
Yup: http://www.tunersgroup.com/TunerWire_Live/Turbonique.html The "Ultra Digger" at the Garlits museum is equipped with one. Not a supercharger, but a turbine. Might just be a misstatement/
The company you are asking about was called TURBONIQUE. They made rocket engines that used HYDRAZINE (an inorganic compound with the formula N2H4. It is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odor. Hydrazine is highly toxic and dangerously unstable unless handled in solution) for fuel. The problem with the DRAG AXLES was the components were of poor quality and couldn't and didn't stand up to the thrust produced making things very dangerous. Jack McLure had one in a 65 Z-16 Chevelle and the planetary gears melted as he crossed the finish line and the car barrel rolled some 11 times. That pretty much ended the Drag Axle.
There's a bit more to that story.... It wasn't so much that the components were poor quality, it had more to do with the fact that the turbine put out more power than even the best equipment of the time could handle. That Z-16 Chevelle that McClure ran was essentially street stock except for the axle and he was running against AFX cars that were modified for racing with big power levels; i.e. blown/injected motors. But there were a few semi-successful users (the Pegasus Mustang, another Mustang and a Dodge Dart) that had more 'purpose-built' cars. Several things killed these; poor management of the company didn't help, but the supply of the special fuel dried up and the turbine design wouldn't let them be converted to any other fuel. And like the nitro motors of today, these couldn't be run for long or they would blow up. But for that brief moment, YAAHOOOO!
Yesssss!!!!!!!!! That IS IT!!!!!!! THANK YOU very much!!!!! Sorry I did not write turbine.... Thank you for the correction.... And the picture.........
Thank you GIMPYSHOTRODS!!! I appreciate the picture and the correction.... Not sure why all these other guys are busting my chops?!?!?! Apparently they have no clue!!!!!!!!! But are quick to judge me and bust my chops?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Putz's!!!!
Who's judging? There have been several helpful answers and two smart *** answers that were not directed at you. If you're that sensitive you're in the wrong place!
-------------- Not "jet powered"..."rocket-powered". Jet engines and rocket motors are entirely different things and there is a huge difference between the two. Mart3406 ================
The Jalopy Journal
