Sujet Les véhicules de collection, ou comment l'imperfection rend amoureux

1. The Turbonique Auxiliary Power Supercharger was shaped like turbocharger, had it's own spark plug, and a switch on the dash engaged it.

Unlike conventional superchargers (which are driven by a belt from the crankshaft and take some crank horsepower to run), and unlike conventional turbo chargers (which use the exhaust energy to spin up the turbo), the Turbonique Auxiliary Power Supercharger had it's own fuel source to power itself ...

When the switch was flipped, liquid oxygen and a rocket fuel named Thermolene were fed to the supercharger.

Reported testing in 1963 on a Chevy 409 showed a horsepower gain from 405 horsepower stock, to a mammoth 835 hp with the supercharger engaged.

2. The Turbonique Drag Axle (pictured above), was a diff centre section, with nothing less than a thermolene powered rocket nozzle mounted to the diff.



At the touch of a button, it would add an extra 1,300 horsepower (yes that's one thousand, three hundred).

The power was not purely thrust power like a jet engine on a plane - instead the power was passed through the diff housing to the rear tyres, which resulted in many cars smoking their tyres the whole way up the 1/4 mile on 1960's drag slicks.

3. (un kart à réacteur) Talk about bang for the buck !! 1,980 horsepower for $199.50 works out at just 10 cents per horsepower !

Turbonique powered vehicles started dominating many drag racing events, and were eventually banned from many drag racing events.

Some say that part of the reason for the ban was the appearance of Turbonique rocket powered drag racing karts. The above cart, which is equipped with T-21-A engines, is considered unsafe for 1/4 mile competition as pictured. The thrust/weight ratio is such that speeds over 160 mph are reached within 4 seconds.