What does an engineer with too much time on his hands do? How about fitting out a 2000 VW Beetle with a jet engine, complete with after-burners. Ron Patrick spent several years and around $250,000 on the project and was inspired to do it because no one had done it before. The end result is a street legal, at least in California, jet propelled car.

Patrick, a Stanford University Phd graduate in Mechanical Engineering, bought the New Beetle and started figuring out how to add the jet engine. The engine is a General Electric Model T58-8F helicopter turbo-shaft engine that was converted to a jet engine by some internal modifications and a custom tailpipe. The 300 pound kerosene burning engine spins up to 26,000 RPM (idle is 13,000 RPM), draws air at 11,000 CFM, and is rated at 1350 bhp. The rear seats and a most of the interior panels at the rear had to be removed to accommodate the engine, extra fuel tank, as well as the wiring and controls for the jet.

"You drive the car up to about 90 miles an hour and you spool up the jet, then hit it W.O.T. (wide-open throttle)," Patrick said. "It's one of the finest feelings you can have in your life. In the rear view mirror, all you see is light and you hear the thunder of the jet. It's like you're going down the largest hill you've ever been on." A jet-boosted run will "pin the speedometer and that's at 140." Patrick thinks that when it hits 160 mph -- he hasn't seen that ... yet -- the car will start lifting off the ground.

A video of the Beetle with the jet in full operation can be seen by clicking here.