It's All Fun & Games Until...

     

   I had a few responses from my past two blog posts about how older generations (boomers and such) supposedly spoiled things for much younger generations. Hey, I'll admit it - some of that history is true as some of the activities, stunts, and general mayhem we engaged in was dangerous. However, as a result, some pretty crucial safety came out of those crazy times. And a lot of it for the better. Mankind, for one reason or another, has always contained an unusual blend of courage and stupidity. The courage always allowed us to blaze ahead in numerous areas ranging from inventions to engineering. Automotive, as well as the parallel sports involving it, are no exception. Take drag racing for instance. 

I was reading an article out of a late 1970 Car Craft magazine about the craziness (literally) that happened that year at the US Nationals. The one race that went down in history, was the Top Fuel final that pitted Don Prudhomme and Jim Nicoll, who were not only rivals but good friends. On live television, Nicoll’s clutch exploded at the finish line, cutting his front-engine dragster in two at his feet. Yikes! Thankfully, Nicoll survived the hair raising incident with only cuts and some bruised ribs. If you ever have a chance to view footage of this race, the term an absolute miracle doesn't even begin to describe how Nicholl survived; it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. It was also the first time in Prudhomme's long drag racing career, that he very seriously thought about quitting the sport. 

   Clutch explosions, especially in early drag racing, were probably the biggest concern drivers and teams faced. It was an extreme rarity if the rear differential (which was literally at the Top Fuel Drivers crotch) exploded or failed in horrible fashion. Yeah, engines blowing up in a ball of flames while running all that nitro was near the top of the list, but fire suits and other safety equipment had come a long way since the early 60's to help protect drivers from serious burns. When a clutch explodes at high rpm, it's like a huge saw blade from hell and no one can control its trajectory. Many times, the entire assembly, including the flywheel and pressure plate, go into orbit with the clutch. Adding to the madness at the US Nationals, Nicoll's now driverless front half of his dragster eerily slid down the track ahead of Prudhomme’s dragster that he was slowing down in the shutdown area. It was at that moment that Prudhomme was sure his longtime friend had been killed. That's a damn good reason to get out of a sport where the death of your friends (or yourself) along with the psychological carnage is just too much. 

 

Of course, the ever ending quest for speed was not limited to the sport of racing in general. It also found its way onto street driven vehicles, albeit on a limited basis. To begin with, the 1960s were steeped in the rocket age. That decade was also laced with years of incredible change and most people can agree, whether you lived through those years or not, to say that numerous aspects were becoming unhinged, was an understatement. Out of these crazy times was a company based out Florida named Turbonique. If you're unfamiliar with the story of this company and its products, shame on you. Turbonique went down in history for developing perhaps the craziest aftermarket accessory ever developed for the automobile. What made the Turbonique such an outlier? As long as you consider strapping a rocket engine to the back of your car, filling it with a magical mail-order fuel, and then lighting its 1300-horsepower fuse - to be just a tad over the top - you'd be pretty much spot on.

   Granted, turbocharged engines along with turbine powered automobiles were nothing new to the big three automakers in the 50's and 60's. Turbonique wasn't looking to build a turbo or rocket engine nor build an entire car around those concepts. Rather than simply building rocket pods that could be mounted to a vehicle’s fuselage and then presumably piloted by the criminally insane, Turbonique sold its customers on a variety of devices that made the mechanical links between jet tech and traditional automotive power-adders. How did it work? For the most part, each of Turbonique’s various products relied on the use of a micro-turbine that was spun up by the ignition of a fuel mix called “Thermolene.” Thermolene used a chemical catalyst to kick-start a chain reaction that releases enough energy to seriously scare your neighbors and potentially melt your face off. In most Turbonique applications, this fiery enterprise then spun up micro-turbines of various sizes.

   

If that wasn't enough for you, no problem! Turbonique’s main claim to fame was its “drag axles,” which somehow managed to be even crazier. Picture a Thermolene jet turbine attached to the rear axle of a muscle car that could add an astonishing 1300 horsepower on top of what the standard gas engine was sending back. Output was transmitted by way of a one-way clutch while spectacular flames shot out the back. Theoretically, your differential managed to resist similarly exploding with the force of a thousand suns. Despite a price tag of $5000, there were several takers among drivers seeking a competitive edge.

    In another shade of brilliance, control of any Turbonique system relied entirely on cutting fuel
delivery, which meant there was no throttle control whatsoever—just an on/off switch that swung you from “normal” to “ludicrous” speed by way of a spark plug in the ignition chamber that set the Thermolene charge ablaze. This approach was significantly different from traditional turbine designs, which gulped down atmospheric air. While it helped make the micro-turbines remarkably lightweight and efficient, it also contributed to a situation where fuel build-up could create out-of-control explosive conditions inside the system. Whoo-hoo! 

Predictably, things did not end well for Turbonique. While all of the above sounds like a litigation nightmare from a modern perspective, in the ’60s, the legal environment concerning liability was a little more lenient, and as such, it took several years before the various small disasters wrought by mail-order rocketry caught up to them. It started out with the NHRA banning the drag axle from competition, citing a number of incidents that called its safety into question. Next, customers began to complain that the plans they received for their self-assembled rocket engines were substantially more difficult to execute than they had been made to believe, and that locating crucial parts was costing them an arm and a leg. This was all on top of the perils of selling 55-gallon drums of the rocket fuel through the mail. By the end of the decade, Turbonique had been hauled in before the Florida courts on numerous counts of mail fraud. 

As always, have fun but maybe try to play responsibly. Until next time, peace out.