Strapping jet engines to cars isn't anything new. Land speed record cars and drag racers have been fitted with turbine motors of this sort for years now, and the dawn of the jet age in the post-war years gave rise to a whole horde of concept cars that explored the concept of jet-propelled road cars.
Despite being around for well over 50 years, though, jet cars still have the capacity to stun and amaze us all, and especially when they have origin stories along the lines of this truly bonkers tale behind this insane project.
Even the basic tech sheet of this jet car is crazy enough. Quite a few cars of this ilk make do with one turbine engine, but the Canadian man named Ryan McQueen who built this car decided that two Rolls-Royce units were necessary for his car. Unsurprisingly, a lot of time and money went into making this car that's been appropriately christened "Insanity." The total build process took 12 years, with seven of those dedicated to fabricating the chassis and bodywork, and the total build price allegedly totals to somewhere in the region of 90,000 Canadian dollars. It also seems money did get a little bit tight at some point, the only way McQueen could successfully bid for the two Rolls-Royce engines at auction was to sell his Chevrolet Corvette.
What's perhaps more amazing about the Insanity project is that McQueen had no formal prior technical training. In fact, a lot of the engineering techniques involved with building the Insanity jet car were self-taught as progress on the project was made - at first, he didn't even know how to properly use the welding machine! All things considered, then, what McQueen's created here is nothing short of extraordinary. It's not everyday, after all, that you come across a 400 mph+ jet car that was built in someone's garage, and it's even rarer to find such a venture being brought about by someone on their lonesome with no prior experience in building a car of this scale. We well and truly doff our caps to you, Mr McQueen!
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