I love ’50s and ’60s technology. With the space race, cold war, and speculation about the future all taking place at once, people were coming up with some crazy ideas. One company I had never heard of was the Turbonique Company, but after seeing this rocket powered barn find go kart that Alan S tipped me off too I had to do more research on this brand. It would seem the guys behind this company were mad men with dreams of going fast. Well reality was, they built rocket engines for NASA and were looking for a consumer application. Drag racers are always looking for a new way to go faster and this company saw an opportunity to hurdle people down the dragstrip faster than ever before and make money doing it. While they came up with everything from jet powered superchargers to the jet engine Drag Axle, their craziest creation has to be these rocket powered go kart!

The story behind this one is that the owner acquired it from a car dealership he worked for. The dealership had purchased it as a promotional stunt. No one else at the dealership was crazy enough to try driving it, so he agreed to give it a go. He only attempted to drive it two times, once on a closed street to test it out and again at the dragstrip. The promotional race never happened, but he still got to race it down the dragstrip. After that, he somehow managed to make the kart his own. He parked it in his barn and that’s where it has stayed ever since. I’m guessing he never got up the courage to try driving it again, but I don’t blame him! Even if you wanted to race it, I’m not sure you could get fuel for it now.

I can only imagine the thrill of tearing down the track on something this small and light. Add in the insane 1,980 horses each of the T-16 engines produce and the fact that they might explode at any moment and you’ve got something downright terrifying! I just love learning about obscure and rare technology like this, even if it isn’t practical or safe (if you know of some other odd products built during this time period, please share!). If you’d like to learn more about Turbonique, I’d recommend taking a look at the Iowahawk about the brand and some of it’s crazy products! So if you could get fuel for it, would you take this go kart out for a spin?