AN AMISH BUGGY that would normally be drawn by horses has been fitted with a turbo jet engine. “It’s like oil and water, they should not go together,” jokes its creator Chad Clark. The outrageous project, built by Chad Clark and Mike Monter of Millersburg, Ohio was originally meant to be something very different. “Mike and I were at our local county fair, I mentioned it would be really cool to build a turbine-powered four-wheel drive pulling truck,” Chad explained. But the auction description had misrepresented the engine as a turbo shaft engine. “I went home that night, found an engine online and bought it but didn’t realise it was not turboshaft, it was turbojet only,” Chad remembers. They ended up having to use a much lighter vehicle instead of the original truck. “We live in the Amish capital of the world so we figured an Amish buggy would be perfect,” Chad said. Co-creator Mike Monter told Ridiculous Rides: “He called me up, said we’re not doing a pulling truck anymore, we’re doing an Amish buggy – seemed natural.” The build and modifications cost around $30,000 and took roughly 700 hours of labour to complete: “Many all-nighters,” Chad said. When out in public, people struggle to believe the bizarre creation actually works. “When people see the Thunder Buggy they can’t believe their eyes and the first question is, does it really move? Yes it does,” explained Chad. Traditionally, these buggies would have been moved by horses so this particular one is far from conventional. “The buggy is not designed to take 100 feet of electrical wiring, fuel tanks and a jet engine,” Chad admitted. With a top speed of 65 miles per hour before the wheels start shaking, this exhibition-only vehicle was not built for speed: “It’s a really simple engine design, it’s some pretty awesome engineering from back in the 40s,” explained Chad.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 We had this crazy idea, people thought we were nuts.
00:04 The worst thing that could happen is I have a fuel leak or a wheel explodes going down the track.
00:08 That would be a bad day.
00:09 They're having a big rock and racing event here, so we showed up and kind of crashed their party and seems to be a hit so far.
00:25 The vehicle being shown today at the rock and race event is definitely one of a kind.
00:30 My name is Chad Clark.
00:35 Oh, I thought so.
00:40 Yeah, dang, dang.
00:41 I'm Mike Monter.
00:43 And this is the Thunder Buggy.
00:53 When people see the Thunder Buggy, they just can't believe their eyes.
00:56 And the first question is, does it really move?
00:59 And yes, it does.
01:00 It does move, but not in the traditional sense, which would have been with the help of a horse or two.
01:07 The nostalgic race weekend.
01:09 What's more nostalgic than an Amish buggy?
01:11 Yeah, we go way back.
01:12 Helping this buggy up the racetrack is not a regular engine either.
01:23 It's like oil and water.
01:25 They should not go together.
01:27 No earthly business having an Amish buggy and a jet engine together.
01:30 But how did this jet powered buggy come into existence?
01:34 Mike and I were at our local county fair watching a truck and tractor pull.
01:39 I mentioned to him it would be a really cool idea to build a turbine powered four wheel drive pulling truck.
01:43 So I went home that night and found an engine online, bought it.
01:47 Didn't realize it was not turbo shaft.
01:51 It was turbo jet only.
01:53 So I had to come up with a different concept than a pulling truck.
01:57 So the lightweight vehicle, we live in the Amish capital of the world.
02:00 So I figured Amish buggy would be perfect.
02:03 Called me up and said, we're not doing a pulling truck anymore.
02:06 We're doing an Amish buggy.
02:07 Seemed natural.
02:09 The buggy is not designed to take, you know, 100 feet of electrical wiring and fuel tanks and a jet engine.
02:21 It's a really simple engine design.
02:23 It's a pretty awesome engineering for back in the 40s.
02:27 We built a steel subframe to carry the extra weight.
02:31 That's about the only thing that we did chassis wise to strengthen the buggy other than airbags.
02:38 We got a mix of aircraft gauges and car gauges.
02:43 This red handles for emergency fuel shut off in the event of an accident.
02:47 With a jet engine, this buggy must have some serious speed in it.
02:52 Top speed so far has been 55 to 60 miles an hour.
02:56 Or maybe not.
02:58 This particular setup, that's probably max because, you know, we kept the buggy as original as possible.
03:04 There's no safety cage.
03:06 There's, you know, I've got a driver seat seat belts, but it's still a wood vehicle.
03:10 Today, the team have brought the Thunder Buggy to rock and race.
03:19 I'll be doing all the crew chief work, making sure he's safe, making sure there's no fuel leaks,
03:25 all the electrical, towing the vehicle up to the starting line.
03:28 With Mike on technical support, Chad will be holding on for dear life.
03:32 And that's not surprising, as there's not a lot of protection for the driver of this vehicle.
03:37 The worst thing that could happen is that I'm going to be in a wheelchair.
03:42 I'm going to be in a wheelchair for a long time.
03:44 The worst thing that could happen is I have a fuel leak and the engine runs away.
03:51 Or a wheel explodes going down the track.
03:55 Yeah, that would be a bad day.
03:57 Buggy wheels aren't speed rated.
03:59 Not yet.
04:00 Not yet.
04:01 It's time for this Amish automobile to show the audience what it can do.
04:05 [Music]
04:17 [Engine starting]
04:19 [Engine revving]
04:38 [Music]
04:42 It's fun to come to the track or an air show and see the reactions of people.
04:47 When they drive by it, they almost break their neck.
04:49 Like, is that really real?
04:51 We've had mechanical engineers and people come up.
04:54 It's kind of nice when you're sitting in your garage thinking about building things
04:58 and you actually have an engineer come up and go, "Okay, you did that all right.
05:01 You weren't complete idiots."
05:02 Right.
05:03 We made it!
05:04 People thought we were nuts.
05:05 And I think that might have been part of the motivation behind of it, to get this thing done.
05:10 We'll show you.
05:11 Yeah, hold my beer moment. Watch this.
05:14 It's something that's unconventional. You don't see it every day.
05:17 And people seem to love it.
05:19 [Music]
05:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]