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 FutureStudiosCars: “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.
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00We had this crazy idea. People thought we were nuts. The worst thing that could happen is I have a fuel leak or a wheel explodes going down the track. That would be a bad day.
00:18They're having a big rock and racing event here, so we showed up and kind of crashed their party and it seems to be a hit so far.
00:25The vehicle being shown today at the rock and race event is definitely one of a kind.
00:34My name is Chad Clark.
00:43I'm Mike Monter and this is the Thunder Buggy.
00:45When people see the Thunder Buggy, they just can't believe their eyes and the first question is, does it really move? And yes, it does.
01:01It does move, but not in the traditional sense, which would have been with the help of a horse or two.
01:08It's a nostalgic race weekend. What's more nostalgic than an Amish buggy?
01:11Yeah, we go way back.
01:15Helping this buggy up the racetrack is not a regular engine either.
01:23It's like oil and water. They should not go together.
01:27No earthly business having an Amish buggy and a jet engine together.
01:32But how did this jet-powered buggy come into existence?
01:35Mike and I were at our local county fair watching a truck and tractor pull.
01:39I mentioned to him that it would be a really cool idea to build a turbine-powered four-wheel drive pulling truck.
01:44So I went home that night and found an engine online, bought it.
01:48I didn't realize it was not turbo shaft, it was turbo jet only.
01:53So I had to come up with a different concept than a pulling truck.
01:57So with a lightweight vehicle, we live in the Amish capital of the world, so I figured an Amish buggy would be perfect.
02:03He called me up and said, we're not doing a pulling truck anymore, we're doing an Amish buggy.
02:08Seemed natural.
02:13The buggy was not designed to take 100 feet of electrical wiring and fuel tanks and a jet engine.
02:20It's a really simple engine design.
02:24It's a pretty awesome engineering for back in the 40s.
02:28We built a steel subframe to carry the extra weight.
02:31That's about the only thing that we did chassis-wise to strengthen the buggy other than airbags.
02:38We got a mix of aircraft gauges and car gauges.
02:43This red handle is for emergency fuel shut off in the event of an accident.
02:47With a jet engine, this buggy must have some serious speed in it.
02:54Top speed so far has been 55 to 60 miles an hour.
02:58Or maybe not.
03:00This particular setup, that's probably max because we kept the buggy as original as possible.
03:07There's no safety cage. I've got a driver's seat and seatbelts, but it's still a wood vehicle.
03:17Today, the team have brought the Thunder Buggy to rock and race.
03:21I'll be doing all the crew chief work, making sure he's safe, making sure there's no fuel leaks,
03:26all the electrical, towing the vehicle up to the starting line.
03:29With Mike on technical support, Chad will be...
03:32...holding on for dear life.
03:34And that's not surprising, as there's not a lot of protection for the driver of this vehicle.
03:41The worst thing that could happen is I have an accident.
03:45Buggy wheels aren't speed rated.
03:47Not yet.
03:48Not yet.
03:49It's time for this Amish automobile to show the audience what it can do.
04:15The Amish Automobile
04:19The Amish Automobile
04:22The Amish Automobile
04:43It's fun to come to a track or an air show and see the reactions of people when they drive by it.
04:49They almost break their neck, like, is that really real?
04:52We've had mechanical engineers and people come up.
04:55It's kind of nice when you're sitting in your garage thinking about building things,
04:59and you actually have an engineer come up and go, okay, you did that all right.
05:02You weren't a complete idiot.
05:03Right.
05:04We made it!
05:05People thought we were nuts, and I think that might have been part of the motivation behind it,
05:10to get this thing done.
05:11We'll show you.
05:12Yeah, hold my beer moment. Watch this.
05:15It's something that's unconventional. You don't see it every day.
05:18And people seem to love it.