We recently featured a story about a HiAce that had been converted into a moving sauna on wheels. Just when you thought crazy car modifications couldn’t get any weirder or more elaborate, the bar has been raised yet again by a man named Bill Berg. Bill is the owner of a company known as Rocketbilly Racing which specializes in modifying existing cars with jet engines and other rocket-powered, high-speed machines.
His most recent invention is a car named the SmartforTwo and it’s essentially a conventional SmartCar that has been fitted with a GE T58 jet engine! The jet engine, which was originally sourced from a Huey Helicopter is estimated to produce roughly 1,400 pounds of force once activated and goes through 15 gallons of fuel in as little as five minutes! All this force in such a small car makes for a rather surreal vehicle.
According to Bill, the SmartforTwo can reach speeds of up 170 mph which would make some sports cars look slow! However, for safety purposes, Steve doesn’t take the ‘mini-batmobile’ off the handbrake while he fires up the engine, for fear of an accident.
While the SmartforTwo doesn’t necessarily work as a practical car modification, it’s still impressive to see such gobsmacking power coming out of such a tiny car! The modified SmartCar looks a lot more like something out of a video game than it does an experiment from real life. Bill creates customized cars for a living and put in some serious extra care when it came to crafting the SmartforTwo.
Even though the modification doesn’t have much of a practical application, the fact is that tailgating Bill Berg is definitely not a good idea when he’s in the car! But apparently, Bill’s creations get even wilder than this! According to him, another one of his creations is a school bus that’s been kitted out with an F4 Phantom Fighter Jet engine! If Bill’s got any other crazy ideas in mind, we hope he lets us know soon!