VIDEO: Jet-powered VW New Beetle

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Astute readers of Autoblog will no doubt remember pics of the jet-powered Volkswagen New Beetle we posted a while back. Owner Ron Patrick was recently interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle and fired up the fire-breathing Beetle on camera.

While Patrick admits the car was built more for show than go, the video of the Beetle’s brakes straining to keep the car planted while the jet engine is spooled up to 25,000 rpm proves this Franken-bug is no show pony. Patrick also admits to having flipped the jet switch on the highway while doing 100 mph.

Patrick reveals a few interesting details about his bug in the interview like the fact that it swills kerosene at the rate of 15 gallons per mile(!) and the dash-mounted flower vase was removed because any blossom would be immediately sucked into the jet’s air intake. Now that's some serious flower power.

[Source: San Francisco Gate via GermanCarBlog]

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