Horse 1145 - I Want My Jet-Pack Fiesta

"Oh wow. Hoo-bloody-ray" you might say, "Rollo's linking us to yet some other car website that we don't really care about". Well guess what, this time you really should care about it because in all likelyhood this idea could change the world.

http://www.jaguar.com/au/en/#/about_jaguar/c_x75/

The Jaguar C-X75 (C for coupe, X for eXperimental and 75 for Jaguar being 75 years old), is powered by two "gas micro-turbines" or what we would normally call "jets".

The two jet engines are each about the size of a 2 litre Coke bottle and spinning at 80,000rpm they produce 140kW (184bhp). This however isn't the exciting bit, the two jet engines charge batteries which in turn drive four electric traction motors which at the wheels each provide peak power outputs of 580kW (760bhp).

The idea is similar in principle to diesel-electric locomotives which are commonly used on railway locomotives. By continuously charging the batteries even when the power isn't directly being used, the power generator (the jet) can be run more efficiently. Jets in particular run at their most efficient when being run at constant revs.
The other really amazing thing about jet engines is that they are ludicrously simple in operation. Basically most turbofan jet engines on passenger aircraft consist of the main fan, a series of compressors, a combustion chamber and a series of turbines used to extract auxilliary power. On a car it would be a little different. Instead of the thrust of the engine being used to drive the car forwards, it is the power generated from the turbines which would then be used to generate electricity.
Jet engines can be run on all sorts of fuels; provided the designers get their thinking caps on, we may be able to run them on something renewable like canola oil.

If you'll allow me to dream for a while, I can conceive the day when jet-electric cars are not just the subject of concept hypercars but everyday motoring. I don't think that it's impossible in say 15 years time for a car the size of a Yaris to be fitted with a jet engine the size of a Coke can. If it were to produce 80kW (105bhp), then this aught to be enough for some quite spirited driving. Toyota I imagine would be in a better place than anyone else to modify their existing technologies considering that their hybrid system is already a petrol-electric of sorts.

A very small jet (hence the name gas micro-turbine) would take up even less space than a conventional petrol or diesel engine. The whole problem of what to do with hot exhaust gases could probably be very easily solved given that extra space.

I hope that in the 2043 when I am 65 years old that the sort of car I will be driving will be cool. I hope that the '39 Ford Comet Jet-Electric (running on Canola Oil) will come out in RS form and produce 220bhp at the wheels. If the future turns out to be less cool than I imagine then heads will roll... you hear me?!