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.
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MotorTranscript
00:01We had this crazy idea. People thought we were nuts.
00:04The worst thing that could happen is I have a fuel leak or a wheel explodes going down the track.
00:08That would be a bad day.
00:18They're having a big rock and racing event here.
00:21So we showed up and kind of crashed their party and 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.
00:38Oh.
00:42I'm Mike Monter.
00:43And this is the Thunder Buggy.
00:45When people see the Thunder Buggy, they just can't believe their eyes.
00:57And the first question is, does it really move?
00:59And 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.
01:07The nostalgic race weekend, what's more nostalgic than an Amish Buggy?
01:11Yeah.
01:12We go way back.
01:19Helping this buggy up the racetrack is not a regular engine either.
01:24It's like oil and water.
01:25They should not go together.
01:27We have no earthly business having an Amish Buggy and a jet engine together.
01:30Right.
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.
01:49Didn't realize it was not turbo shaft.
01:51It was turbo jet only.
01:53So I had to come up with a different concept than a pulling truck.
01:57So the lightweight vehicle, we live in the Amish capital of the world.
02:01So I figured Amish Buggy would be perfect.
02:04Called me up and said, we're not doing a pulling truck anymore.
02:06We're doing an Amish Buggy.
02:08Seemed natural.
02:13The buggy is not designed to take, you know, a hundred feet of electrical wiring and fuel tanks and a jet engine.
02:21It's a really simple engine design.
02:23Some 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.
02:39We got a mix of aircraft gauges and car gauges.
02:44This red handles for emergency fuel shutoff 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.
02:59Or maybe not.
03:01This particular setup, that's probably max because, you know, we kept the buggy as original as possible.
03:07There's no safety cage.
03:08There's, you know, I've got a driver's seat, seat belts, but it's still a wood vehicle.
03:17Today, the team have brought the Thunder Buggy to rock and race.
03:20I'll be doing all the crew chief work, making sure he's safe, making sure there's no fuel leaks, all the electrical, towing the vehicle up to the starting line.
03:37With my con-technical support, Chad will be...
03:39Holding on for dear life.
03:41And that's not surprising, as there's not a lot of protection for the driver of this vehicle.
03:48The worst thing that could happen is I have a fuel leak and the engine runs away.
03:52Or a wheel explodes going down the track.
03:56Yeah, that would be a bad day.
03:58Buggy wheels aren't speed rated.
04:00Not yet.
04:02It's time for this Amish automobile to show the audience what it can do.
04:05What it can do.
04:35It's fun to come to the track or an air show and, you know, see the reactions of people when they drive by it, you know, they almost break their neck and like, is that really real?
04:52We've had mechanical engineers and people come up and, you know, it's kind of nice when you're sitting in your garage thinking about building things and you actually have an engineer come up and go, okay, you did that all right.
05:01You weren't complete idiots.
05:03Right.
05:04We made it.
05:05People thought we were nuts.
05:06And I think that was maybe even might have been part of the motivation behind of it to get this thing done.
05:11We're showing you.
05:12Yeah.
05:13Hold my beer moment.
05:14Watch this.
05:15It's something that's unconventional.
05:16You don't see it every day and people seem to love it.