Andrew Pleszko's new jet MINI Cooper was recently spotted preparing for its public debut at Mini in the Park by taking part in a ‘Test & Tune’ day behind closed doors at Santa Pod Raceway.

Jet engine expert Andrew and his crew fitted the car with monitoring equipment as it successfully completed a controlled run on the famous quarter mile dragstrip. The Rolls-Royce Viper 203 engine will now be tweaked to add the crowd-pleasing trademark giant flame and vapour trail.

The Viper jet engine produces a massive 2,800lbs of thrust – enough to make the car capable of vertical take-off if it was stood on its end!

Andrew added: “We only ran the car up to 85 per cent throttle briefly as we were calibrating equipment and measuring temperatures. Everything performed fine and the car feels capable of achieving some serious speeds in time for Mini in the Park in the UK.”

Mini in the Park takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on Sunday 10th August. For details see www.minishow.co.uk

 

Wild!

Does the car use the turbine to spin a fan for direct thrust, or does the turbine run to a gearbox to send power to the wheels?

 

Where does the kiddie seat go?

 

Judging the size of the engine in this video, I can't imagine there's much room left for the driver in a MINI. You can understand the need to leave windows and roof open to supply air.

No doubt this is what asbestos suits were designed for.


The only advantage I can see is that you would have no problems with tailgaters.

 

Last years classic Mini version testing.....
800 lb thrust in a near-standard Mini City.

 

I believe it uses direct thrust.

 

Jay Leno said something similar about his jet-powered motorcycle. Some guy pulled up right on his a** at a stop light and got a melted bumper for his rudeness.