You never know what you’ll find on Facebook Marketplace: for example, this “Shirley Shuttle Bus” jet truck for $6,500.
It appears to be a Chevy AK Series truck from the ’40s with a jet engine (or at least something that looks like a jet engine) strapped to the back. According to the seller, it served as an outdoor attraction for the Vintage Red Rooster antique store but has become “a centerpiece of Shirley history now.”
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There also happens to be a whiskey barrel in the space between the jet engine and the cab. Because where else would a whiskey barrel go if not in between the jet engine that’s attached to your truck and the cab of said truck?
Per the listing, “…it’s time to let it go to the next business or private owners where it’s sure to continue adding skid marks to your street from people stopping by to look and photograph it.”
This being a display piece, the Chevy does not run at all, let alone on jet fuel. But that sounds like a challenge. Maybe not for me, but for one of you out there. Source a real jet engine/fix up this one, mount it more sturdily than the current “dual rope” setup, change the tires … how hard could it be?
Oh, and before you ask if you can just take the truck and leave the ostensible jet engine behind, no dice: interested buyers must take the jet engine as well. “Please don’t ask to sell the truck separately as the ropes holding the jet motor and whiskey barrel on have petrified into stone by now.”
Converting the Red Rooster’s jet truck outdoor display into something actually jet-powered and functional is admittedly a tall order (some say too tall) but one can dream. If one of you ends up snagging this bit of Shirley, AR history, do not hesitate to hit us up.
Very early in my TV news photog days (1980-ish), I got nearly blown on my ass by the Green Mamba doing a demo run to promote an upcoming event at a drag strip outside of Sacramento. I was standing beside the Christmas Tree and got peppered with debris from the track, deafened and rocked back on my heels to where I couldn’t keep it in frame for a couple of seconds as it blasted by.
Sorry, I can’t identify the engine.
Someone tell Joey Chitwood about this
This is good Autopian.
Man. There’s a lid for every pot. But it looks like, after 7 years, this actually got sold. The stars were out of alignment…
https://www.thedrive.com/news/33393/someone-please-buy-this-concorde-jet-engine-on-ebay-and-stuff-it-someplace-stupid
I would rather take $6500 in ones and burn the pile in the back yards. Less work and less mess.
I was looking at this the way Maynard watched Zed and Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction. Then reality came in and hit me like Butch and his katana.
$6500 for a dead, rusted out car stuffed with random garbage.
Surely, they must smoke some strong stuff in Shirley.
Looks like they found an old jet engine in a junkyard and strapped it to the back to look cool (hey, a guy once built a flyable F-104 Starfighter out of junkyard parts, but he had connections). Needs a big fuel tank, a bunch of new tubing and wiring, plus the correct engine control unit to run the thing. And at that, it could lose a few turbine or compressor blades the moment it starts running. Get a CPO jet engine 🙂
The junkyard F-104 story is super cool, by the way, but it’s the sort of thing that you could only pull off if you were an ex-USAF and civilian SR-71 test pilot and world class racing/record pilot named Darryl Greenamyer.
With the intent of beating a Soviet zoom climb altitude record, he buys various F-104A parts from scrapyards, buys/barters additional needed parts over 13 years, including trading NASA a NOS F-104 nose for a special thruster equipped NF-104 nose (like in The Right Stuff), then “borrows” a functional J79 engine (an F-4 Phantom spare). It indeed flies, for the warmup he sets a closed course absolute speed record of 1010 MPH (documentation camera failed), does it again at 988 MPH (getting the record). Then as he is prepping for the zoom altitude record, one of the landing gear legs refuses to extend. The F-104A had a downward firing ejection seat (later ones had upward firing) and no way out through the canopy, so in all likelihood any attempted landing with wonky gear would result his death. So he points it at uninhabited ground, ejects, and the wreckage of the Red Baron is in the Nevada mountains, a popular hiking destination.
There is a top speed car that is constructed of an entire fighter with the wings removed.
I think it’s the same jet engine a friend bought for fun.
It has enough power it should never need anything close to full throttle.
I think it’s been a question of having good conditions for an +800 mph run.
Last I heard, it easily made 500 mph.
I saw the wheel driven streamliner hit 450 at Bonneville!
Still testing then.
Amazing engine sound!
Everyone knows that if you wanted your own F104 in the 60’s-70’s all you had to do was buy some farmland in West Germany, and wait for a Starfighter to crash into it.
If you build it (the lawn) they will come (the lawn darts).
This is either a Burning Man fantasy, or a new chapter in Final Destination horror.
This is what would happen if Cleetus MCFarland got a hold of Stubby Bob.
Didn’t we see this in this in the Rocketeer?
Fifteen crappy Star Wars sequels/prequels/spin-offs.
Still no Rocketeer sequel…
Sigh … I know. Fun movie, excellent cast, and a really faithful adaptation of the comic. This, and no Serenity sequel are two of my movie disappointments.
This is pretty on brand for a real world Millenium Falcon though.
Given the quality of most sequels these days, that might be a blessing.
Find an old race track drying truck. Penske made them, according to teh Googlez. Those even have thrust vectoring from the jet engine. Although it’s mainly aimed down at the ground, because reasons.
I might know a guy.
No, and no, I grew out of this sort of insanity nearly a decade ago. The idea of a boiler (I have a spare one) where the jet engine is, vertical marine triple expansion engine to replace the whiskey barrel, water and propane tanks under the hood, NO No no go to bed Nic.
I think to describe it as adding skid marks to a street is, well, wrong. I don’t think there’s any suggestion there the the jet engine is driving any wheels, and without driven wheels, you’re not really going to making skid marks!
Think harder about this…It’s people who see it leaving skid marks as they stop to stare at it…
If only this had come up when DT was still single…
AK = Alaska
AR = Arkansas
Perhaps the best 6 minutes of standup you’ll ever see: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dLECCmKnrys
“…it’s time to let it go to the next business or private owners where it’s sure to continue adding skid marks to your street from people stopping by to look and photograph it.”
Fire up that jet and you’ll have an entirely different type of skidmarks to deal with…
I saw this on my way into the mountains in Arkansas.
Did not look like a working jet or rocket engine to me, but I’m no expert on antique models.
It’s dramatic, all right!
I have a friend with a working modern jet engine, so they are obtainable.
He uses his for pyrotechnics.
Just be aware you’ll be buying jet fuel by the drum.
A friend has a helicopter turbine he bought surplus brand new from the military.
Possibly more practical for a vehicle, but they need a hell of a transmission.
He sold a 68 Jaguar roadster to buy it!
If you go to see this truck, you’re headed into narrow roads with a 30 foot limit on trailers due to hairpins next to cliffs.
I suggest approaching from Little Rock to avoid the really bad roads with thousands foot drops and 10 mph speed limits.
I missed my turn and hit the danger point where they have carved deep rumble strips into the highway.
Reached a sign with a truck going down a 45 degree incline and couldn’t see over the dropoff, so I backed up.
After I bought the trailer I came for, I encountered a lost semi with a 53 foot trailer and nowhere to turn around.
We both thought we had hit each other, but somehow didn’t.
For all I know, that semi is still trapped there!
I got the trailer because even people in the area wouldn’t drive into those roads to see it.
Mountain roads in a hauler are very different from driving in a sports car.
I drove out very slowly.
I don’t think AK is Arkansas.
You’re right, AK is Alaska, AR is Arkansas.
(Source, I’m a regruntled former postal worker.)
I know a guy.
https://youtu.be/gAKekhmTRaY
Pulse rocket?
BRC?
Cool stuff!
Whoever buys this should use it to fight crime or the rest of us will be disappointed.
But what superhero theme? What should the supersuit look like? But no capes!
I’m not in the market, but if I was, this would be the perfect vehicle to get running (probably just on the internal combustion engine) and take to Wasteland Weekend.