During the 1960’s, Americans’ hunger for horsepower was nigh unquenchable, and people would go to great lengths to have the fastest car in town. That meant turbochargers, blowers, nitrous oxide, funny cars…and even jet engines. In fact, the saga of Turbonique, the mail-order jet turbine catalog company formed by Gene Middlebrook is the stuff of muscle car legend.

Bangshift came across this 5-minute promotional video for Turbonique which featured some of the famous jet-powered cars running Turbonique turbines. It’s fun to watch, even if the audio isn’t correct.

The 1950’s gave birth to the jet age, unclear ambitions, and of course muscle cars. Sometimes these different cultures crossed, like with Turbonique. Middlebrook’s company claimed to offer, at great discount, bolt-on jet turbines for all sorts of muscle cars. The turbines would mount to the rear axle and were fed jet fuel from a separate tank, adding a lot of power and boost.

The problem was that the turbines were actually nothing more than rough castings, requiring a lot of extra machining work before they could be bolted on. Middlebrooks was eventually jailed for mail fraud, and Turbonique went out of business. It’s the kind of company that could only ever exist once, and we doubt the litigious nature of today’s society would allow even a legitimate strap-on-turbine company to sell parts. But it makes for a great story, and some awesome footage of jet-powered drag cars going down the track.