Jay Leno Drives Jet-Powered Racecar: The Howmet TX
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Hear it from the man himself, Bob McKee, who built the Howmet Turbine Experimental racecar, a living legend that raced in 1968.
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The coolest part of turbine-powered vehicles is the start-up sound.
There's something beautiful about that sound
Abrams tanks sound the same. So cool.
Atomic batteries to power. Reminds me of Batman leaving the cave.
@@wikid4948 Holy spool-up, Batman! That's exactly what I think every time I hear a turbine engine start.
Like with some of the aircraft piston engines in cars. Sometimes that startup is just so cool.
Legend status= Makes national news burning his face, turns around "wanna drive my antique jet car?" and he jumps in without hesitation.... Love you Jay!
He's like hyper legend status at this point. He just never stops.
Exactly what I was thinking 😂
Gives definition to "Top Fueler"
Doesnt beat richard hammond. Comes close though....
He is now one with the fire.
Holy smokes! Great to see Bob McKee is still with us! I met him at his shop in Palatine, IL, in 1973 as I was crewing for Tony Kestian who had just bought the McKee Mark 12C (Formula A/5000). I was in awe of his engineering knowledge.
Palatine? Didn't know that.
@@alfazagato1455original McKee Engineering was in Palatine and then moved to Lake Zurich where Bob was until retirement. When the latest copy of the TX was being built in 2015 or 2016, I recall going to the shop. My friend did the fiberglass work on it. His shop was amazing with so much history and a Cosworth DFX Indy car engine as a coffee table. For the humvee hybrid project, Bob used a VW I4 diesel as the power generation source. Those engines were dry-sumped. Bob used to buy the VW dry-sump parts from the Super Vee engines from my mentor Bertil Sollenskog of Bertil's Racing Engines.
Of course the turbine is super cool- but I also think the Howmet is one of the prettiest racing cars of the Sixties. Phillip and Jay, thanks for giving Bob McKee the spotlight. He deserves more recognition!
Jay continues to be "one of a kind". 72 and going strong.
Yeah, he slipped a cog there. He's actually 73, but who's counting!
@@davidfuith2995 Not if this was filmed before 04/28/23...
73
Sorry-He said 72 and In believed it without verification.
You left the lift up🤦♂️
1:00 It's a turbine, but not a jet, because it doesn't move the car by ejecting gas. The turbine is used to turn the wheels so it's a turboshaft engine.
Sounds like the Batmobile from the 60s series. Very cool 😎
So you know-the TV Batmobile sound was the Chrysler Turbine car.
@@bcgrittner8076
Since you’re at it… can you tell me what engine(s) was used for the Mach 5 in the original Speed Racer series.
ATOMIC BATTERIES TO POWER...
TURBINES TO SPEED...
Exactly what I was hearing.
Sounds like an APU
If you ever get a chance to be at a car show, chit-chat with an older owner or engineer and you will forever be grateful. Those gentlemen in their element = priceless conversation.
Not 100% sure that’s a good idea. Lol.
Watch the video of the sr71 black bird in the museum the old guy who built it is just awesome to witness him explaining his baby. Fun fact they used Buick flat 8s for their starter and they blew up literally every Buick v8 in the country lol
Well, that'll shut everybody up at the cars and coffee when the turbine spools up 🙂
Thank You Bob McKee for building this epic Turbine Race Car. We are all so proud of you. You deserved this.The Howmet History is amazing. I feel honored to know you and to be apart of many of the projects that have come out of your shop.
Thank You Jay Leno for believing in me and talking about this project together. This truly has been an awesome Race Car for millions to see and hear on your program. I enjoyed driving
along side you in the cockpit! Hit it!!😎
You’re the Best!
Thanks Again Steve Stratos
Jay Leno is a car enthusiast's national treasure, thank you for sharing Jay.
I love the turbine powered cars that ran at Le Mans and Indy in the 60s.
They fascinate me.
I’ll have to look that up. Did they ever win/get close to winning?
@@bannedbycommieyoutube5time920 They were strong at indy, IIRC even had a chance of winning in '68 but had to retire because the intense heat from the turbine caused a component (something cheap if my memory serves me right) to fail.
@@peekaboo1575 interesting, thanks for the info!
@@peekaboo1575 In 1967, a $6 bearing in the transmission failed with 6 laps to go.
@@bannedbycommieyoutube5time920 In 1964 Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill drove the Rover BRM and finished 10th overall and 2nd in the 2 litre category even after an accident had allowed sand to ingress into the turbine and severally reduce performance
So cool! I love this era of racing, where anything went! Lots of experimentation and just plain trying new things to see if they'll stick! Thanks to Philip for bringing the car, Bob for building it (!) and Jay and crew for showcasing it. Great historical episode, gentlemen! Thanks again!✌️❤️🙂🇨🇦
Thank you Jay, and thank you to Jay's whole team and the wonderfully talented guests he has on. I can't go look at these amazing machines, but actually I can thanks to this channel, a huge privilege. Drive safe.
Amazing car, great to hear from the Bob as well about designing and building it. Love hearing about this era of racing with so much new stuff going on at the time.
What cool vehicle. Imagine the reactions of it was on the road.
Love those Mk I Ford Cortina tail lights. So common to see on parts-bin specials, racers, and kits. 👍
Lola Mk6 GT prototype is another stunner. :-)
Ford parts bin strikes again!
That little engine so loud. I worked on turbines for Navy aircraft. It's amazing the power to weight of these engines...
Rover ran turbine powered cars at Le Mans during the late 1950’s or early 1960’s.
What an awesome machine! And so nice to see it's creator appear on the show!
I want one of those engines in my pinto!
When "Turban-powered" was mentioned at the beginning I thought we were going to treated to some unknown Indian racecar. I guess it's the American pronunciation of turbine)
What a hoot! This is definitely one for the "Best Ever Of Jay Leno" series!
Bob is an outside the box engineer the kind that move progress forward. 4 of a kind and this one is still pulling. Cheers to Bob. Oh Jay too. And Myers Manx guy. And the camera operator, and the pizza guy too! Cheers 🇨🇦
I know what you mean and totally agree, my weird mind couldn't just leave it at that tho:
If progress doesn't move forward, isn't it called something else?😊
Reminds me of my late father answering my brother's question in the garage:
Bro: "should I reverse backwards?"
Dad: "Well, you sure shouldn't reverse forwards!"😊
Didn't mention the most innovative part of the Howmet - the pedal doesn't control the gas turbine, it controls the waste-gate that controls the pressure between the jet exhaust and the driving turbine, so the throttle response comes from the pressure change, rather then the motor spooling up or down. Listen to the sound of the jet as Jay accelerates - very little change in the pitch of the noise, but plenty of go.
Jay always has cool cars to show and this one is really cool.
The Mk 1 Cortina rear lights sold it for me
Jay drives another Turban powered car! 😄
I met Mr. Leno the first time when he had his Y2K jet bike over at the rock store in Malibu Canyon. (Every time was at the Rock Store. That place was awesome.). It was pretty damn crazy to see and he’d just had it a year or two around then. He was explaining the same story about lag before breaking and accelerating, melting bumpers of tailgaters at stop lights. Lol.
I've always loved the bumper melting story. His description of the bumper melting 😂
Speed racer
Did Jay say he did 237 mph on his bike ?
Beautifully built car, can't get over the flawless finish on the dashboard!
This is one of my favorite episodes. I always love when Jay has the older car guys on.
It looks like the batmobile
It sounds like the APU, Axillary Power Unit,, in a C-130 Hercules transport. And to see Bob McKee, the man who took on Lola, McLaren and Porsche in the Can-Am Series.
This was just the best! I love that they even got Bob the builder of the car, he really seem to know his stuff. The car looks really well built and the design and concept was just so awesome!
Bob the builder😂😅
CAN WE FIX IT?
"I built the damn thing, so..."
HI JAY AND FRIEND ,,, THE CAR MY SON SAYS SOUNDS LIKE THE OLD BAT CAR IN THE 60-70 ,, AND MAX IS 7 YR. OLD WE STILL WATCH THE OLD DAYS .. THIS CAR 22 IS GREAT!!!! THANKS...
Apparently Jay has gone 237mph on his sick turbine motorcycle. 🏍️
Somehow Jay must be intrigued about this car. He's a fan of turbines and owns at least 2 already. That car is gorgeous and God knows what the appreciation factor could be.
Who knows what Jay has on the collection addition list. Tough to guess his goals either. Or he just collects for the joy of it.
Talk about a gift to gearheads Mr. Leno has been. I caught a sense of his passion for cars and driving at some point in the 80s and I wondered over the years just what might be in that collection. Jerry as well. His love for the Porsche marque is always front of mind when Jerry pops up in my head.
And then came UA-cam Jay and my prayers were answered. The man is insanely knowledgeable about such a wide swath of automobilia...from history to being a wrench hardened mechanic and just a general purpose Engineer, there is no one I trust more on cars. He was sorely missed in my family when he left the Tonight Show and was not "around", so to speak, in our lives.
Thanks Jay and Team for another amazing car and great conversation.
This is Gold.
Still have a Rover turbine car in the London Science museum
Could you do an episode on the Trihawk 🤞🤞 another great episode as always I enjoy the unusual auto 👍
Thank you Mr Leno 👏👏👏👏✌️
I saw. Howmet race at Sebring in’68. Hearing the car coming down the back straight was an amazing experience; one I’ll never forget!
I saw one of these amazing cars at the BOAC 500 in 1969, just before starting my aircraft engineering apprenticeship with BOAC. The start of the love of turbine noise and smell of JetA1. Also seen at Goodwood FOS. Good to see they all survived.
"Don't be afraid to open it up!"
How sweet is that sound!?
Bob Mckee ,this name deserves to be right up there with Carrol Shelby ,what a cool fella ,would love to listen to hes journey ,very interesting very smart and humble ,legend status 100,did anybody catch on that Jay owns a jet powered motorcycle ?
Hmmmm...no mention of Ray Heppenstall. According to Motorsport Memorial:
"The Howmet TX Continental project was conceived early in 1967 by Ray Heppenstall and his friend, Tom Fleming, then sales vice-president of Howmet, one of the United States leading metal companies."...and..."Heppenstall fitted a lightweight gas turbine helicopter engine made by Continental Aviation & Engineering, in the back of a McKee MkIX, a conventional sports racing tubular chassis designed and built by Bob McKee Engineering. Ray Heppenstall was the project creator and he got financial backing from the Howmet Corporation to build the car."
The other thing is...he told me all about it. We became friends when I was doing his machining for his Formula Super Vee cars he ran out of his farm near Philadelphia in the 1970's.
Thanks Jay . Of course the pioneers of jet turbine powered cars were Rover car company and were the first to build Sir Frank Whittles engines and entered LeMans in l think 1963 /64 /and 1966 and l think Graham Hill finished 4th in one year . And only you would have the audacity to build a jet powered bike and you did WHAT in it ? 237 mph !!!!! You are completely , hilariously , stark staring bonkers ! 😑💖
So great - sounds exactly like the Batmobile from the old tv show
Amazing car. Always wanted to see one. Same drivetrain principle as Donald Campbell's Bluebird.
I was at the 1968 24 hours of Daytona with my father. We had a pit pass and got there a day or two early. We got to see all the practice and saw the cars up close. There was one Howmet car entered. I'm not sure but I don't think it finished the race. I remember seeing a 289 Cobra parked in the infield for sale, $3000. Do I wish I had bought that.
The Howmet car crashed in the early part of the race. I checked with online racing references to make sure about that.
That Cobra sounded like a bargain, as new Buick sedans were selling for around $4K ~ $5K back then.
I saw a Cobra at a dealer in Queens in 1972. It was $12k. Monster tires. Someone had a soft top made for it.
That is NOT a jet powered car, it's gas turbine powered. Whilst both with use a gas turbine, the former is driven by the reaction from the exhaust, whilst the gas turbine engined car uses a gearbox and transmission to drive the wheels. In the world of Land Speed Record cars, Bluebird-Proteus CN7 is as a wheel driven car powered by a gas turbine whilst Thrust SSC is a true jet car using two gas turbines.
Never seen one, crazy Jay in jet power car
That was awesome and good of you to tell the Tonight show story I was wondering how close the guy behind you could get
"Same engine as my motorcycle " classic!
Matthew 16:26
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Although very similar a jet does not use the main shaft for any propulsion it is just exhaust thrust to move. Turbine engines exhaust is just exhaust and shaft powers something to move forward
Jet powered race car, and still has Cortina rear lights. Those bloody things lasted longer than the British motor industry.
It's Turbine, a Turban is what Asian Indian's wear 😀
Beatiful car exterior and interior
3:01, why do they say "turban" in the US when the mean 'turbine'. When I hear 'turban' I think of Sikhs in India.
I was at the 68 Sebring race working in pits when the car raced there. Very cool, but din not finish.
Those rear lights... Yep we know where they came from...
I love the smell of jet fuel in tha mornin! Driving by Teterboro always puts a smile on my face.😊
Cute - Love the smell of jet fuel in the morning... Hahahaha
Move over Batman this is the real deal
the 1 episode that should be 1 hour long... great stuff.
If there's a unedited 'full' version, I'd definitely watch it !
Upon start up it sounds like the one & only original Batmobile
🤣🤣🤣
Mk 1 Cortina taillights used by TVR and others😊.
The turbine Rover-BRM raced at LeMans in 1965.
What a BLAST!!!! (Sorry about that!) Just great. Thanks!!!!
1:16 Ford Cortina rear lights !!😍👍
I imagine racing fans in '68 saw and heard this thing and thought the future was upon them. It has an amazing presence in sound and appearance.
I'm getting THX-1138 vibes with this car.
Thank you Mr. Leno for another amazing history lesson. One of my favorite episodes is the one where you’re driving your jet motorcycle🙏🏽
Cortina Mk1 back lights, noticed straight off 👍
I love the lines of these 50', 60's and 70's race cars. Imagine sitting on the grid before the warm up lap and the guy beside you starts up a bloody turbine.
Jay, interesting integration of auto & aircraft technology--well done video.
repent and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and saviour and receive salvation ❤
The start up was a great memory from the batman show of the 60s they obviously used a recording of the turbine engine same as used in this car 👍🏼
That's exactly what it reminded me of too.
Such an incredible man/car/story!
👍👍
How have I never heard of this thing??
Funny how this comes up today; last Saturday I found a 1/64 die-cast model of one and was doing some reading on it. Great video!!! and the British Ford Cortina Series 1 rear lights!
I love when things like that happen.
Easily the coolest car I’ve ever driven. We video’d Steve’s pre-flight explanation here before taking the Howmet around Laguna Seca ua-cam.com/video/yTy-VPeVFNk/v-deo.html
They actually had to turn the car upside down and shake it to get them out. 🧂
How great to see that automotive genius talking to Jay. And Bob McKee built Paul Newman's race cars, also. 🙌
Thanks Jay. Turbine cars were ALWAYS my favorites. Then they were only second to Jim Halls Cars.
It was so cool hearing the run up of the turbine before you (sorry, I gotta say it….) took off!
Great video Jay
My favourite race car of all time, finally featured on my favourite car channel 🤌
Amazing Car, featuring a fabulous Host.
Mr. Jay Leno keeps surprising us!
Thank you for this fantastic video.
The most Jay Leno car of all time
Jay I would like to see more of your cars, been a fan sense you started filming.
Holy wow = that old man is got some crudentials = smart guy
I’da loved to have been there if/when someone tried to tell Jay to ‘take it easy with these crazy old cars’ 😂. He probably got the biggest smile on his face
Great introduction to a skilled engineer. We need more!
Thanks for bringing us automotive history. I'm sure that's a bit of work to get FAA clearance to drive on airport grounds.
Man, how cool is that? Seems Mr. McKee dabbled in a bit of everything! I'm amazed that all 4 copies of this car are still around after all these years. I love the gauge cluster.. clear and concise, and ALL mechanical. Nothing to burn out in the middle of a race and not know what's going on under the hood!😉👍
Mr. Leno, I just watch the episode of celebrity I owe you. It’s just another example of why I watch your channel, the great way that you give back to help others. Thank you for your work with the property brothers.🙏🏽
Hey, we're low on gas, let's find an airport.
There's a switch under the dash for old man mode. I can't go that fast anymore plus the switch does wonders for my arthritis. Many blessings and good health Mr. J. Leno...
I would love to see your entire collection. By some chance do you have a video that is a tour of your collection? You live the dream of every Motorhead. I really love this channel. And on top of all this, you're one of the funniest guys on the planet. Thanks so much for all you do. I've enjoyed your work for years.
Can say never seen this. Amazing Jay bet it was a hoot !👊❤️
I would love for an airport to be my gas station…
Excellent stuff again Jay. Always something different. And fascinating. Thank you for keeping us all so well entertained!