Watch This Volkswagen Type 2 With a Jet Engine Fly Down the Drag Strip
What was once a farm truck in Oklahoma is now a fire-breathing monster.
Just when we thought we’ve seen every possible modification to a Volkswagen Type 2, somebody went ahead and strapped a jet engine on one. In this case, a 1958 VW Type 2 flatbed truck named “Oklahoma Willy.”
Oklahoma Willy spent most of its life as an honest-to-goodness work truck hauling straw on a farm in—you guessed it—Oklahoma. This is a genuine USDM truck that predates the infamous “chicken tax”, the 25 percent tariff imposed by President Johnson in 1964 on various goods (including light trucks) imported to the U.S. That’s why a VW Type 2 truck in the U.S. is such a rare specimen.
Oklahoma Willy, however, no longer lives in the States. It was imported to the U.K. in 2013 to the folks at Perrywinkle Customs. The British shop thought it would be a good idea to rebuild a 1986 Rolls-Royce Viper 535 Turbojet engine that was originally used in a BAC 167 Strikemaster fighter jet. The jet engine makes 3,450 pounds of thrust, spins at 13,760 rpm, and burns 8.3 gallons of jet fuel per minute. When Oklahoma Willy doesn’t require all of that thrust, it’s powered by a 1.9-liter flat-four engine built by Chico Performance Racing in California.
Along with full restorations, the truck and the jet engine both received lovely red and cream-colored paint jobs. Oklahoma Willy sits on 17-inch Fuchs chrome wheels wrapped in 185/35/17 Nangkang tires. The wheels look awfully small, but they’re good enough to keep all of that jet power on the track.
Watch the video below to see just how well a jet-powered VW Type 2 does on the drag strip.