VIDEO: SOMEONE BUILT A HYBRID ELECTRIC JET TURBINE-POWERED RX-7

The world is full of passion projects, but have you ever come across a project that included putting in a 60 horsepower diesel-powered jet turbine into an RX-7? The madman behind this insane and amazing car took an engine, that is, a JetCat SPT-15RX turboprop borrowed from a model aircraft, and installed it into the RX-7.

These engines put out around 15kw, or up to 20kw if you really want to push the limits. The turboprop drives a generator capable of around 40kw, which in turn charges a boot-full of Enerdel LiNMC batteries, providing around 25kWh. The main question that we still ask ourselves is... is it efficient? Well, the little Mazda gets around 110km on a full charge when in electric-only mode and up to 500km with the jet turbine recharging the batteries.

In the video below, Patrick Huu the mad scientists talks about the fuel economy hovers around the 7L per 100km. Which is not too bad when compared to the fuel-guzzler that used to call this RX-7 home.