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Japanese tuner finds a creative new use for a jet engine and a Nissan Silvia

Jet power! Quad-turbo 2JZ Silvia is back
There is no shortage of cars powered by a jet engine on YouTube. Usually, the conversions were performed with speed in mind. However, a tuner in Japan has turned to aerospace engineering to keep his car on four wheels and pointed in the right direction, not to make it go faster.

The little jet engine is mounted on the rear end of a heavily modified Nissan Silvia, a sporty coupe known as the 240SX in the United States. It points towards the sky so that it pushes the rear end of the car down as it generates thrust. It’s one of the most creative forms of active aerodynamics since American race car builder Chaparral built the sucker car in 1970. Unfortunately, the tuner who built the Silvia couldn’t get the jet engine to work in time for the video.

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Admittedly, fitting a jet engine to a spoiler sounds like overkill. However, this is no ordinary Nissan Silvia. The straight-six engine has been moved back by about 8 inches to make room for four of the biggest turbochargers we’ve ever seen. Seriously, these look like they came from one of Caterpillar’s mining dump trucks.

Interestingly, the build also includes a second throttle controlled via an automatic gear lever mounted on the center console. When the car is at full throttle, a simple flick of the lever is all that’s needed to “unleash hell,” according to the man who built it. However, it’s so powerful that he’s not able to use it yet, lest he loses control Mustang-style and plows into a tree.

Clearly, the build still needs some fine-tuning. The only way to get the car to start was to tow it with a Mitsubishi Pajero, and the smoke coming out of the exhaust isn’t what we’d call reassuring. But with a little bit of elbow grease, this quad-turbochargers Silvia could turn into one of the most awesome builds from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
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