To end rear engine week here comes a wild one! Turbonique was a fairly short lived company set up in the early sixties in the USA with the aim of providing acceleration freaks with a new way of getting high - with the aid of rocket fuels.. One product was the stand alone, self powered supercharger that used a rocket fuelled turbine capable of providing a massive boost to the intake charge at the touch of a button.

Fantastic as that is, the rear engine connection and focus of this article is the “Drag Axle”. Again this was a rocket powered turbine mounted behind, and connected to, the rear axle. The car could be driven as normal by its conventional engine but once the button was hit the rear mounted rocket would fire, supplying 1000hp or more direct to the rear axle through a second driveshaft.

The best photo I have found of this arrangement in action is this one courtesy of Hot Rod Magazine. Nine or even eight second quarter mile times were possible.

There is also an excellent gallery of various Turbonique equipped vehicles courtesy of The Rocket Man who will also sell you reprints of the original catalogues and technical manuals.

Last year a time warp condition Ford Galaxie fitted with a Drag Axle (and a very potent supercharged V8 up front) was presented at a Mecum auction in the US and realised $375,000 in the sale.

As a star lot they even provided prospective purchasers with a video on U-tube. Unfortunately I doubt that the new owner will ever risk pressing THAT button

A barn fresh Turbonique equipped Mercury Cougar race car also surfaced at a show a couple of years ago as blogged here:

http://blog.cardomain.com/2007/08/14/turbonique/

For more information on Turbonique and its products including “The Black Widow” oval window VW these links are a must.

http://www.almar.easynet.be/turbonique.htm

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2006/04/the_real_acme.html

We hope you enjoyed Rear Engine week, we certainly did, we will probably be revisiting it later this year for a second round.