Do Not Try This At Home: A Jet Powered Go Kart

A Jet Powered Go Kart

[Colin Furze] is at it again. This time he’s built a freaking jet-engine powered go kart.

In case you’re not familiar with [Mr. Furze], he’s no stranger to building high-speed vehicles, like the fastest baby stroller in the world. And he’s also got a bit of an obsession with pulse jet engines. He’s even made one out of a toilet roll holder. He was a plumber — but now he’s one of the best mad scientist YouTube creators around. We just hope he doesn’t kick the bucket too soon with one of his extreme projects, because his safety tie probably won’t save him!

This month’s project is no exception — he’s strapping his giant pulse jet engine he used to fart on France onto the frame of a tiny go kart. “As you can see the jet to kart ratio is pretty good”. No kidding — the engine has gotta be 2.5 times as long as the go kart’s frame!

Stick around after the break to see him risk his neck for our own amusement.

The best part of his projects is he also does great build logs to go with them, and they’re always a pleasure to watch. He’s figured out the key to short attention spans with short cuts and high energy music. This makes building absolutely anything, including things as boring as metal brackets fun to watch!

And of course, the test video:

[Thanks for the tip Sysop!]

42 thoughts on “Do Not Try This At Home: A Jet Powered Go Kart

  1. This guy has been playing with this for awhile, he made a smaller one and put it on a bike as proof of concept. Then he made this big one and put it on a bike. It was funny when they were testing it, he caught part on the van on fire.

  2. Don’t try this at home!? Screw that, do try this at home, you’ll either get laid like crazy or have a huge turn out for your closed casket funeral! It’s a win/win!

  3. If it weren’t for the fact that this jackass has 0 safety gear, I’d be all for him. But, no helmet, no jacket, no nothing. He’s an awful example. He’s not a scientist who happens to be a little crazy, he’s a crazy who knows a little science.

    1. People who need examples to determine their personal comfort safety zone should not even operate a toe-nail clipper.
      And bloody stop calling engineering “science”. Now mixing these two disciplines up is a severe safety hazard.

    2. Realistically, anyone capable of replicating his builds is going to know better.

      The real problem are all the projects posted here that require only minimal tools and equipment and are actually just as dangerous, if not more so.

    3. @Ryan Flowers
      A-BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO

      Should he be wearing a helmet? Absolutely. Is it worth making a goddamn post over? Absolutely *not.* You’re not saying anything anyone doesn’t know.

      There’s a great video of the guy riding his bike around the circular wall of doom without a helmet or any other gear. After he stops, he staggers over to the ladder required to get out of the big bowl, THEN puts on his helmet. I’d never do what he does, but I love his style.

    4. I fully agree.
      I made [before I was chemist] lots of (good/bad) experiments with explosives, when making explosives was not considered as terrorism… black powder, TNT, hexogen, mercury fulminate (made in my parent’s freezer…) and other fine stuff ;-)
      But I you want to “teach” people the proper way and make your experiments interesting AND safe, gloves, and glasses are always needed. An extinguisher is also welcome. To protect yourself and to work as a scientist (2nd episode of breaking bad – use good tools, man).
      Btw, about clothes to protect your body and your arms, NEVER wear synthetic clothes : they melt and burn more (they will glue on your skin).
      That’s why chemist clothes are made of cotton…

  4. The toilet roll holder became a jet engine-ish thing, not a pulse jet. They are COMPLETELY different things.
    (and it’s not like you’d need to watch the video or anything, it’s in the URL)

  5. I just saw that little thumbnail in the blog preview and I immediately thought of Collin Furze.
    That video title is really appropriate. Just mental. Besides the usual stuff like missing security gear, I really love his videos because they just show some awesome and crazy stuff. Of course he has to be taken with a grain of salt, because of pretty few safety measurements. But asides from that: I like pulse jets and I wish I had the stuff to build one myself :-D

  6. I wish he’d wear some safety gear… at least a helmet and fireproof motorcycle leathers.. one big failure and we miss out on his wacky builds!
    other than that… very cool….

  7. nice construction, but after testing and seeing that the pipe glows i’d definitly build a “firewall” behind the seat.
    if this pipe breaks he gets a new hairstyle.

    1. I thought that was a firewall behind the seat. It seem like the seat would rest on the firewall for support but the seat was a bit loose while the firewall stood firm. It looked to be some .25″ metal plate but that should be enough. Reminds me of the .25″ plates we used in Iraq for blast plating.

  8. Sheesh. Colin Furze does yet another awesome and incredible build, and all anyone says is “safety gear”, blah, blah, blah. Colin is definitely smart enough to make an informed decision about what safety equipment he actually needs and which items he can do without in the name of entertainment. Just because you can’t handle a pulse-jet without setting yourself on fire doesn’t mean he can’t.
    That being said, proper safety gear is vital for Joe Hacker, but Colin Furze is NOT Joe Hacker.

    1. Not having safety gear is just playing the odds. The “I’m too good for safety, that’s for everyone else” attitude does get people injured everyday across various disciplines.
      Colin is an entertainer and this isn’t his day job, so we can understand why he chooses to “live dangerously “. However we should still point out when stuff like this comes up that safety should be your first thought when engaging in engineering experiments. You don’t think a test pilot would go up without a parachute would you?

      1. I believe that a false sense of safety when using safety gear insure, at least, as many people but probably more, because safety is not about wearing a helmet, reflective clothes, glasses or gloves. In the case of safety gear it is understanding why you would wear them or not.
        Simply strapping on some stuff, imagining this makes things “safe” is nonsense like wearing a helmet around a great bit digger… Sure! a plastic piece of ABS will surely stop 2 tonnes of steel! NO it only impedes your view!

        Like that guy on this board that insists on fireproof stuff, like something like that would be feasible. Diesel oil isn’t going to go boom just like that in almost any scenario, just do not touch the hot parts and it is demonstrably fine.

        1. Safety is certainly a deep discipline in and of itself, knowing what not to wear is just as important as what you should wear, along with assessing your biggest risks. In the rocket powered go cart, the most appropriate would simply be something like motorcycle attire (helmet plus abrasion resistant clothes). The biggest safety risk here is losing control of the vehicle at top speed due to mechanical failure. Aside from crash protection, the helmet would also prevent you from getting debris in your eyes.

          1. I really think that the bigger risk here is being hit by a truck whilst shopping for safety gear… Also don’t forget he’s European, so driving in a straight line at moderate speeds isn’t the limit of his driving abilities.

        2. No diesel oil here. It’s a pulse jet. That means it probably runs on propane and seeing in the photo what appears to be 2 red barbeque grill tanks, I’d say that’s almost surely the case. Pulsejets aren’t likely to exploded, because they’re basically just a hollow tube and have very low compression. They work on principles involving the Kadenacy effect and resonance. However, they can “flame out” but the biggest danger from that would be in starting the engine, which require deliver a burst of high velocity air into the exhaust pipes. That’s likely what the leaf blower is used for. If he’s careful to stand slightly off to the side while starting the engine the only real danger would be if he had a propane leak somewhere in his fuel delivery system.

          As to the danger of a crash, pulsejet are not very efficient at developing thrust. The large pulsejet he has on that kart probably only develops around 100 lbs of thrust, 200 lbs.
          tops and even that might be an overly generous estimate. So, unless he has a really long flat area to run this vehicle, he is not going to be reaching very high speeds. Most pulse jet power go karts only reach about 30-50 mph. There’s a reason the pulse jet was abandoned in favor of turbines. One thing pulse jets do produce a lot of is noise. So, the most needed safety device is probably some sort of hearing protection.

  9. It is fairly clear that most of the commenters are from the late 80’s / 90’s ere where the PC and health and safety brigade come in to play. In my day it was lets climb that tree, mess about with that chemistry kit, melt some stuff,make something do what it wasn’t designed for, now days its ooh you let your kids climb that tree without PPE, hard hat, safety boots, high vis jacket, harness, scaffold tower….. where does it end? this guys is in control of his own destiny and experiments, clearly he feels comfortable doing what he is doing and with the protection he has (or doesn’t have) in place. If I kill or mame myself undertaking something stupid its my own fault, not yours, not the health and safety chimp, not HAD. MINE and same goes for Colin.

    1. I would also agree with you if it wasn’t for the fact that when you disable yourself then we could collectively get stuck paying your medical bills and welfare if you do not have the proper insurance and financial well being. I would say if he has proper medical and disability insurance, let him do whatever he wants. This is the same view I have about drugs, it is none of my business until I have to start paying higher taxes, cause of your choices.

    2. The main difference between 80’s and now is that in those early years, you were not able to post your silly stuff on youtube. You made mistakes ? ok, maybe with some “luck”, your experiments were on the 11th page of your local newspaper. Now, millions of people (even the dumbest) are allowed to see your exploits.
      What will be your toughts if your child will explode his hands because of such videos ?
      I like the madness of Colin, but I’m an adult with some experience…

  10. This guy is a nutcase! I love it! (c:

    Where’s he getting his materials from? He seems to have an inexhaustible supply of metal bars, sheets, and pipes.

    Also, why’s his jet engine shaped like a ‘U’? The WW2-vintage German ones were straight.

    1. The pulse jets used on the V1 or “buzz bombs” were valved pulse jets. They had reed type valves behind the intake to prevent exhaust flow out the intake. The problem with that is the heat and mechanical stress on those valves makes them very short lived. One of the problems with the V1 was reliability. Many of them never made it anywhere near their intended target. Of course they weren’t very accurate either. So, the intended target was basically anywhere in England they mind happen to land. The Pulse jet on this go kart appears to be valveless pulse jet. From the appearance, I would say it’s the Lockwood-Hiller design. Anyway, being a valveless pulse jet both openings function as both intake and exhaust therefore the engine must be bent into a ‘U’ shape to develop forward thrust.

  11. This makes me think of something: What if youtube made an optional second soundtrack so you can have the music and voice channels adjustable separately? They like to come up with new stuff so that would be cool.

    Although.. being a google company and seeing past questionable behavior I guess they’d make it ‘chrome-only’ again..

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