Nearly 30 years ago myself and a few friends used to race our FWD Dodge cars that were equipped with the turbocharged 2.2L 4 cylinder engines. With some help from a guy named Shelby we were successful at hunting down 5.0L Mustangs on the drag strip and also being competitive on the autocross tracks. Bulletproof engines with big turbos and fat fuel injectors can only get you so far before the ability to tune the EFI system became a major limitation. This was the late 1990's and DIY Electronic Fuel Injection systems were becoming a reality. Someone brought in a magazine article, and I learned real quick that you don't Google "Megasquirt" from a company owned computer at work. You might just have to take your monitor apart and clean the screen from the inside😊
The real thing did exist, and still does. It is here:
https://megasquirt.info/
and here:
https://www.msextra.com/manuals/whatmegasquirt/
Megasquirt DIY kit is in my 1953 Chevy pickup. Ever since some guy said my electronics from my 1995 LT-1 engine belongs in a museum and hurt my feelings...
Used to use it with EE Hack software for some real fun. OBD1 software. Sits nicely in a museum or running in my 1953 Chevy pickup.
https://ecmhack.com/eehack-2/
https://ecmhack.com/eehack-2/
What's crazy is that now the 94-95 LT1 computers are highly sought after because of only needing a cheap aldl cable and a copy of tunerpro r/t to tune them. They are easily adaptable to a standard SBC, so that's still the budget route to go for guys doing EFI SBC builds.
The sudden hike of the word „Trypophobia“ in the search engine‘s statistics could not yet be explained.
I think someone did go faster - strapping a JATO to the top of a Pinto. But we all know how that ended.
Pintos are deadly enough without adding more FIREpower.
That won't keep people from trying to earn a Darwin Award. Just open Youtube and search for "jet engine" followed by nearly anything from a car or truck to a skateboard. Apparently, this particular attempt has existed for 17 years without killing anyone yet, but I can not find any videos of it moving at a high speed. The jet engine drives a secondary turbine which powers the rear wheels for good burnouts though.
That won't keep people from trying to earn a Darwin Award. Just open Youtube and search for "jet engine" followed by nearly anything from a car or truck to a skateboard. Apparently, this particular attempt has existed for 17 years without killing anyone yet, but I can not find any videos of it moving at a high speed. The jet engine drives a secondary turbine which powers the rear wheels for good burnouts though.
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Not an expert on this kind of stuff, but thanks to your post I searched and found it seems to be an urban legend...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JATO_Rocket_Car
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2013_season)
Again, thanks to your post, I searched and found that Ford Pinto was cheap and the tank was unprotected and close to the bumper and would catch fire even after a modest rear-end collision.
It seems I found a video, not of a Pinto though...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_S_4_UEUlk