Everyone knows “something” about Turbonique, the 1960s speed parts company that sold rocket engines, rocket powered superchargers, and the most famous product, “the rocket drag axle” but how much do you really know? Do you know the backstory of the founder? Have you ever read the court documents from the trial that sent him to federal prison for selling this stuff? Have you ever actually heard the products operate? Well, the good news is that I have and I combined all of that into the podcast you can check out below. This is the most comprehensive telling of the Turbonique story ever and the deeper you get into it, the crazier the whole thing is.
Gene Middlebrooks who founded the company was a rocket engineer with ties to NASA and government projects like the Vanguard missile program. He was also a guy who nearly went to jail in the late 1950s for selling “electric superchargers” through the mail. It was that humble beginning in the world of speed that led him to combine his passions of rocketry and the aftermarket into what are undoubtedly the most incredible parts that ever ever been sold to the public.
It is horsepower, it is thrust, and it is jail time. Here’s the real and complete story of Turbonique presented for your listening pleasure.
Listen up! Hit the image below to hear the wildly true, detailed story of Turbonique!
Capt. Jack McClure’s Go Kart was awesome, saw it run several times and his last ride it it is my screensaver
saw captain jack at the first annual fuel and gas championship at new england dragway in 1971? neat guy talked to him for about 15 min you could hardly see his gokart down behind the guardrail but you could certainly hear it