Y2K. The reason why otherwise mentally capable individuals went out of their freaking minds in 1999. All hell was going to break loose at midnight on New Year’s when computers couldn’t process the incoming date and brother, it was going to be wild. Missiles would launch, ATM machines would puke out cash like a hard-partying frat boy and the beginning of the end was going to appear. Where was I at in all of this madness? Squarely in the Skeptic’s Corner, making fun of everyone who was losing their heads. I was sixteen years old and thought it was completely beyond hilarious…I was buying and wearing every shirt I could find that made fun of the panic. I even got assaulted in a Post Office because one guy wanted to, and I’m quoting him here, “slap some sense into today’s misguided youth” because I was wearing a T-shirt. Strange days, those were.

But the strangest thing to appear in the year 2000 wasn’t the downfall of computers, rogue missiles, or exceedingly generous cash machines…dammit. Nope, instead we got the popping of the Dot-Com bubble, the Elian Gonzalez raid, and the last day of no humans in space. Oh, and this particular freak of the motorized world: the MTT Y2K Turbine Superbike, arguably one of, if not the most unbelievable vehicles produced in the new millennium. Put into simple terms, this is a crotch-rocket powered by an Allison/Rolls-Royce Model 250 turboshaft engine.

Yes…the engine from the aircraft I’m most familiar with, the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, powers this street bike. Think about that for a second: a Kiowa weighs in at about 5,500 pounds. The Y2K bike weighs in at 500 pounds dry, with room for eight gallons of pretty much whatever you can make burn…kerosene, JP8, diesel, Chanel No.5 if you’re so inclined. Made by a company called Marine Turbine Technologies (MTT) between 2000-05, the Y2K bike is known for more legends than facts. Horsepower? Anywhere between 286 and 544. Top speed? Well, the minimum figures put it at nearly 230 miles an hour…that’s saying something.

MTT finished production of the Y2K in 2005, then apparently became sane again and switched over to the world of fracking equipment for oil recovery. Yes, the bike was featured in the abysmal motorcycle movie “Torque”. Yes, Jay Leno owns one. And yes, the story about him melting off the bumper of an Infiniti that got too close to him is true. Is it a true sports bike? Is it the visual definition of “you went too far”? Would you willingly straddle the engine meant for a scout helicopter and twist the throttle? You can be the judge of that…but screw the legends. If you want to see what the freakish Y2K Turbine Superbike is really all about, race it against a jet.