Man builds jet powered hearse in Plymouth
  • 5 years ago
An eccentric Brit has unveiled plans to drive at 200mph in a jet-powered HEARSE. Matt McKeown, 56, already holds the title for the world’s fastest shopping trolley after he attached a jet engine and hit 70mph. But the extreme engineer is taking speed to a new level in his 1992 Ford Granada hearse which he bought online for £1,200. Matt owns a pair of 1950s jet engines and has spent the past 18 months shoehorning one of them into the back of a black hearse which was originally built to be driven calmly and respectably. The hearse’s jet turbine has around 1,750lb of thrust and Matt is hoping to drive at more than 200mph later this summer. He has now unveiled the one-off motor, dubbed ‘Dead Quick’, ahead of its official debut at this Sunday’s Prescott Bike Festival on Sunday 9 April in Gloucestershire where petrolheads will be raising money for the charity Blood Bikes. Matt, who runs Plymouth Karting in Devon, said: “My hobby is extreme engineering where I take something which is inherently mundane like the shopping trolley or the hearse and stick a jet engine in it. “I get the idea in my head and I have to act straight away so I went online and bought the Granada hearse for around £1,200. “The turbine is a Rolls-Royce viper turbine, sourced from a 1950s provost jet used by the RAF. It has around 1,750 lb of thrust and I am expecting it to do 200mph.
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