00:02It's a bit like riding on a firework. It's really, really fast. Jet power is great fun.
00:10Just one of the most incredible things that you can ever experience.
00:14It is exhilarating, but once you get up to 160 miles an hour, it's a bit hairy.
00:23I'm a bit of a shell off, I suppose. I don't like to do something that somebody has already done.
00:27No stranger to wild automotive creations, this idea was born in classic Perry fashion.
00:34We sit at the pub, we all get drunk, we come up with a stupid idea,
00:37and whoever comes up with the stupidest idea, I'll go away and lock myself in the garage for five years
00:41and build it.
00:42To build Oklahoma Willie, I first of all bought the jet engine, a Rolls-Royce Viper 535.
00:48It was made in Bedford in 1978, and it was originally in a BAC Strike Master, which is a single
00:54engine fighter jet.
00:55I stripped that down and rebuilt it, chromed everything in polished aluminium, and that took me two years to complete.
01:01Then we added the afterburner, which was about another six months' work.
01:04Following that, I bought the VW bus to put it on, and that took me another three years.
01:08So all in all, about six years' work. It's a pretty rare, iconic vehicle.
01:12It's been restored to the highest of standards.
01:15Most people who come to see it have never seen anything like it in their life.
01:17A fine build indeed. This 1958 split-screen VW is one of only 60 in the UK, but none pack
01:27as much punch as Oklahoma Willie.
01:29Weighing in at 6,600 pounds, its jet engine is packing 5,000 horsepower, giving this beast a potential top
01:39speed of 300 miles per hour.
01:41It would probably fall over, but in theory, it would do about 300.
01:46The top speed that I have done is 157 miles an hour.
01:50And the original engine still sits in place, making it street legal, providing you don't fire up the jet.
01:57Physically, you could start the rocket in the centre of London, but I think it probably wouldn't pass the emissions
02:01or the noise regulations.
02:03But yeah, I do drive it regularly on the road. We go shopping in it, but we don't tend to
02:06buy many groceries because there's nowhere to put them.
02:10There's a maintenance tray here, so you can see the entire thing pulls out.
02:14And there you can see, well, the computer and all of the controls that keep the jet running and keep
02:18it safe.
02:22We're looking inside the cab.
02:24First impressions when you get in the vehicle is quite what you'd expect to see in a 1958 Volkswagen.
02:29Normal steering wheel, gear lever, handbrake, ignition, speedometer, clutch, brake, accelerator on the floor.
02:39However, I have added a jet, so we have some more controls.
02:42But here we have the main controls for the jet, and here we have all the monitoring gauges and starting
02:46buttons.
02:55Down here, there's what we call a dead man's pedal.
02:58I must have put my foot on that first of all.
03:00If during the jet performance anything goes wrong at all, I just release that and everything is closed down.
03:06The computer closes everything down and it cannot be restarted.
03:09Perry and Oklahoma Willie appear at events and festivals all over Europe, performing quarter-mile runs and flame and smoke
03:18shows.
03:19I cover the first eighth mile in about 8.5 seconds, and the second eighth mile I do in about
03:25two and a half seconds.
03:26So it's getting quick, really, really fast.
03:29It's a bit like riding on top of a firework, the sensation. There's no vibrations.
03:35It's not that noisy because most of the noise is going behind you.
03:38It is exhilarating, but once you get up to 160 miles an hour in a 1958 Brick, it's a bit
03:45hairy.
03:53Before a race, you can get a little bit nervous.
03:55It's an awful amount of power that you're unleashing in one go.
04:02You're just focusing on the horizon at a point and making sure you stay dead straight.
04:06Jet power is great fun. It's just such an awesome power.
04:10The noise, the smell and the sound, one of the most incredible things that you can ever experience.
04:15I came up to Ohio and Al Persauds are ranging from the attributes of the strength and strength to the
04:19dance floor to the strength of the strength of the strength of the strength of the strength of the strength
04:19of the strength of the strength.
04:19I'm ready to go.
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