The 1979 Granatelli Jet Corvette Remains Most Impressive Feat of Engineering

You may have heard of the ‘79 Granatelli Jet Corvette before. Despite looking basically stock, save for the tires, it’s a monster of a vehicle that develops some 880 horsepower under that unassuming hood, takes extra skills to operate (partly because it’s half-aircraft), and flies down the highway, though not in a literal sense.

This very special Corvette is the creation of Vince Granatelli, son of Andy Granatelli, a famous mechanic and engineer whose turbine-driven Lotus almost won Indy in the ‘60s, before new rules made turbine engines off limits. The idea stuck with Vince, so he bought a 1979 C3 Corvette as new and started to build what he believed would one day become norm: a supercar like no other, with the added convenience of having a turbine engine that was easier to maintain, could run on anything and came with a longer shelf life.

He chose the Corvette because only the C3’s long nose could accommodate the Pratt & Whitney ST6N-74 gas turbine jet engine inside, and then proceeded to modify it extensively so that it could still be drivable. Though often referred to as the Jet ‘Vette, this car is turbine-powered, since the jet turbine spins the crankshaft that drives the rear wheels.

The Jet ‘Vette is incredibly loud and incredibly fast. It idles at 65 mph (104.6 kph) and can go as fast as 200 mph (321.8 kph) and, as you can see in any of the videos available at the bottom of the page, driving it is an entire process. It’s difficult to handle and always feels like it’s roaring to go (even when your foot is firmly on the brake, according to the few reviewers who were granted the chance to take it out on the track), but it’s an engineering wonder. It’s even more impressive if you consider it was built such a long time ago.

In order for the car to be able to handle all the extra-ness of the turbine jet engine, Granatelli made several considerable modifications. He added a new subframe for the turbine, added special disc brakes used in NASCAR, reinforced the shaft, and used a reduction box to bring the engines 37,500 rpm to a more decent (and legal) 6,230 rpm.

Underneath, there’s an entire massive bespoke exhaust system that directs the gases to a rectangular box at the rear and then out. The cockpit is less like a car and more like an aircraft cockpit, with gauges and buttons and flicks that all have to be consulted and used before heading out. Adding all these required extensive rewiring, naturally.

Granatelli set out to redefine the idea of performance and he claims he did just that: the Jet ‘Vette does 0 to 60 (96.5 kph) in 2.5 seconds. In the hands of a third party, it took 3.2 seconds to get to 60. But it’s still an amazing experience to drive it, as automotive journalist Basem Wasef discovered in 2015, just months as it was about to hit the auction block and he was offered the chance to do two laps on the track with it.

“It is so rad to hear this turbine jet just roaring along as you go down the track,” Wasef said at the time, as you can see in the video below. “When you floor the throttle, it’s not like an immediate kick in the pants… it’s just this almost gentle, serene ‘whoosh’ where the sound really kind of accentuates the feeling of speed.”

Speaking of auctions, collector Milton Verret bought the Jet ‘Vette in 1982 for $550,000. He listed it for sale with Barrett-Jackson in January 2015, but it failed to meet the reserve and, as far as the world knows, it is still in his possession – and in fine company, since his collection also includes the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters and John Lennon’s 1956 Austin Princess from the Imagine documentary.

As of early 2020, the Jet ‘Vette is the main star at the Rock ‘N roll Car museum in Austin, Texas.