Ever since we started putting high-powered engines into jets, there has been a long line of skilled but misguided lunatics eager to rip them out to use in their stupid and dangerous contraptions. Simply put, we are fascinated by speed—whether it is the latest military super aircraft or a flaming toilet blazing down the road at 110kph. A jet engine attached to anything is sure-fire entertainment—as the following ten gadgets will demonstrate.

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Popular Mercedes tuner Brabus has designed a Tesla modding package which adds — among other things — fake engine sounds to make up for the Roadster's silent electric motor. You can opt for a traditional v-8 engine sound, a race car sound or even two "futuristic landscape" settings that may or may not make your Tesla sound like George Jetson's spacewagon. You also get a few trim additions, some interior tweaks and, oh god, groundlighting. The whole package might be gaudy, but the fake engine sounds take the tacky cake. I'll say it: they're the electric supercar equivalent of spinner hubcaps. [NextAutos]

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Good ol' Frank Whittle: he dreamed up a device that can both deafen and thrill you at the same time. And you don't even have to be an aircraft fanatic to enjoy these jet engine test videos put together by OObject...the engineering, the noise and general "but what if it blows up?" bonkersness of running a chained-down jet engine to maximum power while it's inside a test shed will get you. Best watched from the comfort of your net surfin' armchair. Wait... what am I saying? That's clearly not true, but if you're unable to get close to a jet test site, you'll just have to make do. [OObject]

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As we move towards battery and hydrogen cell breakthroughs that could wean us off our addiction to oil, here's at least one engine design from yesteryear that ought to be examined a bit more. The free-piston engine, first invented in 1920, are cheap to build and roughly twice as efficient as current gas engines.

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It may not sound much different that a weed-whacker, but I can assure you that if this 1/6 scale replica of the 1964 Corvette L76 327 cubic-inch V8 was put into a tiny car, it would give a Leprechaun the ride of its life. The mini four-stroke engine was fabricated from scratch by a guy named Jim Moyer, and it can hit a staggering 11,000 RPM when opened up. Impressive.

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Professor Tomiki Ikeda, along with his research team at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a plastic motor that runs on direct light. Unlike solar power, there is no need for storing energy before conversion. The motor can achieve this feat thanks to a plastic compound containing azobenzene which contracts when exposed to ultraviolet light and returns to its original shape when exposed to visible light. By making this material into a belt and wrapping it around two wheels of different sizes, movement can be generated when the larger wheel is exposed to ultraviolet light and the smaller one to visible light.

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How does one design a propulsion system that combines a full-scale turbine engine and a Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engine that is capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload up to 9,000 nautical miles from the continental United States in less than two hours? DARPA has released new details on how they plan on tackling this issue with their Vulcan engine--a ramjet / scramjet hybrid that will take an aircraft like the Falcon HTV-3X from 0 to Mach 4 with a traditional turbine engine, then kick in the CVC to push it to Mach 6 and beyond.

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Vacuums, done. Hand driers, done. Now James Dyson is turning his attentions elsewhere. He thinks that he can build a better engine for electric cars. And his plan seems reasonable enough...

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The burnout has an appeal that only a car lovin', Nascar watchin' man could possibly explain. However, only Steven Laurie dared to eliminate the vehicle from the equation and bring the burnout to its essence...all in the name of art. The device he created looks something like a lawnmower sitting atop an axle, but it does manage to create some skid marks and smoke. The only problem is that the Burnout machine is fairly underwhelming when fired up, as you can see in the demo video below.

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According to Ronn Motors, the Scorpion supercar will not only achieve 0-100 kph in just 3.5 seconds, but also earns green credentials by getting 17 kilometres per litre. This trick is achieved by having a hydrogen-hybrid engine under the hood (also known as hydrogen injection, Water4Gas or HHO.) Small doses of hydrogen are generated and fed into the fuel mixture, making for a more efficient burn. Apparently this technology is a little controversial, but that hasn't stopped Ronn from putting together a bloody good looking car around that special engine, as the second photo underlines.

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