- [Narrator] Okay, monster top g*ns.
[g*nsh*t] We have got a hot one for you.
[flames roaring]
Jesse and his team have to build a life breaking jet car
in only five days.
- Stupid "Monster Garage".
- Totally stupid.
- It's trying to k*ll me.
- [Narrator] So lock it, load it,
and blow it out your afterburner.
The next episode of "Monster Garage" is about to blast off.
- Aaarghhhh!
[fast rock music]
- [Narrator] Join us now as Jesse
and his g*ng of maverick mechanics rip, grind, and burn,
transforming ordinary street vehicles
into monster machines in the "Monster Garage".
[fast rock music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
This week's challenge, take a 2003 Toyota Celica
and turn it into a 200 mile per hour jet powered car.
The rules.
The monster must appear to be stock.
They'll get 5,000 greenbacks for parts.
The crew has seven days and nights.
The first day, they design.
The next five, they build.
And on the seventh day, they race.
If successful, the team gets a $3,400 set of Mac tools.
And the clock starts now.
[flames roaring]
[engine roaring]
[tires squealing]
Jesse tears the Toyota into the Monster Garage.
- I forgot how fun this little thing is to drive.
- [Narrator] It's not the first time
he's driven this Celica.
He hammered it through the streets of Long Beach
in the 2003 Toyota Celebrity Grand Prix.
It came down to a two man race,
Jesse and soap opera star Peter Reckell.
For Jesse, racing is a contact sport.
With the locals cheering him on
he made his move on the leading man on the last lap.
- [Race Announcer] Coming into the final turn,
ladies and gentlemen, Peter Reckell in the lead.
Jesse James is gonna have to make a move.
And right there, he's trying to go through him.
Jesse James and Peter Reckell what a -
- [Narrator] Unfortunately,
the soap star slipped by for the win.
Losing on the racetrack is one thing,
but there's no room for second place in Jesse's garage.
It's time to build a monster.
The design team meets their maker.
- So I drove this car, this Celica, quite a bit.
We tested in it up at Willow
and then drove it in the Grand Prix
and it's, it's, it's a car
that no one would expect to be jet powered.
[engine roaring]
What's a reasonable goal for mile per hour with it?
- I think we should sh**t for about 200 and just 1300 feet.
- [Narrator] Jesse listens to Richard Schroeder.
After all, he helped get the Wheelie Wagon off the ground.
[engine roaring]
And he has another hobby,
building and racing jet cars.
[jet engine roaring]
- That's still moving pretty good.
If it goes faster, fine, but,
'cause there's no Celica anywhere
that'll go 200 miles an hour.
- [Narrator] The bar is set at 200.
It will be a stretch to get there.
Literally.
[metal clanking]
- Our big concern's the wheel base.
Maybe lengthening it out a little bit?
- Do you really think it's necessary?
- When you're short, you're almost square.
Square has no idea which way forward is.
Anything goes wrong at all, the car will spin.
- [Narrator] Jerry Segal has lived his whole life
around building jet cars and racing them.
[jet engine roaring]
- I'm owner, builder, driver, designer.
A little bit of everything.
Going fast in a jet car is what I do,
so it's not amazing to me that I do that.
It's what I do.
[jet engine roaring]
But you have a square here
that you're pushing from way back here.
- [Jesse] Right.
- Okay.
Anything goes wrong up here, this thing makes a turn.
So we move the rear wheels as far back as possible.
- What do you think we need to, to add a foot to it?
- You want to be at least 120 inches in the wheel base.
- [Richard] Yeah.
- Yeah, we can cut right behind the jamb.
That way we can keep the door and everything working.
- Yeah, we'll be -
- So we're gonna have to have
a big, long jet engine in the back.
- Correct.
[jet engine hissing]
- [Narrator] If that big, long jet backfires,
it could be nighty-nighty for "Way Fast Whitey".
- There's always the potential for a jet engine
to, to burp back forward through the inlet,
it'll burp a fuel mixture forward.
- [Narrator] Matt Swain is a member of the "jet set".
As an engineer at Lockheed Martin, he's helped launch
some of the world's fastest cloud punchers.
- [Pilot] Max thrust.
[jet engine roaring]
- [Narrator] If the danger isn't obvious yet,
Jerry will tell you jets can be tricky things.
- The thing about a jet engine is
the air is designed to go this way.
There's nothing physical, like pistons and valves,
to keep it going that way.
Upon changing its mind, it goes back the way it came.
When it does, it takes the fuel, the fire,
and everything with it, throws it out the front.
Well, out the front in his case,
it happens to be where he's sitting.
- So this might, this is dangerous, I like it.
We should go with a, a whole cage, you know,
so if that car rolls and comes apart,
the cage stays intact.
So I think the first thing we're gonna have to do
is extend the chassis, install the jet, safety cage,
plumbing, fuel system, controls, all that.
- [Narrator] Jesse's gonna need a hell of a fire suit
for this monster barbecue.
- Dash Funny is rated for a funny car class.
You have approximately 90 seconds if you are in
what they consider a severe fire
and we'll use "severe" just as a guideline.
[expl*si*n roaring]
- It's okay, we're with the TV.
That means we were, we know what we're doing.
[laugher sound effect]
[team chuckling]
- [Narrator] The design team makes their exit.
It's T minus 12 hours until the build begins.
[fast rock music]
[fire exploding]
To jet power their Toyota,
the crew will lengthen the wheel base
by cutting the car in half
and extending it with a bombproof roll cage.
A Rolls-Royce Viper jet engine will be mounted
in the backseat of the stretched out Celica.
Then it's light the fuse
and watch Jesse take a one-way trip to 200.
[jet engine roaring]
[fast rock music]
[marker squeaking]
[jet engine roaring]
Day two blasts off as Jesse meets the build team
and gets them fired up about building a jet car.
[metal clicking rapidly]
"Monster Garage's" very own Ben Wood
joins us from San Jacinto, California.
[metal clicking rapidly]
Jetting in from Oklahoma
is full blast builder Ralph Snider.
[metal clicking rapidly]
From Palmdale, California
is Skunkworks engineer Joe Ruggless.
[metal clicking rapidly]
Toyota Celica surgeon Marty Schwerter
arrives from Huntington Beach, California.
[metal clicking rapidly]
And finally from Las Vegas, Nevada, the genius of jet cars,
Jerry Segal joins the build team.
[fast rock music]
- So this is it.
This is a good one.
Some real danger now.
Checklist of stuff to do is, you know,
motor and trans has gotta come out.
Everything out of the interior.
Pretty intense roll cage.
Pretty sealed up firewall to seal me away from all the -
- [Ben] That's a good firewall.
- [Jerry] You got it.
- The dangerous hot stuff.
Well let's have at it.
This is gonna be a, a pretty good chunk of work.
[fast rock music]
- [Narrator] The team of top g*ns lock in on their target
and tear it to shreds.
[wrench clicking]
[plastic thudding]
[plastic thudding]
[plastic clattering]
[rubber thudding]
[parts crashing]
[seat scraping on floor]
All they'll need is the body, the front, and back ends.
- [Ralph] Where you wanna lay it?
- [Narrator] If it's not for thrusting, crush it.
[fast rock music]
[tool buzzing]
- [Joe] Coming at ya. - [Ben] Okay, I got it.
- Okay, let's just go straight down with it.
- [Ben] Ha!
[fast rock music]
- Nah, we usually try and fix them
after if someone else breaks 'em.
[metal crashing]
- [Narrator] Toyota's Grand Prix is a full-time job
for Marty Schwerter.
He makes them run after they have endured
one of the most a*usive environments known to man and beast,
celebrity racing.
- We, we're putting a bunch of stars into cars
that they haven't paid a dime for.
'Cause they're so aggressive
sometimes it turns into a smash up derby event.
[fast rock music]
[tools buzzing]
- I see the mirror.
- Okay, dashboard.
[parts crashing]
- What do you think the most dangerous thing is?
- Between the time you shut the engine off
and the time the parachute hits
is probably the most dangerous.
Well being that this is a thrust powered vehicle,
the engine sits, relative in the car,
at about one degree down,
so it actually loads the car to the ground.
- So when the power shuts off,
the car's got no down force so it's gonna get light.
[tires screeching]
- [Narrator] The speedy tear out lures Jerry
into a classic "Monster Garage" trap,
predicting an early victory.
- Thursday afternoon, how's that?
[siren wailing]
- [Alarm] Danger, danger, danger, danger, danger, danger.
- Friday night midnight.
That's experience talking right there.
- [Narrator] As the assistant Monster Garage manager,
Ben Wood's been here before.
He's seen too many easy wins
become last minute battles against failure.
- If we fail, I will never hear the end of it.
I'm probably gonna have to get a new job.
- [Narrator] When Ben's not in the Monster Garage,
he's in his own garage crafting cool customs
worthy of magazine covers.
- Yeah, I consider myself a mini trucker.
I'm eventually gonna graduate onto bigger and better things,
but I'm definitely a mini trucker.
Anything to make it look obnoxious, basically.
Weird, not normal, unique, you know.
Too many people out there drive boring stuff.
You know, stock cars.
There ain't nothing exciting about that.
[engine revving]
- [Narrator] Making a jet car seems like fun and games,
but Jerry knows better.
- The reality is this is for real
and you can get hurt doing this.
So when we go out and play, we play, like, seriously.
- [Jesse] Yeah.
- You know.
You never lose perspective.
- [Narrator] With Jesse's fate in his hands,
Jerry went to Standard's testing laboratories
to see about his wheels.
[motor grating]
The ZR rated high performance tires
shredded at 231 miles per hour.
Now they all know how fast Jesse shouldn't go.
- I want a lot of space around me.
I don't wanna hit nothing.
[fast rock music]
[tools buzzing] - Where we're at right now
is getting the engine and transmission out.
[drill buzzing]
[part crashing]
[liquid splashing]
- [Ben] Gas!
- [Narrator] With a 6,000 horsepower jet engine on the way,
they'll have no use for the Toyota's little four banger.
The "Hellica" will have one purpose, go fast.
They'll need to adjust the wheel caster
to make sure it goes straight.
Caster refers to the angle of the steering axis
in relation to an imaginary vertical line
through the center of the wheel.
- The shock is basically the front end.
So the more you kick that out,
the more stable it is at speeds.
- [Narrator] They'll adjust the steering
by moving the shock arm mount back.
First they cut, then they fabricate a new mounting point.
[tool buzzing]
[sparks crackling]
With the steering straightened out,
the crew gear up for a "Monster Garage" first.
They're going to cut this car in half.
- We're gonna kinda, like, do the limo chop to it.
We're gonna move the, we're gonna move rear axle 30 inches.
- Just 30 inches?
- [Jerry] That's it.
- It's not gonna look stock.
- Right.
- It's not gonna look stock going 300 either.
It's gonna look like a blur.
[Jesse imitating sound of rushing wind]
[engine roaring]
Let's get it centered and everything
right dead nuts on the center of the lid and then weld it.
We'll weld it at four posts and then we can roll that back
and then make sure this fits.
You don't want it to go, you know, like,
[Jesse imitating wobbling car]
You know. - It'd be fun to watch.
- Yeah, huh?
- [Narrator] Jerry makes quick work of centering the car.
- Okay, this will work though.
- All right, well let's weld it in place and cut it.
- [Narrator] They weld the car to the lift
with steel tubing stilts.
The front end is burned solid to the lift.
The back is left free to stretch.
[upbeat drum music]
- When we come in here,
go over to right here, go right down the line.
- Okay, well let's do that. That's easy.
[tools buzzing and grinding]
- [Narrator] The reciprocating saw bites through
the skin of the Celica.
Ralph advances the incision with the plasma torch.
[sparks sizzling]
[fast rock music]
[hammer pounding]
They muscle the last tendons of steel apart
and their one car is now in two pieces.
- [Marty] Okay, hold on.
Whoa, too far.
Okay, we're within a quarter.
[mellow rock music]
- [Narrator] Day two's in the hangar.
The team did a good job jockeying through
their little Celica.
The car was gutted and cut in two.
The Jetsons will be back in the morning
to start the rebuild.
[mellow rock music]
"Monster Garage" factoid.
On October 15th, 1997,
Andy Green, driving Richard Noble's "Thrust SSC" jet car
set the current land speed record of 763 miles an hour.
[fast rock music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
[fire crackling]
Day three.
The jet builders enter the garage to find their project
just as they left it, in pieces.
- I think the big thing is to get the,
when the steel arrives this morning,
get the car square and get it back together.
- Today it's how to put it back together.
- The hard part.
- [Ralph] Yeah.
- [Narrator] Putting the car together means
building a new chassis.
They'll run frame rails from the back of the car forward,
add cross beams and then connect the new chassis
to a roll cage in the driver compartment.
Perfectly straight is the only option.
At 200 plus, a little tweaked means a lot of trouble.
- Keep going.
A little more.
- Okay, Ralph, give us a second.
Okay, whatever we did, it just went back.
- I'm seeing that cut, all right.
[sparks crackling]
Okay, I'm thinking let's double check all the measurements.
The bottom of each side.
We're dead on this side.
- Getting ready to build a, a base mount
to mount the roll bar tool, to.
Because the, the regular uni-body,
the sheet metal's too thin in it.
If you tried to weld the roll bar to it,
it would just rip it right out.
[metal clanking]
[sparks crackling]
[mellow rock music]
Nah, I made it serrated.
[sparks crackling]
[mellow rock music]
[sparks crackling]
All right, here it is.
This'll do it.
- [Narrator] Keeping Jesse alive is Joe's top priority.
He begins roll cage construction
using quarter inch angle iron as the base.
- We're just kind of trading off, you know.
We all kind of revolve around Jerry a little bit.
He's the only guy that really knows exactly
what has to be done with this thing.
- That's 55 and three quarter.
- Okay.
- That's your piece of two by four.
- [Narrator] Jerry and his crew begin cross bracing the car.
A crucial step in fortifying their monster.
- This is the center of everything.
The back of the car comes to it, roll cage comes to it,
the front goes forward from it.
Okay, Ralph, you gotta bring your edge.
You gotta go edge to edge.
[torch hissing]
[torch hissing]
This puppy's gonna drop right in there.
[metal clanking]
That's it.
[metal clanking]
Just like that.
I like it.
Because we're gonna come right off of this and go back.
- [Ralph] Yeah. - Do the back of the car.
We'll bring the upper bars into the center bar
and we got it.
[flame crackling]
[mellow rock music]
- [Narrator] With the cross brace welded in solid,
Joe cuts and bends steel to make the roll cage.
[machinery humming]
- This is the most important part of the roll cage.
This is the back hoop.
Like mamma said, "Measure twice, cut once."
[machinery rumbling]
Ahh!
It's a foot wider than I need it.
Dammit.
- [Narrator] Maybe mamma should have said,
"Measure three times."
- This time it will work.
Oh yeah, we're looking good.
[fire crackling]
- [Narrator] Sparks fly and the roll cage fuses together.
- There we go.
- [Narrator] Up at the front,
Marty is monster-sizing the brakes.
- For the most part, the parachute's gonna stop it,
but when you're on the line
and start spooling it up,
what you wanna be able to do is hold the car in place.
To get an idea, here's a stock brake caliper right here.
That's what comes on the car.
[metal clanking]
You can compare it to that.
- [Speaker] Free, zip, zero, nada.
- [Narrator] It's got some USDA beefy brakes,
but it's still missing the main ingredient.
Can anybody say Rolls-Royce Viper jet engine?
- [Jerry] Grab a spot and push.
- [Narrator] Jerry plucked this 6,000 pounds
of thrusting monster right out of his shop.
He delivered the goods to "Monster Garage"
at the low price of 10 grand.
[heavy metal guitar riff]
[cash register ringing]
- Here's a fuel controller.
Your starter's mounted on the front.
Your TAC, your exhaust temperature, and your pressure.
Oil tank on that side.
Fuel inlet through the filters right there.
And then you have your exhaust.
- [Narrator] Ralph knows what he's talking about.
He's got a very rare pilot's license for jet powered wheels.
- Some people like playing football,
some people like playing baseball,
I like making things go fast.
[rock music]
- [Narrator] Ralph Snider's need for speed
has meant one thing, jets.
[jet engine thrumming]
- I love building 'em and I love driving 'em.
- [Narrator] Together, he and Jerry have built
many jet vehicles, but nothing like this.
- This is a big challenge.
I mean, I think the quickest Jerry and I
ever built a car was like 30 days.
[jet engine roaring]
- This looks big.
- [Ralph] Right?
- Look at it.
I'm thinking right now this might not be a good idea.
[Jesse chuckling]
Aim not drive.
Boom! [Jesse imitating a g*nsh*t]
[jet engine roaring]
- We're setting the frame rails for the back half car.
We're not using their crossmember,
we're using all their components.
We're welding it all up solid
and giving ourselves no rear suspension.
- [Ben] Four to six inches ought to do it.
- Okay.
- Yeah, that's good.
- [Jerry] Okay.
[metal clanking]
- Trying to get it all dialed in
so we can get that jet motor in there. Hi.
- [Narrator] Jerry cuts out the rear suspension
to make room for the incoming frame rail.
[metal clanking]
- Up more.
What are we?
- This is part of our frame substructure.
It's also tying into our suspension
to hard mount everything.
We're not square yet.
He's gonna get it up there lined up
and then we're gonna pull this corner up
and get it to match up with the other side
and get everything ready to tack in.
- [Jerry] The degree - - In theory we should be same.
- [Ben] Right.
[mellow music]
[fire crackling]
[fire crackling]
- So you don't really see what's going on behind you.
But now, now I step back and I look at it,
I go, "My God, there's, there's almost a chassis built."
- [Narrator] Before calling it a day,
they tear into the Toyota once again.
This time they're making room for their jet.
[fast rock music]
[metal clanking]
[fire crackling]
[hammer pounding]
[plastic clattering]
- That's out.
- Yeah, well, out with the old, in with the jet.
[metal clanking]
- We got the NASCAR part up here
and the jet guy part back there.
- Yeah, I like it.
Everybody has their own thing.
Everybody laid out what they wanted to do ahead of time
as to what they were good at
and where everybody's sticking to doing just that.
- [Narrator] On day three, a fury of fabrication
turned two car halves into one beefed up whole.
[static crackling]
The crew hit the road to catch some Zs.
Tomorrow they'll be rested
and ready to install their jet engine.
[fire roaring]
[fire roaring]
"Monster Garage" factoid.
A Toyota Celica averages 26 miles per gallon.
The "Monster Hellica" will burn 140 gallons per mile.
[liquid gurgling]
[fast rock music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
[fire roaring]
Day four starts off with a field trip.
A reality check for the builders
to see what jet power can do when it's attached
to wheels instead of waves.
- What we have here is a T58 helicopter engine
converted to a thrust engine and a custom built quad.
[engine humming loudly]
[fire roaring]
[fast rock music]
[fire roaring]
[engine rumbling]
- I think it looked to me like
he was getting speed wobble somewhere.
- Yeah, when he was going back.
- [Marty] That's a -
- Woo-hoo!
- You guys are wild.
[engine humming]
- That's wild.
- That is wicked.
- Okay, this is what we're up against.
- [Narrator] Back in the garage
the builders confront their jet engine
and the task of finding some space for it to breathe.
- What we're gonna do is create a path for the air
to get to the engine.
- Basically box this whole thing in
and make it so any air that's coming across the front
has to force itself into a tunnel over here
that'll feed the engine.
- [Matt] Oh, yeah.
[fast rock music]
[plastic clattering]
[fast rock music]
[fire crackling]
[hammer pounding]
[metal clattering]
[fast rock music]
[plastic clattering]
- [Narrator] Once the cavity has been carved out,
it's time to drop the jet engine in place
and see how the 640 pound beast fits.
- [Ralph] Yay.
[metal clanking]
You good?
Pull back.
[machinery humming]
Hey, hold it, hold it, watch your gauge.
- [Jerry] Hold it.
- Watch your gauges.
- That sh*t's heavy.
- [Jerry] Go on up.
Straight up.
[machinery thrumming]
[machinery thrumming]
- Let it down a little.
- Stop.
- Easy. Come on down.
- Whoa.
- [Ralph] Let is down some.
- Let's go with that, right there.
Lock it down.
- [Ben] Like that?
- I like it.
- [Matt] It's gonna be -
- A fun ride.
- It's gonna be fun to watch, I know that much.
- [Narrator] They crammed the jet in.
Now Joe has to build a safety cage for Jesse to sit in.
- You know those guys who walk away
from those 200 mile an hour things bouncing off the wall?
That's what I'm doing here.
[fire crackling]
[metal clanking]
Instead of taking the skin off
and sticking it on a frame,
we just kinda left the skin all in place
and we're building the frame inside of it.
[fire crackling]
[hammer clanking]
- Where we are right now
is we've established the rear frame rails.
We've set the engine in.
We're now building the, the main motor mounts
for the engine.
Up front we're finishing up the driver's compartment
of the roll cage.
We're laying out the tubing to go around the driver,
around the seat, and put the steering in it.
We've opened up everything so it can breathe.
We can get all the air we need into the jet engine.
And that's pretty much where we're at right now.
- [Narrator] Ralph and Marty work
on mounting the jet engine.
In a car that can top 200 miles per hour without pushing it,
precision counts.
- If we don't get this straight,
the car's gonna want to turn in a circle.
So it's pretty critical to get it straight.
We want it to go straight down the line.
[mellow rock music]
[fire crackling]
- Locked in.
Cool.
- [Narrator] Joe totes in a top of the line
impact ready aluminum racing seat.
- Ah, we've been waiting for this
because a lot's gotta happen
around this seat and the steering wheel.
So this is, this is good.
[metal clattering]
- [Speaker] Freebie, zip, zero, nada.
- [Narrator] Builder Ben serves as Jesse's body double.
- Now you have to be able to pull your arm
back along to your side.
Your elbow, where's your elbow gonna go?
- Right down, that far.
- Okay, so you're gonna run into all this.
- Uh huh.
- That, that's why we need to trim this off.
You can leave that one, trim this one.
- Nah, I totally, I mean, that's,
that's a big safety deal.
- Okay. Let me tell you how -
- [Joe] You know, we're, we're kind of -
- Let me tell you how many jet cars I've driven
in my entire life?
- [Joe] How many have you crashed?
- One. It's all I needed to crash.
- [Joe] Okay.
- Okay. And that's, you don't need that there.
- I got you by, by probably about 20 to one
on those crashes there.
- [Jerry] What you need is having that not there, okay,
'cause the object is to not crash
and it would be really good if you could shut the car off.
- Well, hell, we'll, we'll take that into account
why do we even put a roll bar in there?
- So Marty, how's your day going?
- It's going so good.
- Oh, mine too.
It's great man. - Look how far along we are.
- Yeah, we're doing great buddy. Yeah, real good, real good.
- That's gotta go.
RLT and they'll shut the car off.
- [Marty] Well let's, let's - - [Joe] Let's do that.
- Let's do that once we get
the levers mounted and everything else -
- Let's, don't need to make the call on that.
- We'll get someone to sit in it and find out what happens.
We don't need to cut it right this minute.
- We don't have to cut it now.
We'll let Jesse make the call on that, it's his body.
I'm looking at the car crashes, right?
I'm not looking at his comfort for the,
for the five minutes or 10 seconds he's gonna be in the car.
It's more than just being comfortable
to go in a straight line, you know?
- Except all we're gonna do is -
- I'm the safety part of this.
- Go in a straight line. - You know.
Well, you hope so.
Okay.
We're building this thing in five days.
Like you said, your record was 28 days,
so we cut that by a fourth.
So I'm just trying to put a margin of safety in here.
[metal clinking]
- He asked me what, how many I'd crashed,
which is totally irrelevant
because if he's crashed more cars than I have,
don't you think we ought to go my way instead?
[metal clinking]
- I'm gonna compromise. You know, I don't wanna argue.
But see, in 1983 I broke my back.
- [Narrator] Racing and wrecking experience
has taught Joe Ruggless to make no compromises on safety.
- I had just about reached that point
where I was going to make that jump to drive professionally
and then I had a freak accident and I broke my back.
- [Narrator] That accident grounded
Joe's professional racing career,
but it focused his efforts as a high flying engineer
for the super secret stealth projects
at Lockheed Martin Skunkworks.
- For a decade of my life,
I couldn't tell anybody what I was working on.
- [Radio] This is [indistinct].
- [Narrator] The builders take a moment
to try out a miniaturized version of their jet car.
- Hopefully this ain't gonna be like
what our car's gonna be like
'cause our car better be better
'cause I got a bad feeling about this.
[all laughing]
[fire hissing]
- Ah, yeah!
[group cheering]
- Here, show this to Jesse.
- Our fuel tank.
Our main engine fuel tank has arrived.
[metal clanking]
- That's a pretty good fit. - We'll go with it like that.
Ralph, Ralph went in the back lot
and he found these perfect candidates
for our afterburner fuel tank.
- [Narrator] The afterburner will give this jet
a major boost in thrusting power.
Thrust is produced by sucking in air,
compressing it, then mixing it with fuel and fire
in the combustion chamber.
For a bonus boost, the exhaust air is refueled
and reignited in the afterburner.
[saw buzzing]
[saw buzzing]
Fumes from the homemade fuel tank
are having a strange effect on Marty.
- This stuff is also very good to eat.
- [Sound Engineer] Yeah.
- [Cameraman] You eat that, you're the man.
- It looks like there's plenty of room on both sides.
[fire crackling]
[metal clanking]
- Smells like a jet car, looks like a jet car,
sounds like a jet car, must be a jet car.
- [Ben] Must be a jet car.
- [Narrator] With the jet engine finally in place
it's been a big day for the team,
but the car guys and the jet guys
had a nasty dog fight over safety.
They need to patch it up by tomorrow
or these mavericks will cook their own goose.
[fire roaring]
Day five begins with the jet engine in place
but with nothing else hooked up.
There's a lot of work to be done before first fire.
[fast rock music]
- Getting all the, all the lines run
and the, the electrical to run the engine's
gonna take a little bit of time
and then we're gonna mount the cables,
and hopefully by the end of the day we're,
we're maybe seeing some fire out the back of it.
[fast rock music]
- [Narrator] The fuel cells are installed
and lines are run to the engine.
[fast rock music]
Critical gauges indicating RPM, torque,
and pressure are put in place.
[fast rock music]
[machinery grinding]
- That looks like -
[glass breaking]
[Jesse chuckling]
- [Narrator] Jesse gets his jet on for the first time.
- You're gonna be driving with one hand.
- Throttle with the other one?
- And, and yeah, and the throttle will be right here.
- Hold your arm, please, forward Jesse.
Okay, but sit back all the way in the seat
like you're really strapped in.
- That's all the way.
- Okay. And we got that mark right there,
so your hand will be right there.
- That's gonna be all sheet metal.
- Yeah, right here, see where -
- We'll have to cut this part of the seat out
so your arm has a place to go when you shut the car off.
- This is gonna be all sheet metal here.
That's all duct taped.
- Don't cut this all the way off, just shorten it.
I still wanted something to hold me in there.
I've crashed some cars that were like that
and those things hold you in there pretty good.
- When they said they wanted to cut that,
that edge off there, experience told me
hey I didn't want to do that.
- But if this thing takes off like a skyrocket
when you take the stick off.
- Then you're gonna be doing a lot.
[Jesse imitating a hissing jet engine]
[metal exploding]
[metal clattering]
- I'm gonna get my as in gear off some sheet metal.
[metal rattling]
[fast rock music]
[engine roaring]
- [Narrator] Motorsport racing legend Jim D.
stops by the garage to measure Jesse for his fire suit.
Jesse couldn't be in better hands.
Jim is credited with developing the first fire suit,
but he had some help.
- In 1960, '61 they were having fires
and burning the guys up.
And so I didn't know how to make a suit, but my mother did.
So my mother made the first fire suit.
We came down to measure you up.
- Okay.
- [Narrator] Jim's suit is so good
it'll keep Jesse from being barbecued
for a full 80 seconds in a 2000 degree fire.
- [Jim] 38 on this one.
- [Assistant] 16.
- That's right.
[Jesse laughing]
- Excuse me.
- [Jesse] Woo.
Thanks guys.
Looks great.
- And you want "Lucky Lady" on it, right?
- Uh huh.
- "Lucky Lady" on it?
- No, "Vanilla Gorilla".
- Oh, "Vanilla Gorilla".
- I want it mean looking.
Can you put on the front, "I'm with stupid,"
but an arrow pointing straight up?
- Alrighty.
- Thanks, Jim.
It's nice meeting you.
- [Jim] You bet.
[record skipping]
- [Narrator] Using the yellow cardboard as templates,
the team gets busy creating the sheet metal shell
for Jesse and the air intake tunnel for the jet engine.
[tool buzzing]
[metal clanking]
[mellow rock music]
[hammer pounding]
[fire crackling]
[hammer pounding]
- We're building an air scoop
to get air to the front of our jet.
We're gonna push this down,
build sheet metal sides for it and box it all in
and make a nice little scoop to induct air.
[saw buzzing loudly]
[saw buzzing loudly]
[tools buzzing]
[fire crackling]
- Finally.
- It looks good.
- Okay, roll bar is -
[saw buzzing drowns out speaker]
- You're the man.
I did most of it though.
- [Narrator] Jerry puts the finishing touches
on the afterburner tank and performs a leak test
to ensure there's no surprise explosions when Jesse hits it.
- Fill it up with air.
Spray all the seams with soapy water.
Make sure we have no leaks.
Put it in the car.
[water spray hissing]
[metal clanking]
[background chatter]
- Whoa, whoa, that will?
[hammer pounding]
[fire crackling]
[fast rock music]
- [Narrator] Day five ends without any flames
from the back of the jet monster.
But the team has settled the seat dispute
and made major strides towards blast off.
[static crackling]
Okay, Monster Air Force, Jesse wants to join the 200 club.
Will he earn his wings or just wash out?
Stay tuned.
[fast rock music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
[fire roaring]
Day six.
The crew enters their final build day
with two major concerns.
Make it work and make it safe.
- [Producer] What's your backup plan if nothing happens?
- k*ll the other four builders and go back to my normal job.
- We're nailing it down.
- Getting all the little stuff taken care of.
- [Narrator] To make it work,
Jerry finishes plumbing the jet engine and the afterburner.
- Since this engine never had an afterburner,
it never had any way to light the afterburner.
What we do is we tie into the main fuel system
under high pressure fuel.
We run it through two solenoids.
We run it into the combustion can
and then it blows through the engine into the exhaust pipe,
lighting the fuel that was added.
- [Narrator] Ralph and Ben are building a mock
for the jet car's parachute.
[fast rock music]
[engine humming]
Marty extends the brake lines.
[fast rock music]
Joe continues construction on the steel cage
designed to keep Jesse in the driver's seat.
[fast rock music]
Jerry puts the finishing touches
on some handmade control levers.
The boss tries his monster on for size.
- I can taste my knee.
[fire crackling]
- Afterburner.
Engine throttle.
Start sequence.
And the shutoff.
- And what could possibly go wrong?
- Go wrong?
You'll roll.
- [Narrator] Jesse's handcrafted roof rails fit perfectly.
Now he needs to fill the 30 inch gap
created by stretching the Celica
into a jet mounted "Hellica".
A couple of panels of steel in Jesse's expert hands and feet
and the Toyota has some new body panels.
[Jesse laughing]
- [Cameraman] Racing changed your street driving style?
- Yeah, I've slowed down a lot.
- [Cameraman] Really?
- Yeah.
- [Cameraman] That's interesting.
- But I still don't know what it feels like
to hit someone now at a, at like 90.
- [Race Announcer] Unbelievable.
- Here you go, Ben.
[metal clanking]
- [Ben] It's.
- Oh, oh, oh, look at that.
Looks hot.
Vehicle must appear to be stock.
[fire crackling]
- There.
- [Jesse] Yup, yeah, get in line.
- [Narrator] Their last build day has run out of light.
Now they have to make sure they don't run out of time.
With only hours left, it's a scramble
to make their monster come to life.
[tools humming]
[upbeat music]
- Until that jet fires up, I'm not gonna say we're okay.
'Cause you never know.
I mean, we've all seen it before.
- [Narrator] They remount the wheels
then knock the car back down to its tires.
[suspenseful upbeat music]
[hammer pounding]
[metal clanking]
It's time to get fuel-ish
and see if this monster wants to play.
- Kerosene for the engine.
- [Narrator] Before lighting the monster fuse,
Jesse gives the neighbors a taste of what's to come.
[rockets screeching]
[Jesse laughing]
[rocket roaring]
[expl*si*n sound effect]
[metal clanking]
[fast rock music]
- Even though it's, like, all this high tech stuff
and it's gonna go really, really fast and all that,
it still looks like it was made in Monster Garage.
You know, there's a little.
- [Ben] That's the beauty of it.
- There's a little bit of hurry-upedness to it.
- [Narrator] It's 10 o'clock,
only two hours before their plug gets pulled.
- Okay, back.
- [Narrator] But they still have to make sure
their monster doesn't pull any fast ones.
- We're gonna take the forklift
and we're gonna tie this monster chain of ours to it
and then we're gonna tie it to the back end of our car
just to make sure it doesn't try to take off on us.
- This is the monster.
- [Narrator] Dr. James likes his latest Frankenstein.
- I like it, it's like Spartacus.
Muy caliente.
- [Narrator] But this is his most dangerous creation yet.
Garage safety man Brian Lynn puts on a fire suit
in case the test turns into a Jesse roast.
Jet car vet Jerry gets first dibs on firing it up.
[engine revving]
[engine revving]
[group cheering]
[Jesse laughing]
[engine humming]
[ominous music]
There's smoke, but no fire.
Something's seriously wrong.
With the clock running out of ticks,
these guys are about to go down in flames.
- Okay. We're not flowing any fuel through this
and there's a possibility that, that,
that the check valve in here is dirty.
- [Ralph] It's the check valve in there.
[ominous music]
[metal tools clinking]
- The afterburner is not lighting.
- Can I get in?
- [Narrator] Jesse jumps in.
- Right here.
- [Narrator] Cuts it out and takes it to his work bench
for some heli-arc resuscitation.
- Can that, does it gotta go down as flush?
Well this is the afterburner.
This is actually it.
Kerosene comes through this tube and squirts out there
and it squirts into the engine and ignites.
- [Narrator] Then Jerry drills out a larger opening
for the fuel to flow through the afterburner.
Jesse welds the afterburner back in.
Hopefully their scheduled departure will become a reality.
- Hang on, the fight's gonna be delayed 15 minutes.
[Jesse laughing]
[group laughing]
Is this how they pick them on
generalized economical airline?
[fast rock music]
[scrap piece clanking]
- [Narrator] They're good to go.
The tension builds as they wait for the blow.
[engine revving]
[engine revving]
[fire roaring]
[fire roaring]
[fire roaring]
The jet engine roars to life.
The team celebrates with a dual turbo turkey roast.
[fire roaring]
[fire roaring]
[fire roaring]
[fire blasting and roaring]
[fire blasting and roaring]
[fire blasting and roaring]
[fire blasting and roaring]
The turkeys might be rare,
but this successful team is well done.
[group clapping and cheering]
- Come on in.
I wanna drive.
- [Narrator] And that means it's tool time
in the Monster Garage.
- All right, you guys want some tools?
- That's what it's all about.
[group chattering and laughing]
- Mom, dad, Colonel Fielding.
[glass breaking sound effect]
[fast rock music]
- Good job, guys.
"Monster Garage" CDs.
[hand slapping metal]
Mac tools.
Right on, thank you.
[group clapping and cheering]
Good job!
- [Narrator] Mike Lavallee of k*ller Paint is on board
to provide his one of a kind flame job.
- I wanted this car to look like
it was coming in on reentry.
So it's gotta be white hot in the front.
The fire's not as detailed here as it is, say, on the side.
I also wanted to put a evil looking skull in the fire.
And then, basically, I just wanted to keep a shape
to make the car look like it was going fast.
So I swooped it up and back
and kind of broke the fire off
as it was trailing off towards the back.
I've actually painted the back end of the car
two shades of purple to make it look like
the metal was heated up and,
and actually turned that blue shade
that metal does when it gets really hot.
[fast rock music]
- [Narrator] Build Cost Tally.
[cash register ringing]
Hard cash. [cash register ringing]
Freebie value. [cash register ringing]
Vehicle cost. [cash register ringing]
Grand total.
[liquid gurgling]
[fast rock music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
[upbeat rock music]
- [Big Schwag] Hello Monster fans.
Big Schwag here.
What's shaking?
I'll tell you what's shaking, the ground.
That's right,
'cause we're shutting down the Rialto Airport
to fire up another Monster Garage Challenge.
The monster is the "Hellica".
[fire roaring]
[monster screaming]
A 2003 Celica transformed into a 6,000 horsepower jet car.
And the man, Jesse James is ready to strap it on
and light the candle.
For this challenge the build crew turns pit crew.
They're doing a final safety check,
topping off the tank with a premium blend
of diesel fuel and kerosene,
plus packing the parachute.
Jesse's heading out to inspect his runway raceway.
If the "Hellica" hits a pebble going 200 miles an hour,
his jet car could catch air
and then it's hasta la vista, baby,
for the master fabricator.
- If I'm a little bit scared,
then I know it's gonna be good.
You know, I've never ridden in a jet car
and felt that much power before, so.
That doesn't look like too much space.
I'm gonna have to go for it to get up to 200.
I'm gonna have to launch it.
There's not gonna be no, you know,
picking up speed gradually.
It's gonna have to hero or zero it.
- [Big Schwag] Jesse dons his old-school flame suit.
- Looks like I'm gonna run the Iditarod with these shoes on.
- [Big Schwag] And gets a final crash course from Jerry.
- You'll get a feel for how hard it kicks the car
each time you light it.
- Okay. - To hit your finish line,
grab that group of levers and pull them all back.
- Okay, Jesse.
- Let's go.
- [Big Schwag] What's going through
the jet car virgin's mind?
- I was up in New England watching a race,
Jet Car National, which you know,
ironically someone got k*lled at that race, that race.
That's what that's, like running in my mind.
Running in my mind.
Running, running, mind, mind, mind.
Never want any coulda, shoulda, or wouldas in my life.
That's it.
So I know it's gonna be all right 'cause I got my mask on.
This is like my woobie.
[fast rock music]
- [Big Schwag] Whatever happens,
we don't wanna toast the host.
[fast rock music]
♪ Now the engine's going
♪ Now the engine's going
[fast rock music]
[engine revving]
♪ The engine's gone
[engine revving]
- [Big Schwag] Three, two, one, and he's off.
[fast rock music]
[engine roaring]
He's clocked in at 125.
Not bad for the first run.
Wait, wait, wait a minute.
You gotta be kidding me.
Oh my God, the "Hellica" is on fire.
It's Monster Mayhem on the runway.
Get the crew out there.
Where's the fire truck?
Get that man a fire extinguisher.
My job is going up in flames.
All right ladies and gentlemen, he's okay.
But what about the "Hellica"?
[crew and firemen yelling]
- Looks like it got a little hot back there.
I'm bummed.
Now it's busted.
I felt the chutes kick in.
I go, "I'm gonna look back, make sure they're all right,"
and all I seen is fire.
[fire crackling]
Whose idea was this anyways?
[Jesse laughing]
Yeah, Monster Garage, man.
We made that.
- [Big Schwag] From pit crew back to build crew,
they find the problem and get to work.
- There's something in here that
stopped the valve from moving.
- Oh, what is it?
- Dwelling wire.
- Remember I asked you
when we were drilling that hose,
I go, "Is it cool to get all these shavings up here?"
"Oh yeah, no problem, it'll, it'll, ah."
- [Jerry] This right here -
- All that stuff will blow outta there, blew out.
- [Jerry] Yeah, it blew out.
- Yeah, but it also blew fuel out with it, but.
Stupid "Monster Garage", it's trying to k*ll me.
- [Big Schwag] Jesse is going for a second run.
Is he crazy or just brave?
I don't know folks.
He cuts away the safety net
so he can get the hell out of the "Hellica".
- I couldn't get out last time
because I couldn't reach the thing.
- [Jerry] Are you ready to go Jess?
- Let's go play.
[engine revving]
[engine roaring]
- [Big Schwag] You have got to be kidding me.
Now, that's not 200, but it's damn close.
- Woo hoo hoo hoo!
[fast rock music]
- Went through the top end pretty good.
- [Ralph] I didn't think we were gonna stop, though.
- Jet car, check.
[bell chiming]
[Jesse laughing]
Do that in five days.
- [Big Schwag] Jesse's got no time
for flames that don't stop.
Speed traps and cops or getting barbecued alive.
- I got sh*t to do.
- [Big Schwag] He's got Celica's to burn, sparks to fly.
The next "Monster Garage" challenge
is just around the bend.
[fast rock music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster
[tech music flourish]
[tech music flourish]
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03x16 - Hellica Jet Car
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A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise was assembled to modify a vehicle into a "monster machine."
A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise was assembled to modify a vehicle into a "monster machine."