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Technically, what [Macona] built with a surplus Solar T-62 turbine is not a dune buggy, but a sand rail, but it does have the delightfully rare combination of electric and turbine drive that is absolutely worth wading through a 53-page forum thread to learn about.

The turbine came bare as surplus, but [Marcona] used a pair of Kia/Hyundai HSG water-cooled motor-generators to turn it back into something very much like the APU it likely started out as. That’s APU as in “Auxiliary Power Unit” in this context, the little generator that keeps the lights on when your plane is sitting on the tarmac. That went into the sort of frame you’d once have put a VW bug engine in — and the 150 HP off the shaft of the turbine beats anything you’ll get with Wolfsburg’s little boxer motor, even after losses in the generator and motors.…