This Jet-Powered Kei Truck Has Fired Its Way Into My Heart

The bed may be no use, but this might be the ideal pickup truck. Screenshot: Live & Learn via YouTube

If money was no object, what would be the first car you bought? Would you opt for a slick new Aston Martin DB12, or perhaps a lovely electric vehicle from a company like Lucid? What about sacking off all those niceties and driving around in a jet-powered kei truck instead?

The Scion xB Was the Closest We’ve Come to Having Kei Cars in America

That’s exactly the kind of creation that is being assembled over in the magical world of Instagram. Over there, Nick Clark has been teasing his assembly of an old kei truck powered by the jet engine from a Aero L-29 Delfín, a training aircraft that was once popular in Eastern Europe.

In a series of posts, Clark shared details about the jet engine and its installation into the kei truck, which took its power output from around 60 horsepower up to more than 2,700 hp.

Jet Engine Kei Truck

For anyone looking for pointers on how to build their own jet-powered truck, Clark documented the build on his YouTube channel, Live & Learn. In the video, which you can watch above, you can see how he assembled a custom rig to hold the engine inside the truck’s six-foot bed.

Clark also outlined the challenges he faced installing controls for the jet inside the cab of the kei truck, and showed just how loud the truck is when the engine gets fired up for the first time.

It’s a fun little watch if you’ve got a spare half an hour this morning and shows just how resourceful we might have to be when we’re all foraging for spare parts in the coming apocalypse.

Thankfully, Clark has experience installing jet engines in places they shouldn’t be, and this powerful kei truck is actually his second jet-powered build. Last year, Clark built a pontoon boat with a J34 turbojet engine strapped to the back. Nick Clark seems like a fun friend to have.