Ryan McQueen, 49, from Sherwood Park, tested out his twin jet powered car, Insanity, on Thursday, June 20, at the Tofield Airport. McQueen, which is his actual surname, drives a garbage truck from Edmonton to Ryley, but also spends his time working on his hobby-turned-business.
“It’s a 17-year project. I started not knowing anything, just as a fan, and when I began building it, I had to Google and YouTube everything, really a learn as you go sort of thing.
That’s why it took so long, that, and money,” McQueen said.
McQueen brought his car out to the Tofield Airport, as a safe and spacious place to test out his car. He informed the Town of Tofield of what he’d be up to, who notified local emergency services, so they would have a heads up in case any 911 calls were made regarding the massive amount of smoke that would appear as a result of firing up the jet powered car.
“Even when we are able to directly notify them, they often show up just because of the amount of calls that come in. The police, fire, and ambulances that did end up arriving were all really awesome. We notified the town and they sent out notifications, but they just didn’t read them in time. Everyone ended up wanting photos with the car, and we’re pretty used to that by now,” McQueen said.
This year McQueen and his crew have 10 shows booked in Alberta, and will be joining the air show circuit next year.
“It’s a business now. It started off as something fun to do, and now we’re booked up; we’ve got 10 events this year, mostly close to home. Next year, we’re going to be hitting the air show circuit, which will be all over North America,” he said.
McQueen was about 19 years old when he saw a jet powered vehicle for the first time, at an air show in Edmonton.
“Les Shockley initially piqued my interest. I ended up meeting him years down the road and he helped teach me everything I needed to know. I ended up crewing with him, and then he sadly passed away, but my friend bought his truck. So years later, I went for a ride in the truck that started it all for me. Fast forward a few more years, and that truck and I were in the staging lanes together in Edmonton, which was quite a treat,” McQueen said.
For McQueen, the uniqueness of the jet powered cars is what he loves about them.
“These are one-off cars. They’re always built unique. Very few people have them. They’re basically for entertainment purposes only, we don’t race to win or anything like that. We get hired to put on shows, and we usually headline them. We’ll be up at the ending of a drag race or an air show, where we end up racing a plane,” he said.
A lot of safety procedures and protective wear is used when testing and riding the car.
“We have an extensive check sheet we go over before each run, to make sure everything’s good. The chassis has to be certified through NHRA, the National Hot Rod Association. We have to wear these fire suits. In this, I could be in a fire for 40 seconds, and if longer than that, potentially just have second degree burns. And of course, we have the helmet, gloves, ear protection, and everything else that goes along with it. We don’t even test without this equipment on,” he said.
Kari Janzen
Staff Reporter
