The legendary George Barris wasn’t just the so-called King of Kustomizers. He was a master showman.
The case-in-point is the so-called Turbo-Sonic dragster now listed for sale on eBay. It’s one of the craziest and over-hyped vehicles to roll out of Barris Kustom City. This three-wheeled turbine-powered beast looked more like a jet and less like dragster. It was touted for achieving a top speed of 300 miles per hour in the quarter mile. Turn the hype-dial to 11.
Turbo-Sonic was built by George Barris and Dick Dean between the years of 1958 and 1964. It was powered by a Turbonique S-28 micro turbine engine, claimed to produce, ahem, 1,000 horsepower. Back in the day, Turbonique (formerly of Orlando, Fla.) marketed the S-28 micro turbine for a mere $199. This represented a lot of bang for the buck—perhaps in an unfortunate way. Turbonique turbines were notoriously ill-mannered and had a nasty habit of exploding. The NHRA banned their use in 1967.
Legend has it that the Turbo-Sonic made just one ill-fated appearance at the drag strip.
“It seems no one took the time to read the manual and the combustion chamber was not drained of fuel after its first run-up. On second ignition, the fuel pooled in the chamber exploded and the Turbo-Sonic moved no more. I have talked to Barris about it several times and he has always claimed the car did 180 miles per hour, but I put that down to showmanship on his part.
“The late Dick Dean, who actually did the build and whose name is still visible on the original paint, told me that the car never moved an inch that day and scared them so thoroughly that no one tried it again.”
– David Grainger, Canwest News Service
Turbo-Sonic was purchased by David Grainger in the mid-1990s and was restored in 2013 at his shop, The Guild of Automotive Restorers in Bradford, Ontario, Canada. The restoration was featured on Discovery’s Restoration Garage—season one, episodes one and nine. The car was subsequently sold at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2016 auction. A micro-turbine is currently in Turbo-Sonic’s engine bay, although it is not the original and has not been fired up.
Barriss’s customs have graced countless magazine covers, television shows, and motion pictures. Turbo-Sonic was reportedly featured in the movie “Tom Jones Garage A Go-Go,” which starred three-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan. Alas, we could not find any mention of the movie on IMDB, NetFlix, or Hulu. Yet another hot rod flick that has faded into obscurity.
While Turbo-Sonic will probably never see turbine-fueled action again, it clearly has historic significance and belongs in a collection, rather than on a dragstrip. With a pseudo-aerodynamic design that’s purely flight of fancy, there’s little that would have held the three-wheeler on the ground had it achieved anywhere near its target speed.
Turbo-Sonic is offered by MotoExotica of St. Louis, Mo., a specialist in out-of-the ordinary vehicles. MotoExotica began selling on eBay in 1998 and has been in the classic car business since 1986. Notably, it currently has three other Barris cars in its collection.
