So Tory, here's the procedure,
you see that button right there on the dash?
That arms your nitrous system, you arm that,
-and when you're full throttle. -Yup.
That's when you hit the nitrous button
and pull the baling wire
and then keep your foot on the floor,
wide open throttle is very important.
-And we got to hit 16 seconds. -For 16 seconds.
We are trying to recreate that one part
in the myth to see could that actually happen?
-Right. -If you ever feel uncomfortable, at all.
-Power through it. -No.
-Accelerate out? -Let off.
-All right. -It's...
-Safety is key. -Yeah.
All right. You guys ready?
-Are you ready? -Oh, totally.
-Okay. -Let's do this.
[engine starts]
[upbeat music playing]
-Yeah! -Yeah!
[narrator] Meet the team.
Yeah. Woo-hoo!
There's a potential that I could get electrocuted.
[explosion]
[narrator] With the mechanical expertise.
More oxygen, more fuel, that makes more power.
[narrator] To test all things automotive.
[Bisi] It's almost like surgery,
if I make a mistake, we'll blow up the engine.
[narrator] This is Motor Mythbusters.
This is our time!
[narrator] Where science meets the streets.
[upbeat music playing]
[engine revving]
[Tory] Dude, this car is sick.
[Bisi laughs] Thank you.
[Tory] Did you build this?
-[Bisi] Yes. -[Tory] Is this one of your...
[Bisi] It's one of our 935s that we put together,
a lot fun, 900 horsepower, runs on ethanol.
[Faye] So shiny.
So Bisi, you brought this car in
-for a reason I'm guessing. -I did, I did.
-I love... -Not just to show it off?
Not to show off. I love turbocharging,
it's a great way to make lots of power,
it's a great way to go fast, also use modern electronics
to control my boost, however there's this movie
that's always bothering me. Fast and Furious.
I love The Fast and The Furiousmovies.
[Bisi] Okay. The eighth installment.
-Big Vin Diesel fan. -[Bisi] Yeah.
Vin Diesel's character, Dom went to Cuba
and to win this race, he did more boost
and to do that, he took this soda can tab
and a baling wire, connected to the vacuum line
that leads from the turbo to the wastegate,
-you find this interesting. -Mmm-hmm.
Pulls it, it increases boost like crazy.
And mayhem happens.
I got to see this movie soon.
[narrator] There's no high tech electronics
in this automotive movie myth.
Can he win a Cuban drag race
unleashing insane amounts of boost
from a turbo charged engine?
Look at the size of that turbo.
-It's massive. -It's huge.
A turbo that's bigger than my freaking head.
[narrator] with just a length of wire and a soda can tab.
-[Bisi] Look at that. -[Tory] Oh, he just pulled it.
[narrator] Would this budget friendly,
low tech technique,
ever work in the real world?
All right. What exactly do we need to do
to test this crazy-ass poor man's turbo?
Well due to the Cuban embargo,
they were not able to get any new parts.
So I feel like we've got to stay true
to the spirit of the myth, keep the car
as true to the myth as possible.
And look how big that turbo was,
I mean, we're gonna have to find something
quite similar, like, uh, from a boat I guess.
Oh, that would be cool because it would be
just like the one in the movie,
plus that's kind of like the brilliant ingenuity
-that the Cubans would use. -Absolutely.
Yeah. Totally, and they also had a nitrous system.
Think about what nitrous does,
I mean, it's like a chemical supercharger,
it puts a lot of oxygen into the mix,
allows the engine to become extremely efficient and fast
but they also use a very cost-effective way
of increasing boost by using a baling wire and a cola tab.
And pulling the reference line to the wastegate,
that was bananas or at least that's what the movie says.
And that's what we're gonna test,
we're gonna pull the line
just like Dom did in the movie,
and we should get the boost to maintain for 16 seconds.
-Wow. That's a long time. -It's a really long time.
There's no way it's gonna last that long.
But you know what, when you pull this baling wire,
very strange things happen in the turbo system.
Boost increase and then decreases,
and I'm curious to what will happen in the field.
-Me too. -Do you guys think it's gonna catch on fire?
-[Bisi] Oh. That's not good. -[Tory] Oh, now it's on fire.
In order to replicate the car just like it was in the movie,
with that massive turbo, we're gonna have to make sure
we got enough air, we get enough fuel,
supporting modifications,
fabricating all that charge piping,
adding the nitrous system,
like, this is gonna be a huge project.
I have a vehicle in mind that may suit the bill.
-[Faye] What you got? -How about a Monte Carlo?
-Oh. -Oh, perfect.
You can find those everywhere.
-Yeah. -Love it.
[upbeat music playing]
[engine starting]
Ah, stop it.
Okay. So now I have found this beauty of a car.
A 1973 Monte Carlo.
There's nothing beautiful about this car.
It's absolutely ugly
but it does a great job
in fulfilling what we need for this myth.
Now it has a 350 which is great,
the engine bay has tons of room
so we can do lots of modifications,
but how will it handle the rigors of racing?
[upbeat music playing]
[Bisi] Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Oh, I think it's dying.
Oh, come on.
Yeah, it just cut off. [laughs]
[upbeat music playing]
I'm gonna try and roll as far as I can,
I'mma keep going, and keep rolling,
keep rolling.
[laughs]
Okay.
Hopefully something simple. [laughs]
That is a beast.
Okay.
Tell me you didn't pay for this?
Well, actually I did. I'm quite proud of my find.
-My God. I could hear you like a block away. -[Faye] Yeah, I could
-smell you a block away. -[Bisi] And that was the intent.
-No, I... -Woo.
-It's burning ranch. -Woo. [laughs]
[Bisi] I know she doesn't look that great
but look under the bonnet.
Under the bonnet you say?
Yes.
-Whoa. -Look at all that space.
-[Faye] Well, definitely... -[Tory] Giant.
[Faye] ...a little bit more space
that I'm used to working with.
-That is a... -I could raise a small family in here.
[Bisi] Look at this engine, this 350 is perfect.
[Faye] How does it run?
[Bisi] It runs actually quite nice and sometimes,
-it stops on its own. -I don't believe you.
I don't believe you. I don't believe you.
[Bisi] It's like autopilot, you know.
-[Tory] Yeah, right. -[Faye] Great. All right.
So what do you guys think, do you think
this is a good candidate
for what we're trying to achieve?
I'm not saying if it's gonna work,
I'm saying could we actually build it
the way they did in the movie?
Uh, yeah. We can build it the way
-that they did in the movie. -I think we build...
But, uh, getting it to last that 16 seconds.
-Yeah. -It's a whole another story.
[upbeat music playing]
[Tory] The movie car we need to replicate
is first stripped of any unessential components.
Power to weight ratio is everything
in a Cuban drag race,
well any race for that matter.
-Absolutely. -So this is gonna go,
-this is gonna go. -We're just gonna do it
Vin Diesel style.
In the movie, he just starts tearing it apart.
Well that's weight reduction at its finest.
-[laughter] -Oh, my God.
All right. Well, I'm no Vin Diesel
so I'm gonna have to get some tools.
Before we start, let's figure out
what we wanna take off.
-Fenders for sure. -Yup.
[Faye] Oh, my God, what?
-All right. Watch yourself. -[Bisi] Oh, my God.
[Faye] All right.
Tory's gonna take off that one his way.
Oh, my God.
-Uh, hood. -Hood.
[Tory] Come on, we're Vin Diesel, let's go.
I'm not used this way of treating things, you guys.
This is actually kind of hurting my heart
a little bit to be honest.
Who needs tools?
[Faye] Me.
I see this as like this gorgeous blank slate,
like, this has the potential to be fully restored
and turn this thing beautiful.
[Tory] Yeah.
While everyone else is working,
Vin Diesel's character, Dom,
pulled out the battery on the car.
The battery is what allows me to start the car,
and also it keeps the vehicle running
by providing 12 volts but it needs that motion
to be able to create electricity.
So I'm gonna start the vehicle up
and take the battery off.
You ready for me to start the car?
Yes, please.
[Tory] Come on baby, you could do it.
A little gas. A little gas for me.
[Tory] Yeah.
So this car shows Bisi.
-[Bisi] I know. -[Tory laughs]
-Woo. -Sorry.
-[Faye] Yeah. -That was good.
[Tory] That was rad.
Maybe we should put a blower on this.
[Bisi laughs]
[engine revving]
[Bisi] Now I'm gonna take off the battery,
look it's running, here's the battery.
[Faye] Okay. So that was a fun demo
but unlike the movie, we plan on using a battery
for the field test.
[Tory] This is magic.
[Faye] But we still wanna strip it down like Dom did
to achieve a better power to weight ratio.
-That was awesome. -[laughs]
Are we cool with taking the doors off?
-Oh, absolutely. -For sure.
Okay.
-[Faye] What the? -That's a fire.
-[Faye] Woo! -[Bisi laughs]
Carry on, don't mind us.
[upbeat music playing]
It's like the 4th of July.
[Faye screams]
Oh, that was awesome! [laughs]
[Tory] Yeah.
Building stuff.
[clanks]
American made.
-Look... -Look at this, it looks cool.
-It looks badass already. -For real.
Fast and the Furious got nothing on us.
[upbeat music playing]
-[Tory] Oh, wow. -[Faye] Look, we got an engine
-over there. -[Tory] This is awesome.
[Faye] Whoa.
All right. So this is not the junkyard
like I was picturing in my mind,
like, you know, an automotive junkyard.
-Here's a little engine. -[Tory] Yeah.
-Oh, that's cute. -[Faye] Oh, it is cute.
That's not turbocharged though.
[Tory] No. You wanna check this one?
-You mean like go inside? -[Tory] Yeah. [chuckles]
-Wow, look at this. -[Faye] Whoa, look at the size
-of that turbo... -[Tory] That is huge.
...that's exactly like what we're looking for.
-You got a wrench? -[Faye] Wait, what?
-Are you serious? -No. I'm kidding.
We should get off this boat before we get caught.
[Faye] Why a boat yard?
Well in Cuba, they couldn't get new parts
so they'd use whatever they could find
and it's assumed that in the movie,
they used a turbo from a boat engine.
So that is why we're here.
[Tory] Makes me kind of wanna go sailing.
[Faye] You know, I lived at a boat once.
-[Tory] Yeah? -And I realized
-I got incredibly seasick. -Um...
Look down there.
-There we go, bingo. -Got a whole bunch of engines
-there against the wall. -Bingo, we got engines.
-All right. -And not a bunch of sailboats over here.
-Yeah. That's not gonna work. -Yeah.
[Tory] Oh, Faye, I think we found our candidate.
-That looks perfect. -I mean...
-I mean, it's big enough. -Let's see.
Uh, I mean, yeah. It's, like, it's about the right size.
-Yup, it's spinning. -[Faye] Oh, nice.
-There's no corrosion. -It's the perfect candidate, really.
-Yeah. -[Faye] It might need
some cleaning up but it matches the movie
for size, for look, and for Cuban resourcefulness
of using whatever spare parts they could get their hands on.
[upbeat music playing]
-[Bisi] No. -Look how big it is.
-It's gonna... -Now that's a proper turbo.
Why don't you guys work on this, I'm gonna go...
-Wow. -...source some nitrous oxide.
-Good luck, you guys. -All right.
[Bisi] Oh, this is gonna look so badass when we're done.
-I'm really excited about this. -It looks so good.
-Cool. -I'll take this beautiful.
I'll start on this exhaust manifold.
[Bisi laughs]
[Faye] Okay. So we have to install the essential
components to support that massive turbo.
After that we add the nitrous,
that'll give us a healthy boost of horsepower.
So when we pull that line, we know that we're running
the engine at its maximum capacity
just like they did in the movie.
All right. So one of my biggest concerns
is that we're gonna be breaking off every single one
of these exhaust studs because this is the hottest part
of the engine right here and these bolts have seen
some epic heat cycling.
[Bisi] So this is a factory carburetor
but we're now gonna take this off.
Oh, look at that. Replace it with a four valve
carburetor that will feed this boat-size turbo
an appropriate amount of fuel.
[Faye] Huh?
[Bisi] I like... I like that sound.
-I like it a lot. -Three for three.
Three for three, baby.
All right. So I think I just finally got
the last bolt off of my exhaust manifold
and the reason why I've got to get this off
is because we've got to put a different exhaust manifold on
in order to accommodate our new turbo.
That's so close. It's so close.
Oh, my God. It just wants to come.
[Bisi] Yay, look at that. The trophy.
[Faye] This is the passenger side exhaust manifold.
And what I was struggling with here is actually
one of the ports for a very primitive emission system,
it's air injection basically into the exhaust.
If I get an air leak a little bit,
too much air in the exhaust, we could think
that the vehicle's running very lean and that could,
of course, give us false readings.
We don't want that, this is science.
Almost. Almost.
[Faye] It's such a little puzzle.
-[Bisi] Oh, yay. Yeah. -[Faye] Oh. Woo!
[Bisi] So we just took off both manifolds
on bank one and two, took off the carburetor,
we don't need air conditioning,
now it's time for the hard work.
Yeah, then we can start fabing.
You will just rip it? Oh, yes.
Oh, man, that thing's kind of heavy.
Imagine the weight we're saving with that.
[upbeat music playing]
-It's crazy. -[Bisi laughs]
-Oh, my God. I'm so stoked. -Can you believe it?
-Gorgeous, right? -[Faye] It's gonna be a shame to blow it up.
You... It's not gonna... They don't blow up.
-[Faye] Mmm-hmm. -[Bisi] The fuel pump,
exhaust manifold, or should I say
-turbo manifold? -Turbo manifolds.
We have everything, daily logging equipment.
-Oh. -Look at that...
Look at the size of that exhaust pipe.
-[Faye] Look at it. -[Bisi] It's like a sewer,
it's crazy. Oh, that sounded pretty good.
So we have two options here with the manifold.
You can put it as factory which means...
-[Faye] Mmm-hmm. -...that we have it this way
or we can have it above and they have to join together
-to go to turbo flange. -I was thinking it'll have
a lot of air flow over it and kind of keep it from,
you know, burning up our butts.
And that means we can position the turbo
just like they had it in the movie,
it's gonna look so freaking cool and keep it cooler.
Does everyone have this much fun at work or is it just me?
So the part you have is very critical
because now it can give us an idea
of where we can place the turbo.
[Faye] Exactly.
So the aftermarket headers are in place,
and now we need to fabricate from scratch
a heap of tubing and flanges.
[upbeat music playing]
[Faye] To get a head start, we roped in our lead builder,
Rose, and her team. While Bisi and I
do a little turbo 101.
[upbeat music playing]
[machine whirring]
[Bisi] In the early 1900, Dr. Alfred Buchi came up
with this wonderful concept, the turbocharger allow
the opportunity for more efficient
internal combustion engine because he felt that
internal combustion engines with atmospheric pressure
weren't efficient enough.
How does this power come to be?
[Faye] So, it actually is using,
what I like to think of, as waste exhaust.
-[Bisi] Absolutely. -[Faye] It's exiting the engine anyway.
[engine revving]
[Faye] Why not harness that energy and use it
to drive the air going into the intake.
We have the opportunity to use exhaust gas
to turn a turbine wheel which is directly cogged
to a compressor wheel, which then turn,
creates pressure in the intake.
[Faye] So we're able to make the air more dense,
so we're getting more oxygen molecules
into our engine more oxygen.
-[Bisi] Yes. -[Faye] You can add to more fuel.
-Absolutely. -And that makes more power.
[upbeat music playing]
[Faye] But you only reap the rewards
of that recycled waste after you constructed
from scratch a pressure sealed system
with hundreds of sections of tubing.
[Bisi] Perfect.
So this is where we're gonna end up,
-you're good with that? Okay. -Oh...
-That's great. -...my God.
-That's awesome. -[Faye] Each picon elbow
precisely designed to combine the flow of exhaust gasses
from each of the manifolds back to the turbo.
So this carburetor is extremely important
because it allows us to give the appropriate amount of fuel
for the amount of air that's not gonna be ingested by the engine.
If Faye and I were silly enough
to keep the original carburetor on the car,
and try and force and induce with that,
we will experience the lean mixture,
and that result in an engine catastrophic event.
In other words, we'll blow up the engine.
Yeah. I'll try and actuate that.
-Bring up the throttle. -[Bisi] Oh.
-Oh. -[Faye] Really?
She's showing off now. Look at that.
Oh, yes.
Nice.
Isn't that beauty? It's so beautiful.
It's absolutely gorgeous. How awesome is that?
So, on top here, we have created
this wonderful pipe that's gonna allow us
to put force induced air from our turbo into the engine.
And these small little four holes here are venturis,
the more air we push through, the more fuel siphoned out,
and create amazing reliable power force.
[upbeat music playing]
[Faye] We're so close.
[upbeat music playing]
[Faye] We've sourced what we need, a boat turbo,
we've installed the manifolds,
the carburetor, and the fuel pump.
Bisi will pressure test the charged piping
and as soon as Tory gets back with the nitrous,
we hook that up, calibrate the sensors,
tune it up, and fire it up.
Now, I'm about to perform a very critical test
when putting together a turbocharger system,
and that is checking for leaks.
So, this is a smoke leak tester,
which what it does it pressurizes an environment
inside this contraption,
heats up coils with a nice viscous fluid inside
to create smoke, and that will go into our turbo.
If we have any leaks, guess what?
We have a ton of inefficiencies.
Oh, I see some smoke right here.
So we're getting some smoke in-between the compressor
housing and the back plate, so we need to fix that.
Yeah. Yeah, I see it right there.
Uh, I love turbocharging.
I think this meant because it...
It's true and dear to my heart,
taking something that is unloved and creating
something absolutely spectacular from it,
I mean, this was on a piece of paper a few weeks ago
and now it's come to life, it's so exciting.
Okay. I fueled up the compressor housing,
tightened up the hot side very nicely
as it joins to the intercooler,
and now look, we have no leaks,
everything is active.
[upbeat music playing]
All right, so, I went and got some nitrous
from the performance shop.
Oh, that works, that'll work indeed.
How much horsepower is this gonna give us?
You know, I'm thinking about a 50 shot,
and when I mean 50 shot, 50 horsepower.
So how is it gonna be connected in?
Well, we have this, distribution block right here,
that goes right into the intake,
and one port has fuel and the other port has nitrous.
So we're gonna take that bottom mount in the rear,
and you activate it and hits a button
is gonna energize two solenoids.
So fuel and nitrous will go right in here,
go into the engine and, oh, hold on.
[laughs]
[Bisi] It's gonna be a fun ride.
Boom.
NOS or Nitrous Oxide is all about volumetric efficiency.
We have a set volume in each one of the cylinders.
We're gonna burn more fuel,
more efficiently by adding more oxygen.
The nitrogen actually releases from the oxygen molecules,
and when liquid turns into a gas,
it also cools the temperature of the cylinder.
What happens when it cools down?
More density, you can jam more molecules of air and fuel
into the cylinder at the same time.
More fuel, more air, more boom, more power,
like, freaking awesome.
Right.
With the engine built to the specs of the movie,
it's time for the myth critical maneuver,
the poor man's Turbo wire pool.
All right so, the most important part of the myth
is the tab, hi-tech equipment.
-There you go. -[Tory] And the baling wire.
[Bisi] Ow, no, I'm kidding. [laughs]
It's a old trick Buster used to use.
This is a key component in this myth,
the wastegate itself.
That controls the boost and the entire turbo system.
Which as we've seen uses exhaust gas
to increase pressure, and then
converts that into horsepower.
[engine revving]
[Bisi] But that pressure has to be controlled,
and too much, the engine could explode.
The wastegate is a control system
and when that's removed in the scene
where he pulled the baling wire,
all hell breaks loose.
[crashing sound]
[Tory] Okay. Ready for a dry run?
[Bisi] Yes. Sounds good.
All right, here we go.
Starting the engine [makes sound]
I'm flying 45 seconds into a race [makes sound].
I hit the nitrous [makes sound].
The engine's hold up now, I pull the vacuum line.
Hey, it works!
And now I am flying.
And 16 seconds later, I'm on fire,
but I'm not jumping out of this car,
I'mma finish this race because I'm Vin Diesel.
-[laughing] -Whoa.
I don't know, it looked pretty well for me.
I need a seat but other than that,
what could possibly go wrong? [laughs]
-All in the name of science. -[Bisi] Yup.
Now all we got to do is start it up.
[Bisi] It's a quite a project configuring this turbo
to work with an almost 50-year-old engine,
and our build team has really stepped up,
so I'm excited but also terrified at the same time
because anything can go wrong.
Also in the same token a lot can go right.
[Tory] I like the headlight.
It's like the Cyclops.
-[Bisi] The Cyclops? -Yeah.
[engine starts]
It started.
That's a plus.
[engine revving]
My God.
That sounds amazing.
Best sounding Money Carlo in the world.
Oh, it's beautiful.
It's beautiful.
[engine revving]
[laughs]
Oh, my God.
My heart rate just went like through the roof,
-that was insane. -[laughs]
You're stoked to ride this thing or what?
-Oh, my God. -Whoa.
I'm just smiling. My cheeks is hurting
because I'm just happy you have no idea.
Oh, my gosh. This is so awesome.
Seeing this car altogether now,
it's incredible how much work went into it.
-I know right? -[laughs]
Tomorrow we have to shake down this vehicle.
The insane power means we have some safety concerns.
[upbeat music playing]
Oh, I've been... I've been waiting to do this
since we've got this car.
[Bisi] Does this old car have the structure
and integrity to handle the horsepower?
We're going to ease in
to make sure there are no surprises
when we take it to the track for the real test.
So Tory, take it easy, okay?
It's not on my vocabulary.
[engine starts]
-[Bisi] Good luck. -[Tory] Thank you.
[laughs]
[engine revving]
[Tory] This thing is insane.
Yeah. So, when I took off,
just rolling into it slowly,
and not just mashing it, right?
So, it's just, like, feathering it in.
[engine revving]
It's perfect.
-That's good for you guys. -And that's like
without the NOS.
-Yeah. Imagine with that... -Ooh. Ugh.
-Oh, it's gonna be on. -Forget it.
[laughing]
[Tory] Oh, I got chills.
[laughs]
[Bisi] So a ton of work plus a boat turbo
and the Money Carlo looks solid.
How it's gonna handle the movie myth
race conditions on the runway?
We're about to find out.
-[upbeat music playing] -[owl hooting]
Now to test the poor man's turbo
we needed a long distance because we're gonna be going
at some crazy speeds.
So we found three miles
here at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Yeah, the landing strip is freaking perfect,
there's like plenty of like wide open terrain.
There's nothing out here
that you could possibly bump into.
[laughs] I like... I like it when she says bump into.
And with the speeds you'd be going,
oh, my goodness, safety is key.
-Yeah. -Are you ready?
-Oh, I'm so ready. -I'm not ready.
-You're not? -No.
-Don't worry... -Are you ready?
...I'll take care of you. And oh, hello, sir.
We have... We have a guest.
Hello. And what is your name, sir?
My name is Lieutenant Schuhler.
-I'm a Responsible Engineer... -[Bisi] Ah.
...for the Space Force out here,
Vandenberg Air Force Base.
I'm an irresponsible one.
-Oh, no, irresponsible one. -[laughs]
That's why we're gonna shut the wastegate
as Tory's driving down your beautiful tarmac.
So technically you're an actual Rocket Scientist?
-Yeah. So... -Wow.
-Ah. -It's rare that you meet
-like a real one. -[Bisi laughs]
What do you think of our car?
I think it's awesome.
Surprisingly not all too different
than some of the stuff we use on rocket engines.
[Bisi] Oh, do tell.
We have things called pre-burners,
and those kind of help generate some exhaust gas
that goes from turbos and then instead of pumping air,
we actually pump our liquid fuels
into the main combustion chamber.
-Wow. -So after this test,
you think maybe we should strap some rockets to this?
I think if you can make it go faster,
the better, right?
[Bisi] Oh yes. I like this guy.
-You guys ready? -Ready.
All right, let's do this before
-Faye changes her mind. -Okay.
With this metadata is key and we'll monitor
important power meters for the engine.
We're measuring the exhaust gas temperature.
You know, you saw in the movie that it glowed red hot.
We're gonna capture that data and see what happens.
We're also taking air fuel ratio which is...
-Right there. -...really important.
[Faye] Because we wanna know,
like, can the engine actually handle
exactly what we see in the movie?
And if so, what's our top speed?
[Bisi] Perfect.
And we have, uh, lovingly named
this beautiful car the, uh, the Money Carlo,
it's like, ahh, little sprinkle.
[engine revving]
So Tory here's the procedure,
you see that button right there on the dash?
That arms your nitrous system.
-You arm that then... -[Tory] Got you.
...you begin your ascent.
-Don't do that in the end. -[laughing]
[Tory] Then I'm just gonna smash it.
I'm gonna smash the accelerator.
Yes. And when you're full throttle...
That's when you hit the nitrous button.
-[Tory] Yup. -And pull the bailing wire.
And then keep your foot on the floor,
wide open throttle is very important.
[Tory] And we got to hit 16 seconds. All right.
If you ever feel uncomfortable at all.
-Power through it. -No.
Accelerate out.
-Let off. -[Tory] All right.
-It's... Safety is key. -[Tory] Yeah.
-You guys ready? -Are you ready?
-Oh, totally. -[Bisi] Okay.
Let's do this.
[Faye] Okay. So what is a successful
poor man's turbo gonna look like?
We're getting [indistinct]
[Bisi] Yup, that's it. Done.
[Faye] Well, after Tory pulls that line,
the boost pressure should rise way past through PSI
keep on going for 16 seconds until the exhaust pressure
sets things on fire,
hopefully the fire trucks are on standby, right?
Oh, my God, I'm so nervous.
-Don't be. -I'm so nervous right now.
He'll be okay, he's a good driver.
I feel like I'm gonna...
No, he's a good driver, he's good.
All right, here we go.
In three, two, one.
[engine revving]
[Faye] Oh, my God, okay, there he goes.
Okay. Gaining speed, full throttle,
I'm hitting the nitrous.
Gaining a little more power.
[Faye] He seems to be picking up speed pretty fast.
[Tory] Still picking up speed.
Hundred and fifteen miles an hour.
Woo-hoo!
[Faye] He's going so freaking fast.
[Bisi] Oh my God.
[Tory] Sitting at a hundred and fifteen miles an hour.
The engine is maxed out, this is it,
grabbing now the poor man's turbo, here we go,
I'm about to pull the line in three...
[Faye] He's freaking hauling.
[Bisi] Oh, my God, I hear that Tory screaming.
[Tory] ...two, one, bombs away.
What's happening?
It's slowing down.
Oh, now it's accelerating.
Yeah, it's going down again.
Boost.
The bombs and boost.
I'm getting boost and then it slows down.
Oh, man, I thought I was gonna be taking off like a rocket.
-[Faye] Hey. -So I hit the nitrous...
-[Faye] Yeah. -...felt a kick,
got a little more top end speed.
Keep my foot all the way down,
but when I pulled line, I just started losing power.
I would get these intervals of boost.
I'd be driving and it'll be like [makes sound]
then I'd go back to slow and it'll be like [makes sound].
[engine revving]
-[Bisi] I know what it is. -[Faye] What's that?
When the line was pulled with this boost leak,
the pressure is escaping, it's not going...
-[Faye] Absolutely. -...to the engine.
-[Faye] Yup. -[Bisi] It's coming up.
The turbo pulls even faster to compensate,
and it spikes up and then it leaks right out again.
All right, so, you know what, I feel like
we pushed this engine hard enough today,
maybe we can go back to the shop, look at the data
and see if there's anything we could do
to make this system work.
Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.
[upbeat music playing]
[Faye] We turned an old beater
into a Mad Max mean machine.
[engine revving]
[Faye] But the question is what is exactly happened
when we pulled that line.
And in science repeatable results
are crucial to confirm your hypothesis.
I've never had a car this, uh,
interesting on my dyno.
[Tory] So we brought in a dyno,
we're gonna put the car on it,
and recreate what happened
and see if the car behaves the same way.
[engine revving]
[Bisi] The key number will be tracking the pressure
generated by the turbo.
[Tory] Ready?
[Bisi] Pull the wire!
[Tory] What happened?
[laughs]
So, this was a great test.
I saw you cruising at two PSI.
[Tory] Yeah.
When you pulled the bailing wire though,
-it was oscillating badly. -[Tory] Yeah.
You jumped at 6.7 but it kept going 6.2, 6.1.
Interesting.
You didn't go faster, you went slower.
I feel like we did everything just like in the movie.
We found that badass car.
[Faye] Oh, the perfect car and you got a massive
boat turbo which is like perfect just like the movies.
And we lightened the vehicle up, just like Dom did,
you even ripped off the fender.
Yup. We put in the nitrous system,
we got it out to the track,
I've floored it, hit the nitrous,
but when I pulled that backing line
we did not get any crazy boost,
in fact it did the opposite and it just fizzled out.
I feel like we gave this car the best possible chance
of working and it didn't.
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] But if you think the team is giving up?
You must be new around here.
Cue the ingenious MythBuster method
to ensure movie magic is made a reality.
[Bisi] Okay. So, we've tried
what happened in the movie and I thought about it,
what would it take to be able to have
some type of success with components
that would be available in Cuba at the time,
it hit me, a rat trap,
using a rat trap to control boost.
When Tory pulls his bailing wire,
look at that, a proper pinch.
Now, there's no boosting, no going to the wastegate,
and they cannot vent to the atmosphere,
it gives us a perfect sealing opportunity.
Now that's done, let's see what happens at the track.
[upbeat music playing]
[Tory] This is it.
We found another airstrip to do our final test.
This is my favorite part, after busting a myth,
coming back and seeing what it would take
-to actually get it to work. -What did you do?
Well, in the spirit of Cuba,
-I used something very clever. -What?
A rat trap to pinch off the signal to the wastegate.
-[Tory] Genius. -[Bisi] Thank you.
[Bisi] So Tory, get ready, it's gonna be a wild ride.
[upbeat music playing]
What could possibly go wrong?
With a support team like us, you can't fail.
[Tory laughs]
[Faye] Nitrous, good to go.
[Tory] Okay.
I'm leaving you now. Have fun.
-[Tory] Thank you. -Oh, my God,
-this is gonna be amazing. -[Tory] I'll see you
at the end of the track.
All right, starting the engine.
[engine starts]
[Tory] This is poor man's turbo final test.
In three, two, one.
All right, I have the accelerator pinned.
-Oh. There he goes. -Oh my God.
[Tory] A hundred miles an hour.
Hitting the nitrous.
[screams]
Oh, he must hit the nitrous look at that.
Pulling the rat trap, in three, two, one.
Oh, my God!
-Oh, it's smoking. -Oh.
[Tory] Poor man's turbo, what?
[Bisi] He did it.
-Please don't catch on fire. -Oh, he's fine.
[Tory laughing]
I got it to a hundred and thirty.
Can you believe that?
-Oh, Tory. -Hey!
-[Bisi] You were flying. -[Faye] How did it go?
[Bisi] Oh, my goodness.
This thing is crazy,
like, I hammered down, hit the nitrous.
-Oh, how did it feel? -It was like, waaa.
[Tory laughing]
And then, as soon as I hit the rat trap
it was like, boom, you felt the boost.
[Bisi] Nice.
[Tory laughing] Oh, my God!
That was the ultimate finale to this whole myth.
[Tory] Poor man's turbo, what?
[Bisi] Look at that.
So you start off at almost three PSI, 2.8 to be exact.
-[Faye] Yup. -[Bisi] Look what happened
when the rat trap just shut, boost spiked up.
-[Tory] Awesome. -[Bisi] And hit the sevens,
-and it stays at that time. -[Faye] Seven PSI.
That is respectable with that sized turbo.
Who knew we just needed a rat trap?
-[Bisi] Wow. -[Faye] I know,
ugh, if only they had done that in the movie.
[Tory] Oh, my God!
It's not exactly what happened in the movie,
that's what happened in real life,
and should've been what Dom did in Cuba.
[Tory] All right, so this one's still busted.
-[Bisi] Yes. -[Tory] But we were able
-to replicate the result. -[Bisi] Absolutely.
[Faye] In a Cuban spirit exactly.
-Nice work you guys. -[Bisi] Thank you.
So it was not so fake after all.
-Eh, ish. -[laughter]
[upbeat music playing]