Here’s a crazy, jet powered rubber bumpered C3. If you think you’ve seen it all when it comes to Corvettes, check out this turbine powered 1978. It will cross the auction block soon thanks to Barrett-Jackson.

Commissioned by a guy named Herbert Orlowitz, it was built by Vince’s Pit Stop in California for an estimated $750K in 1979. Starting with a garden-variety C3 Corvette, they installed a Pratt & Whitney PT6B turboprop engine left over from the Granatelli 1967-68 Indy 500 Turbine Indy car campaign.

The turbine spins at 37,500 rpm  producing 1,000 “shaft horsepower.” The stock TH400 automatic transmission and limited-slip 3.03:1 geared IRS were deemed stout enough to handle all that power but the torque converter was removed and a transfer case was installed. The transfer case drops the rpm to a little over 6,000 and applies enough engine brake to tame the turbine long enough to drop the TH400 into gear. Let off the brake and the Jet Vette idles to 60 mph. For anything under 60 mph the driver has to ride the brakes. Weirdly cool.

We’d ditch the gigantic flat disc mags and sky high stance faster than you could say “Get ready for take off!” but other than that, just fill with jet fuel and blast down the tarmac.

The last time this thing sold was way back in January 1982 when car collector Milton Verret outbid Reggie Jackson and paid $550,000 for this crazy C3 at a Phoenix auction. Fast forward to today and this jet powered Corvette is slated to cross the block in January 2015 at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.