Kevin Rader/Eyewitness NewsHendricks County - Folks in Brownsburg are used to the sound of jet engines. They are usually overhead, but not always.
When you think of a jet, you typically think of a plane piercing the heavens at supersonic speeds leaving the rest of us, mere earthbound mortals, in its wake and in awe.
Paul Stender, also known as Jet Car Paul, builds machines that operate on the edge of reality - that space where science and science fiction converge. He creates a place where a true to life daredevil can actually slide into the cockpit of comic book reality.
Stender takes us on a tour of the engines he works with: the GJ79-8, the B58 Hustler and the Fairchild J74 - "a version of that actually powered a cruise missile."
Stender is an animated fellow. He takes to jet engines like a jet engine does to air - except he's afraid of heights.
"I jumped out of an airplane once and thought that's the end of that deal," he said.
That's how he became Jet Car Paul. He drives jet engines...on the ground!Stender has attached his jet engines to just about everything he can get his wrench around. And I do mean everything.
"Yes, boys and girls, it is a jet outhouse. Yes, it has a toilet seat. Yes, I have a seatbelt on the toilet seat so I don't fall off," he said, taking us on a brief tour of his jet-powered porta-potty.
"This is the ride. When you gotta go, you gotta go," he joked. (It should be noted that the outhouse does not have a functional toilet. "It's an outhouse with a jet engine. Guess my mind works in strange ways."
It doesn't stop there. Jet Car Paul has a jet-powered tow truck, a jet ski and a street legal jet Impala.
"It makes a lot of noise and being street legal it gets a lot of looks at the Speedway gas station," he said.
But when Jet Car Paul gets the most attention and truly earns his nickname is at air shows.
"Do I ride in an airplane? No, I drive a bus. This one here in fact. A very fast one," he said, referring to a school bus with painted flames on the sides.
Jet Car Paul's latest creation is basically powered by an F4 Phantom jet engine."What we basically have is the world's fastest school bus," he said.
"Kids just can't get enough of it," commented Therese Waechter, Stender's fiancee.
That childlike amazement extends all the way to the driver.
"He is a character. He is a walking talking comic strip," she said.
Paul Stender truly is living his life in the fast lane and taking us all along for the ride of our lives.
Stender's crew will be flying to Dubai in January and after that he will be able to work on his next project, which is a jet-powered leaf blower. Hold on to your hat, Brownsburg.
Learn more about Jet Car Paul and his team's exploits.
http://www.wthr.com/story/13532741/jet-car-paul
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