Memo to Ozzy Osbourne and Rik Mayall: don’t drive this vehicle. After brushes with death on conventional quad bikes, you definitely won’t survive an accident on this one. Capable of more than 60mph over pretty much any terrain, the Whirl is the world’s first jet-powered all-terrain vehicle (ATV).

It is the brainchild of John Carnett, an American enthusiast who has spent more than a year and in excess of $15,000 (£9,000) on perfecting an entirely new class of leisure vehicle. Built from a Frankenstein mix of parts from a quad bike, a discarded 1960s military jet turbine and a few pieces of bespoke (read: home-made) hardware, the vehicle is a new craze waiting to catch on — or possibly catch fire.

When Carnett, whose day job is as a photo­grapher, took it for its maiden voyage through the streets of Philadelphia, where he lives, children covered their ears, windows rattled and pedestrians looked skyward for a low-flying Boeing 747. When he came to a whining stop at traffic lights, cars behind him risked having their front bumpers melted by the 704C exhaust. So what exactly is the point of it? “Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by jet engines, and I thought, ‘Why don’t I put one on an ATV?’” says Carnett. “I wanted to see if it was possible.” This is surely the American equivalent of “It seemed a good idea at the time”.

Carnett, 42 — whose past projects include an electric-powered off-road skateboard — wasn’t to know his whim would turn into a year-long labour of love that would involve ­infiltrating the strange world of second-hand jet-engine dealers, but first of all he had to find a donor chassis on which to strap the engine. “I couldn’t afford $10,000 to buy one, so I contacted Yamaha and asked if they would supply the ATV. They were happy to at first, then called me back and said that, after having taken legal advice, they couldn’t go through with it.” Lawyers thought the idea so deranged that injury was a near-certainty, and Yamaha couldn’t risk being liable.

Undeterred, Carnett approached Polaris, a rival manufacturer. The company had the same reservations but was intrigued about the possibility: “They agreed to sell me a vehicle for $1. That meant, technically, I was the owner, and they said after that I could do whatever I wanted with it, and they didn’t care because they wouldn’t be liable if it went wrong,” says Carnett breezily.

Next came the search for the jet. “You would be surprised how hard it is to find a working turbine,” he says. “I visited air-force bases where they keep old planes mothballed but the only engines I found were huge — bigger than the bike. I managed to tap into a strange underculture of freaks who live for jet engines. They are all over the place, and they would be, like, ‘You need to speak to Bobby in Nevada — he’ll help.’ It was really strange.”

Eventually, via eBay, the internet auction site, he discovered a former military power plant manufactured in the 1960s, which was at the time being used in a Honda CRX sports coupé. The owner wanted to sell it so he could trade up.

“It felt like a drug deal, me handing over the cash and loading this turbine onto my truck,” Carnett says.

Now the hard part began. He stripped the ATV of its engine, roll cage, suspension, shock absorbers, battery, drive axles, wheels, tyres and electrical system, and began strapping the turbine on. A joystick-style controller acts as an accelerator.

Finally, after 10 months of graft, Carnett was ready to test the machine off road. “It exceeded my dreams, scared a few people and made me smile so hard that it hurt. It’s like standing next to a 114-decibel hot-dog cooker that could explode at any time. You get into an adrenaline rush that is unlike anything you could imagine. Fast through the woods, mud flying, at the very edge of control — then still faster.”

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