That reminds me of the times I was at the Rock Store(a little road house motorcycle gathering place in SoCal's Santa Monica Mtns) when Jay Leno was there with his Turbine-powered bike.
He'd often have to warn people to step back a few paces and away from the exhaust port near the aft bottom of the bike before he'd hit the ignitor button on the handlebars, or it would "melt your shoes", as he said. It would then make a "tick-tick-tick" sound, just like whats on a Gas BBQ, and then begin its slow and increasingly higher-pitched whine as that baby spooled-up.
