Some Lunatics Are Using ‘Galaxy Gas’ To Try To Make Their Cars Faster

After the Soundcloud-influenced Xandemic of the late 2010s, everyone was wondering what the next substance of choice would be for the youth of America. Turns out, it’s something old. Young people have been using food-grade nitrous oxide, most notably under the brand name Galaxy Gas, as a party drug (see the New York Times’ story from this week titled “What Is Galaxy Gas, and Why Are Young People Inhaling It?”). Not the smartest idea, but there’s something way cooler you can do with food-grade nitrous oxide, and yes, it involves cars.

Food-grade nitrous oxide is often sold as a culinary whipping agent and well, yeah, it’s pretty much the perfect propellant for whipped cream. Not only does it stop bacteria from reproducing, it fluffs up the cream as it comes out of the nozzle, and it won’t cause the cream to go bad. However, it’s also an anesthetic that, when used recreationally, can result in short-term hallucinogenic states and long-term neurological damage. It’s not a good idea to inhale it. However, there is a third use: make cars go faster.

See, nitrous oxide actually has more oxygen in it than air (which is only about 21% oxygen by weight) does. And while it obviously has less oxygen than O2 (pure oxygen), the benefit of N2O is that it’s not as volatile at lower temperatures/pressures as pure oxygen would be when shoved into an engine with gasoline (N2O breaks down at high temperatures, and then releases oxygen, whereas pure oxygen could lead to instant and uncontrolled combustion). Nitrous’ increased oxygen content over ambient air means more fuel which means a bigger bang, and bigger bangs mean more power. Oh, and there’s another benefit: expanding nitrous oxide actually cools the air inside an engine, and cooler, denser air means more oxygen. Seems like a recipe for winning, right?

Obviously, dedicated nitrous oxide systems for cars have been around for decades, but you’re looking at an investment of a few hundred dollars. So, what if you took a whipped cream charger and hooked it into your car? After all, the only difference should be that the food-grade stuff is flavored with food-like stuff instead of bad-tasting sulfur dioxide, right? Well, that’s exactly what X user Matt Sixberry has done to his Viper V10-swapped Nissan 370Z, using an 80-shot jet.

I’ll post this here since TikTok said no. Spraying my 370z with an 80 shot of Galaxy Gas pic.twitter.com/UEQKhdwj0d

— Matt Sixberry (@matt6berries) September 19, 2024

Sure, a fitting on the bottle, a line ending in front of the throttle body, and a jet on the end of the line might be a little janky, but in theory it could do something for a short pull. Whether it actually provides an appreciable power boost, we don’t know, but it’s worth noting that despite the small 1.35-pound bottle size, that thing’s reportedly pressurized to 180 bar, or 2,610 psi. Hot damn.

Lil Gnar shows the youth how to properly use Galaxy Gas to make your car go faster.
pic.twitter.com/bASZAxl9AX

— No Jumper (@nojumper) September 24, 2024

Oh, and Sixberry’s not the only person to have hooked food-grade nitrous oxide into a car. Rapper Lil Gnar hooked some up to his Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and documented the results, and guess what? It looks wild. This has to be one of the best anti-drug PSAs I’ve seen in a while.

Now, here’s the thing about feeding Galaxy Gas into a car: Just running a line with a jet directly from a canister into an intake manifold results in what’s called a “dry nitrous oxide system.” In order to not run into potentially dangerous lean air-fuel ratios, you need to up the fueling, either by manipulating pressure at the fuel rail using a rising-rate fuel pressure regulator or by dialing in added fuel through a tune.

[Ed Note: I actually saw the “Exotic Whip” brand of this for sale at my local gas station when I lived in Troy, Michigan. Exotic whip even has a section on its website discussing nitrous in cars, though the brand is clear to state “Exotic Whip cream chargers are not meant for car fueling. Our bottles are 100% food-grade. This blog is merely informative.” Check it out:

With that said, looking at these other pictures: With the rubber hose just slipped over the bottle’s nozzle, I’m curious what the pressure at the outlet is, and if the engine can even pull in an appreciable amount of N20 relative to ambient air to yield any significant performance gain. I have other concerns, but I’ll just leave it there, as this is Thomas’s post. Maybe we’ll try this out on our Aztek. -DT].

Still, if you’re going to buy Galaxy Gas, use it for whipped cream or put it in your car, not your lungs. Of course, it’s also worth checking to see if the use of nitrous oxide is legal in cars in your jurisdiction, but for track use — even though I don’t know what kind of track will let you run this sort of dirt-cheap, slightly sketchy setup — it should be fine.

(Photo credits: Galaxy Gas, X/Matt Sixberry)

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