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Researchers at MIT have test fired a turbojet the size of a button that produces 1/3rd of a pound of thrust and spins at 2.5 million rpm. Once this technology gets out of the lab, it will be the end of racecar aerodynamics as we know it. Maybe even the end of racecars as we know them.
Because since they're the size of a button, you could for example put tens or hundreds of them in the undertray of a ground effects car to re-energize the air flowing through the diffusers. This would not only give the car more downforce but also a more stable downforce. You could also use them as a source of high speed air for blown air wings that for any given wing size -- especially at low speeds -- would provide more downforce than wings which depend entirely on the forward motion of the car. You could even eliminate wings and ground effects tunnels completely and make the skin of the car not only a downforce-producing system but also a mechanism for augmenting steering. Taken to its ultimate end, we could see cars with no apparent engine where the skin itself provides propulsion, steering, and braking.
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