Dad and I spent the last several hours working on the turbine. The design has shifted from anything recognizable as a turbine, it's basically a monolith with a fan blade. The "bearings" are threaded 1/2" steel rod spinning inside white PVC pipe, I'll add some graphite lube later.
Attaining high performance, aka class beating, class humiliating, high grade earning performance, is 100% dependent on the gearing delivering a monster advantage.