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In 1964, Chrysler gave the world a glimpse of the future. They built a fleet of turbine cars--automobiles with jet engines--and loaned them out to members of the public. The fleet logged over a million miles; the exercise was a raging success.
These turbine engines would run on any flammable liquid--tequila, heating oil, Chanel #5, diesel, alcohol, kerosene. If the cars had been mass produced, we might have cars today that do not require petroleum-derived fuels. The engine was also much simpler than the piston engine--it contained one-fifth the number of moving parts and required much less maintenance. The cars had no radiators or fan belts and never needed oil changes.
Yet Chrysler crushed and burned most of the cars two years later; the jet car's brief glory was over. Where did it all go wrong? Controversy still follows the program, and questions about how and why it was killed have never been satisfactorily answered.
Steve Lehto has interviewed all the surviving members of the turbine car program--from the metallurgist who created the exotic metals for the interior of the engine to the test driver who drove it at Chrysler’s proving grounds for days on end. Lehto takes these first-hand accounts and weaves them into a great story about the coolest car Detroit ever produced.
Can you imagine driving down the road in a car powered by a jet engine? In the 1960s, America almost got the chance. Lehto tells the story of Chrysler's project to develop a car powered by a turbine engine. Chrysler assigned many of its brightest engineers to the project, supporting them as they struggled to solve the problems created by the nontraditional motor. Part of the development was an ingenious publicity campaign that showed the vehicle was far beyond a concept car. Over 200 lucky families were loaned turbine cars for two months, and many fell in love with its smooth ride. The engine could operate on alternative fuels without modification, and unleaded gas, diesel, kerosene, tequila, and even perfume were used to run the car! So what happened? A combination of manufacturing problems, financing, and bad timing doomed the project. Car enthusiast Jay Leno, who owns one of the five remaining vehicles, provides the foreword to the book. VERDICT A fascinating example of engineering and product development. Appropriate for large public libraries and all academic libraries supporting engineering programs. Motorheads will love it.—William Baer, Georgia Inst. of Technology Lib., Atlanta
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Sean Sitek
reviewed Chrysler's Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit's Coolest Creation on July 02, 2019
Chrysler's Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit's Coolest Creation
In the 1950's, Chrysler experimented with turbine cars. Sam Williams did admirable engineering to adapt aviation turbines for application in cars. Notable was the design of a regenerator that recovered heat from the exhaust and returned it to the incoming air, which significantly improved engine efficiency and kept the exhaust temperature cool. Car mileage was up to 20 miles per gallon which was typical of the piston cars of that era. While reasonably powerful, the acceleration from a stop was a bit sluggish, partially because of the heavy weight of the custom bodies, but from a rolling start was impressive. Interestingly, in cold climates the cars would produce interior heat immediately as it was derived from the exhaust gas. The cost of each car was estimated as $50,000.
After three experimental versions of the turbine, Chrysler built fleet of fifty cars generally known as the Ghia turbines. The cars were designed and built by Italy's Ghia Coachworks. Not being mass produced, the parts were not necessarily interchangeable. The turbines which required a multi-step investment casting process were built by a small company named Howmet. The cars of this fleet were loaned to citizens across the U.S. on a lottery basis. By the end, of the program 203 users had driven over a million miles in the Ghias.
Much of the book is devoted to this user program and the reactions of the drivers and those who came in contact with the cars. While some limitations were observed, the response was overwhelmingly positive.
In the mid 1960's the turbine cars were destroyed with the exception of a few that were sent to museums. In the early 1970's, Chrysler created a sixth generation turbine that demonstrated further improvements.
When the regulation of fuel economy and emission reduction began to drive the development of car engines, Chrysler's poor financial situation did not support further development of the turbine. A major issue was the production of NOx by the turbine.
Letho returns repeatedly to the fact that the turbine could burn any combustible fuel, except leaded gas, diesel and kerosene being the most practical.
Turbines would have been more viable given technological developments since that time, such as improved metals, improved lubricants and NOx reduction with urea treatments.
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