Chrysler Turbine Car
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Chrysler Turbine Cars were automobiles powered by gas turbine engines which the Chrysler Corporation assembled in a small plant in Detroit, Michigan in 1963, for use in the only consumer test of gas turbine-powered cars. It was the high point of Chrysler's decades-long project to build a practical turbine-powered car.
The fourth-generation Chrysler turbine engine, which ran at up to 45,700 rpm, would run on diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline, kerosene, JP-4 jet fuel, even vegetable oil. No adjustments were needed to switch from one to another. Its power turbine was connected, without a torque converter, through a gear reduction unit to an otherwise ordinary TorqueFlite automatic transmission. (The fluid coupling between the combustion gases and the power turbine provided exactly the same functionality as a torque converter but without using a conventional liquid medium.) Twin rotating heat exchangers, called regenerators, transferred exhaust heat to the inlet air, greatly improving fuel consumption. Varying stator blades prevented excessive top end speeds, and provided engine braking on deceleration. Throttle lag, poor low-end torque and high fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperatures at idle plagued the car. Furthermore, the car sounded like a vacuum cleaner, which was not satisfying to consumers who were more comfortable with the pleasant rumble of a large American V8.
The bodies and interiors were crafted by Ghia in Italy. As each body was finished and shipped to Detroit, Chrysler employees installed gas turbine engines, transmissions and electrical components to prepare the cars for use by the 203 average motorists who were chosen to test them.
The Turbine Car was a two-door hardtop coupe with four individual bucket seats, power steering, power brakes and power windows. Its most prominent design features were two large horizontal taillights and nozzles (back-up lights) mounted inside a very heavy chrome sculptured bumper. Up front, the single headlamps were mounted in chrome nacelles with a turbine styling theme, creating a striking appearance. This theme was carried through to the center console and the hubcaps. Even the tires were specially made with small turbine vanes molded into the white sidewalls. It was finished in "Frostfire Metallic", later called "Turbine Bronze" and available on production automobiles. The roof was covered in black vinyl, and the interior featured bronze-colored "English calfskin" leather upholstery with plush-cut pile bronze-colored carpet.
The dashboard was lighted with electroluminescent panels in the gauge pods and on a call-out strip across the dash. This system did not use bulbs; instead, an inverter and transformer raised the battery voltage to over 100 volts AC and passed that high voltage through special plastic layers, causing the gauges to glow with a blue-green light.
The car itself was designed in the Chrysler studios under the direction of Elwood P. Engel, who had worked for the Ford Motor Company before his move to Chrysler. The designer credited with the actual look of the car was Charles Mashigan, who designed a two-seat show car called the Typhoon, which was displayed at the 1964 World's Fair in New York. Engle used many older Ford styling themes. The rear tailight/bumper assembly was copied directly(with revisions) from a 1956 Ford styling study called the "Galaxia". Fortunately, he used none of the themes associated with his folly of the 1964 Imperial.
A total of 55 turbine cars were produced. When Chrysler had finished the user program and other public displays of the cars, 46 of them were destroyed to avoid an import duty. Of the remaining nine cars, six had the engines de-activated and then they were donated to museums around the country. Chrysler retained three of the turbine cars for historical reasons. Of the nine remaining turbine cars only three are now functional. One of the cars kept by Chrysler is stored in running condition at the proving grounds, one car was purchased from a museum by a private automobile collector and is also functional (Frank Klepcz of Crown Point, Indiana). During the program of test car ownership, a Cleveland Ohio man destroyed a Turbine Car's engine in a flying freeway race with a 1964 Mercury. The last turbine car that is functional is owned by the Transportation Museum in St. Louis, was photographed for Mopar Action magazine, and appears at car shows around the United States from time to time. One of the non functional car's owners got in contact with then Chrysler chairman Robert Lutz, who gave him the proper part to make it functional, making 4 out of the nine functioning.
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