The time when Chrysler built a car that featured a turbine engine.

October 10, 2015 3:09 PM

In the early sixties, Chrysler built a concept car that included a turbine engine in a body built by Ghia. They provided the cars to families for extended test drives. The Olson family loved theirs.

Yes, the engine really did sound like a vacuum cleaner. It can use any fuel that burns when combined with oxygen... except leaded gas.


When the program was over, Chrysler destroyed 46 of the 55 cars. Chrysler claimed that they did so to avoid import tariffs on the Ghia bodies, but that argument is in dispute.


MotorTrend published a review in 2006.


Who owns one of the very last privately owned Chrysler Turbines? Jay Leno, of course!


As seen on Jay's Garage .

posted by dfm500 (35 comments total)

A book has been written about it: Chrysler's Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit's Coolest Creation.
posted by ShooBoo at 3:13 PM on October 10, 2015

"The President of Mexico, Adolfo López Mateos, tested this theory by running one of the first cars—successfully—on tequila, after Chrysler engineers confirmed that the car would operate successfully."

Anyone have a Kilometers per Quart ratio.
posted by clavdivs at 3:22 PM on October 10, 2015

Why anything except leaded gas?
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:32 PM on October 10, 2015

I saw one of these go by on the street. Pretty fantastic.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:38 PM on October 10, 2015

The wikipedia article mentions why:

"the tetraethyl lead left debilitating deposits within the engine"
posted by JoeZydeco at 3:42 PM on October 10, 2015

The lead additive would probably gum up the injectors and turbine.
posted by Punkey at 3:42 PM on October 10, 2015

Why anything except leaded gas?

Because anything like that will just gum up your turbine blades. Why do you think avgas is leaded petrol and Jet A is basically unleaded kerosene?
posted by Talez at 3:44 PM on October 10, 2015

It had turbines to speed, but can anyone confirm if it had atomic batteries to power?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:45 PM on October 10, 2015 [12 favorites]

The M-1 tank uses a turbine, built by Chrysler, using some of the knowledge they gained from this project.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:54 PM on October 10, 2015

I really think microturbines could make a comeback if they were used in a hybrid powertrain as an onboard generator rather than directly driving the wheels.
posted by Talez at 4:01 PM on October 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

… and use the gas turbine heat to keep high-efficiency sodium sulfur cells warm. Hmm.

The Chrysler's no JET1, though.
posted by scruss at 4:10 PM on October 10, 2015

I'm getting a 404 error from the "review" link.
posted by univac at 4:12 PM on October 10, 2015

IIRC, microturbines instead of batteries have been proposed as a power source for the Army exoskeleton project and the Boston Dynamics robots. I haven't really heard much recently, though.
posted by happyroach at 4:15 PM on October 10, 2015

I didn't realise that Ghia was a company; I thought it was just one of those adjectival pseudo-nouns like “coupe”, “targa” and “cabrio” used in car model names.

I know that in Australia in the 1990s or so, there was a variant of the Ford Laser hatchback known as the Ford Laser Ghia; like most cars in Australia (with its strict tariff regime and long distances from Europe), I imagined it would have been made in Australia, rather than shipped from Italy.
posted by acb at 4:19 PM on October 10, 2015

Ghia did both coach building and design work so it's possible the Ford was still built in Australia.
posted by Mitheral at 4:24 PM on October 10, 2015

You can see the Jet1 in the Science Museum, if you're passing through...
posted by Devonian at 4:38 PM on October 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've always wondered if turbine diesel generated electric would be an efficiency improvement. The engine would be tuned to run at its single most-efficient speed, which should radically reduce its fuel consumption. The alt can be tuned to best pump electrons at that speed. And the motors must be pretty efficient already for current battery tech to even work as a way to power cars. Are turbines less efficient than pistons? guess i'll go google now…
posted by five fresh fish at 5:00 PM on October 10, 2015

They had turbine-powered trains in France in the 1950s, if I recall correctly. They weren't successful and were withdrawn shortly afterward.
posted by acb at 5:07 PM on October 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Chrysler's no JET1, though.

And, neither is a Lotus 56.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:08 PM on October 10, 2015

Turbine powered Corvette:
For one thing, this car goes 65 miles an hour ... at idle. In other words, if you were to put the car in gear and just take your foot off the brake, the car would immediately start accelerating -- pretty fast -- up to 65 miles an hour without you even having to touch the gas pedal. It's basically terrifying unintended acceleration except that it's completely intentional.
posted by 445supermag at 5:42 PM on October 10, 2015

Why do you think avgas is leaded petrol and Jet A is basically unleaded kerosene?

Do you know, I have never had the occasion to consider that question.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:47 PM on October 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

Do you know, I have never had the occasion to consider that question.

Reciprocating combustion engines want more power in a compact engine from higher compression especially when you're turbo and supercharging for altitude. Therefore you need a higher octane to stop predetonation.

Turbines run extremely hot so they want relatively pure hydrocarbons with no shit that will decide to start welding itself to hot metal. So they get mostly unadulterated kero.
posted by Talez at 5:52 PM on October 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

They had turbine-powered trains in France in the 1950s, if I recall correctly. They weren't successful and were withdrawn shortly afterward.

Yeah. They use a fuckton of fuel just sitting there and guess what trains do a lot of. Some companies have tried diesel-gas turbine hybrids (diesel leaving the station, gas turbine for cruising) but then with the added weight of the engine, it becomes a question of "what's the point?"

Plus I'm sure they looked at all the nuclear power to come online over the next couple of decades and thought "why are we buying fuel? Aren't we going to have all this free energy soon to power our trains?"
posted by Talez at 5:55 PM on October 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

Anyone have a Kilometers per Quart ratio.

Back in my day I could get several hundred miles to the fifth, but never had any idea of where I was when I woke up in the morning. It was an unsuccessful test study.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:57 PM on October 10, 2015 [5 favorites]

I was a bit surprised when Jay Leno managed to get a complete turbine car. I remember there's one museum that was able to get a hold of both an engine and an unpowered turbine car, and they were strictly ordered to never put the one into the other.
posted by ckape at 6:52 PM on October 10, 2015

Jaguar tried the turbine-electric hybrid car thing a few years back.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 7:37 PM on October 10, 2015

For some reason, jet-powered motorcycles are Very Much A Thing. How has Anders' Turbine Land Speed Record Motorcycle never made it to MeFi before? I just searched and the closest 'previously' I could dig up was jet-powered bicycles. I know Leno has a jet motorcycle, and there are a few other examples, but if you're into spunky DIY engineering and things that go fast, it's hard to beat that 160-ish page forum thread for what amounts to "This is how you build a jet turbine-powered motorcycle from very little more than sheet metal and the compressor fan from a bizjet APU."
posted by Alterscape at 7:46 PM on October 10, 2015

I remember these. I had a toy car (Matchbox or Dinky maybe) of the "1963 Chrysler Turbine" and my friend had a model kit of it.

Apparently, a metallic brown / bronze was the way to go with this car. My Matchbox was painted metal and my friend's model kit was molded plastic; both were presented in that same color, and it's the only color I ever saw in photos of the real thing. Black vinyl roof, of course.

You heard all sorts of stories about it, how it burned any fuel and went a million mph, and soon everyone would have one. This was about the same time as Gerry Anderson's Supercar, too, and you can see styling cues from the '63 turbine in the Batmobile built for the 1960s teevy show.

Pretty sure the Chrysler didn't have atomic batteries, even as a 'concept'.
 
posted by Herodios at 8:51 PM on October 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Apparently, a metallic brown / bronze was the way to go with this car.

That was the only color it came in.

I was a bit surprised when Jay Leno managed to get a complete turbine car.

He bought it directly from Chrysler circa 2008 when they were in desperate financial straits. They still own another one, which occasionally gets brought out for special events.
posted by pmurray63 at 11:11 PM on October 10, 2015

There is a diesel KLR 650 motorcycle the US Army has toyed with that I'd love to try. A diesel thumper. The KLR was already a tractor. In diesel form, lordy, it would chug along. I want.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:44 PM on October 10, 2015

I drove THIS in this video, but the engine was not really providing much thrust, it had an electric motor. The engine is from a power plant in a Korean war era mine sweeper.
posted by boilermonster at 12:43 AM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

I know that in Australia in the 1990s or so, there was a variant of the Ford Laser hatchback known as the Ford Laser Ghia; like most cars in Australia (with its strict tariff regime and long distances from Europe), I imagined it would have been made in Australia, rather than shipped from Italy.

Ghia was the fancy trim package for the Ford Laser, a restyled Mazda 323 which was made in Japan, shipped to Australia as parts, then reassembled in the Ford factory at Homebush. The plant shut down in 1994, after which I think they were directly imported from Japan.
posted by zamboni at 7:44 AM on October 11, 2015

I really think microturbines could make a comeback if they were used in a hybrid powertrain as an onboard generator rather than directly driving the wheels.--Talez

You could do this with truck engines, as is done by Wrightspeed, a company created by Ian Wright, who in a previous life was one of the founders of Tesla.
posted by eye of newt at 8:10 AM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

As a design studio, Ghia passed through a series of owners in the 1960s, experiencing periods of, shall we say, challenging profitability. Ford obtained a majority stake in 1970, and under its umbrella, Ghia was rapidly assimilated into Ford's design teams. The Ghia nameplate became nothing more than the top trim level worldwide, but persisting into the 80s and 90s was mostly seen on Ford of Europe and Ford Australia products more than USDM applications. As part of Ford, Ghia lost everything, and became a shell of itself, a burnt-out desolate marque. In 2010, long after the name had lost its former glory and passed into a mean-spirited parody of 'luxury' - nothing but the suggestion of thin faux-walnut verneers and chintzy velour - Ford finally dropped the Ghia nameplate entirely from its product lineup.
posted by MarchHare at 4:07 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Are turbines less efficient than pistons?

Piston engines have pretty poor efficiency [20-30%], achieving their best efficiency around 70%-80% of maximum power, but their advantage is their ability to operate over a wide range of speeds and loads without the efficiency dropping off too dramatically.

Gas turbines are capable of much higher efficiency, but can only do so within a fairly narrow band of speeds and loads.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 9:13 PM on October 11, 2015