Hemmings Motor News Blog

Rover did a similar thing, the main difference is that the turbine lived on in various other items, fire pumps for the RN for example.

Deveölopement stemmed from 1939 and the first car that was displayed (P1) was shown to the public in 1950.....

See here:-

http://www.rover.org.nz/pages/jet/jet5.htm

http://www.4wdonline.com/Rover/GasTurbines.html

Page down a few pages and you will see the fire pump. We used to clean it with powdered walnut shells at full power. It was a delight to fire up and use....Very reliable, did not need power of any kind, just diesel fuel if I remember correctly....Relatively quiet too.

http://www.corestore.org/turbine.htm

I hope this is of interest to anyone reading the original article....

I saw one being exibited at a University of FL engineering fair circa 1962 where they had it on an elevated platform about 3-FT high. Spent a lot of time listening to the two Chrysler engineers present responding to questions like: "when will these be available?" "Don't know yet" was the answer. In a bragging oration they estimated the turbine to be good for perhaps 1-million miles before an overhaul. They would occasionally start it up and let it run. Standing at the rear and the exhaust ports I was amazed just how clean burning it seemed to be. They had remarked that it was burning diesel. Another item they remarked upon was that a popular feedback from some 150 (I think) people driving them, was that initial acceleration was (weak). Well, I hung around until they left for the evening, backing off of the platform and onto the street dropped it in drive and peeled rubber up the street! Seemed quite okay to me! I think Chrysler may have realized that their aftermarket parts sales would take a slump, in addition to some folks driving these "out" before buying a new car.

I thought the turbine engines where a great idea!

A friend of mine is a Chrysler nut and has several books that covered the history and related engineering that went into their design. They did have a design problem with the heat exchanger systems in the vehicles as I recall. At the time the size and efficiency requirements apparently made them rather fragile and prone to cracking and failure in the automotive environments. The versions used in industrial applications had a larger sized and more robust design for the heat exchangers as I understood it.

One of the other issues that came up that worked against them was brought on by the oil industry of course (plausible speculation anyway). They didn't like the idea of a rather powerful and fuel efficient engine that could run on almost any fuel with little or no modifications going into the mass markets. Obviously it would cut into profits far too much if too many did manage to make it into the public. (not like thats to hard to imagine today)

The capacity for extremely high mileage life expectancies was likely a bit over exaggerated though. Given the technology and metallurgy of the time placing a turbine engine in a vehicle was likely to prove itself viable but unlikely to realistically greatly out live any other engine design of the time. Realistically they would have likely had a typically better service life if maintained but still the million mile estimate was more speculation than fact.

Given todays technology and advances in metallurgy the turbine engines could easily prove themselves to be clean, efficient, powerful, and very durable. Unfortunately these features mean less profits for big oil and less profits on the repair and service industry side of the automotive industry and less future sales as well. Plus from the manufacturing aspects many things would need to be changed in the actual manufacturing process and assembly lines in order to facilitate putting a completely different drive system into vehicles than whats currently in production today.

Still I would like to have a turbine powered vehical!

Gas turbine engines are not efficient when their speed and power output are changed frequently which is common in automobiles. Turbines are best used in circumstances where they can operate a a high sustained speed for a long period of time such as powering long distance airplane flights. The military uses gas turbines for some ships and tanks because they have a high power to weight ratio but fuel economy is a minor consideration.

As microturbine generators (alternators really) get smaller and smaller (they're nearly small enough now to power a home and about the size of an outside AC condensor), perhaps one day in the near future we'll see a hybrid turbine electric car. This would overcome many of the turbine's problems for use in a vehicle. The very high RPMs that turbines run at would not be a problem since the turbine would not be mechanically coupled to the drivetrain. Also, when the turbine is running, it would spin under steady-state conditions at the most efficient RPMs; the turbine would not have to accelerate-decelerate like in previous turbine cars. Rayjay

I agree with the former post. Part of the problem with previous efforts at turbine powered vehicles is the fact that these coupled the turbine to the wheels using conventional transmissions. This inevitably leads to a car that is both laggy and inefficient. A hybrid configuration has the ability to overcome these shortcomings while taking advantage of the strengths of turbomachinery, such as minimal maintenance (compared to piston engines), fuel versatility (including renewables), lower noise/vibration/harshness, smaller size, and lower weight. Finally, when it comes to gas turbine efficiency, it is not 1965 anymore. Today's microturbines (like Capstone and others) have efficiencies that exceed that of conventional gasoline engines by a decent margin. It's definitely time to give turbines another look.

HYBRID TURBINE CAR EXISTS!

Thanks guest for responding to my post on the viability of a hybridized turbine vehicle and mentioning the Capstone name (Note that I have no affiliation with or economic interest in this company). I remember first learning about microturbines on their web site a couple of years back. Your having refreshed my memory caused me to explore their site once again and I ran across a video of a hybrid turbine car. Check it out:

http://www.capstoneturbine.com/news/video/view/whisper.asp