Chrysler Turbine Car
The Chrysler Turbine Car is an automobile powered by a turbine engine produced by Chrysler inbetween one thousand nine hundred sixty two and 1964. The bods for the car were made by Italian design studio Ghia, with Chrysler completing final assembly in Detroit. After testing and a public user program that ran from September one thousand nine hundred sixty four to January 1966, the cars were reclaimed by Chrysler; all but nine were ruined.
A total of fifty five cars were built: five prototypes and a limited run of fifty cars for the user program. Most were scrapped at the end of the program, with two cars remaining in Chrysler’s possession, five on display at museums in the United States, and two in private collections. The Chrysler turbine engine program that produced the Turbine Car was initiated in the late 1930s and continued until it was terminated in the mid-1970s.
Contents
Chrysler began researching turbine engines in the late 1930s, led largely by executive engineer George Huebner, who was one of a group of engineers who began exploring the idea of powering a car with a turbine after the end of World War II. [6] Other members of the secretive Chrysler Research team that worked on automotive turbines included fellow engineers Bud Mann and Sam B. Williams. [7] The idea was intriguing to them largely because turbine engines have fewer moving parts than their piston-powered counterparts and because they would run on a broad diversity of different fuels. [8] According to automotive historian Charles K. Hyde, by the mid-1950s Chrysler “led the way in terms of gas turbine research”, [9] albeit General Motors and Rover also built running turbine cars after World War II. [Ten]
After continually improving their turbine design, most notably by engineering a regenerator to solve an issue with warmth exchanging, the Chrysler team’s efforts reached an early state of maturity when they mated a turbine to an otherwise stock one thousand nine hundred fifty four Plymouth Belvedere. [11] Warmth and cooling, as well as emissions and harass, were among the principal engineering challenges that faced the turbine engine. [Ten] Chrysler proceeded to test the Belvedere, and claimed that its turbine engine contained 20% fewer parts and weighed two hundred pounds (91 kg) less than comparable conventional piston engines. [12] On June 16, 1954, the company publicly unveiled the turbine-powered Belvedere at its Chelsea Proving Grounds in Chelsea, Michigan, in front of over five hundred members of the press. [9] [13] [14]
Chrysler unveiled its next turbine car, a one thousand nine hundred fifty six Plymouth, on March 23, 1956; Huebner proceeded to drive it Three,020 miles (Four,860 km) on a four-day tour from Fresh York City to Los Angeles. [9] [15] While the car was shadowed by fourteen people in a convoy that contained mechanics, fuel, and spare parts at the ready, [16] it only required two minor repairs on the journey, neither of which were related to the turbine engine. [14] The success of this coast-to-coast journey led Chrysler to dual the size of the turbine program and budge it from Highland Park, Michigan, to a more spacious facility on Greenfield Road in Detroit. [17] [Eighteen]
The program began producing numerous patent applications from 1957, in due largely to the contributions of metallurgist Amedee Roy and engineer Giovanni Savonuzzi. [Nineteen] The next iteration of the Chrysler turbine engine (the second-generation engine) was placed into a one thousand nine hundred fifty nine Plymouth that averaged Nineteen.Four miles per US gallon (12.1 L/100 km; 23.Trio mpg‑imp) on a excursion from Detroit to Woodbridge, Fresh Jersey. [20] [21] This figure was substantially higher than the thirteen mpg‑US (Legitimate L/100 km; sixteen mpg‑imp) achieved with the first-generation turbine on the one thousand nine hundred fifty six Fresh York to Los Angeles journey. [14] [Trio]
After Chrysler named former accountant Lynn Townsend as its fresh president in 1961, [22] the company unveiled its next, third-generation turbine engine on February 28, 1961; [23] designated the CR2A, it was the very first Chrysler turbine engine to be officially named. [21] Unlike its more experimental predecessors, the CR2A was designed with costs and production methods in mind. [24] While still under development in May 1960, Huebner noted that it would serve as its own torque converter and claimed that it would produce one hundred forty horsepower (100 kW), have an acceleration lag of 1.Five seconds (as compared to nine seconds for its predecessor), and weigh four hundred fifty lb (200 kg), one hundred fifty lb (68 kg) less than a comparably sized piston engine. [25]
Third-generation turbines were mated to a multitude of vehicles, including a Two.5-ton one thousand nine hundred sixty Dodge truck and the Chrysler Turboflite concept car. [23] [26] Further refined CR2A turbines were installed into a one thousand nine hundred sixty two Dodge Dart and a Plymouth Fury; the Dart was driven across the country from Fresh York City to Los Angeles in December 1961, while the Fury ended a journey from Los Angeles to San Francisco in January 1962. [27] [28] After arriving in Los Angeles with the Dart, Huebner spent two hours providing members of the media rails in the turbine-powered car. [27]
By February 1962, Chrysler had barnstormed its fleet of turbine cars to its dealers across North America, as well as in Europe and Mexico, ultimately visiting ninety cities, providing rails to almost 14,000 people, and being seen by millions more. [29] [30] The third-generation turbine program ended at the one thousand nine hundred sixty two Chicago Auto Showcase that same month, where Chrysler displayed its current turbine-powered fleet; shortly before the showcase, however, it announced an upcoming fourth-generation turbine engine that it planned to install in a limited run of 50–75 cars that would be loaned to members of the public at no cost in late 1963, [31] [32] [Five] a decision made largely due to the enthusiastic public response to the barnstorming tour. [Three]
The Chrysler Turbine Car was powered by Chrysler’s fourth-generation turbine engine, designated the A-831. Its most notable difference from its predecessor, the third-generation CR2A, was its use of twin regenerators, one mounted on either side of its gasifier, instead of a single top cover-mounted fever exchanger. [Five] This design helped the A-831 trim forty pounds (Eighteen kg) off of the weight of the CR2A, [33] reducing its weight to a relatively light four hundred ten pounds (190 kg). [34] Huebner described the engine as being similar to a jet aircraft engine and noted that it had only one spark cork and about 80% fewer parts than a typical conventional automotive piston engine. [35] Due to its construction, it did not require antifreeze, a cooling system, or a radiator, nor did it need bearings, connecting rods, or crankshafts. [31] [36]
The A-831 could operate on diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline, kerosene, and JP-4 jet fuel, [37] albeit it could not run on leaded gasoline without being bruised. [38] [39] Chrysler claimed it could also burn a multiplicity of more unusual fuels, ranging from furnace oil and perfume to peanut oil and soybean oil. [8] [31] [36] Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos even successfully ran one of the cars on tequila after Chrysler engineers confirmed that it would do so. [8] [40]
The A-831 turbine engine produced one hundred thirty hp (97 kW) and idled inbetween Legal,000 and 22,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). [35] [41] At idle, the engine’s harass did not exceed one hundred eighty °F (82 °C). [42] When driven at one hundred twenty mph (190 km/h), the turbine ran at its maximum speed of 60,000 rpm. [35] It produced one hundred thirty brake horsepower (97 kW) at Three,600 rpm and four hundred twenty five pound-feet (576 N·m) of torque. [34] [41] The A-831’s compressor had a pressure ratio of Four:1 and an efficiency of 80%, [33] while its combustor operated at 95% efficiency. [43]
Compared to conventional piston engines, turbine engines in general require less maintenance, last longer, and embark more lightly in cold conditions: [9] the A-831 began decently at temperatures as low as −20 °F (−29 °C). [44] The very first car the A-381 was installed in was a Plymouth Fury. [34] In the Ghia-built turbine car, the engine could achieve a zero to sixty mph (97 km/h) time of approximately twelve seconds. [45] Due to the exotic materials and stringent tolerances necessary to build the engines as well as the investment casting method with which they were made, the A-831 engines were very expensive to produce, [46] albeit Chrysler never disclosed their actual cost. [47]
The Turbine Car was designed in the Chrysler studios under the direction of Elwood Engel, who had worked for the Ford Motor Company before his stir to Chrysler. [Three] [48] Due to its resemblance to the Ford Thunderbird that Engel had previously designed, the car is at times referred to as the “Englebird”. [Four] [Three] [49] According to Huebner, the design was intended to challenge with the Chevrolet Corvette as well as the Thunderbird. [29]
The car’s bods were handmade by Italian design studio Ghia, which had previously built numerous concept cars for Chrysler, including an Imperial limousine and the Norseman. [50] [51] The mostly finished Turbine Car figures, which were assembled, painted, trimmed, and upholstered by Ghia in Italy, were shipped to Chrysler’s Greenfield Road turbine facility in Detroit for final assembly, which consisted of installing the turbine engines, TorqueFlite transmissions, electrical wiring, and components such as radios and heaters. [52] Building an individual car may have cost as much as $50,000 (equivalent to $386,000 in 2016) or $55,000 (equivalent to $425,000 in 2016); [53] Virgil Exner Jr. estimates that the bods themselves cost about $20,000 (equivalent to $154,000 in 2016), albeit Chrysler never exposed the cost of each turbine engine. [54] [55]
The very first five cars were ended in early one thousand nine hundred sixty two as prototypes that were used for troubleshooting; each of these five were slightly different from the others, varying in exterior color, interior upholstery, and roof material. [56] Early issues discovered with the prototypes included sluggish acceleration, which was attributed in part to the relatively intense hand-built bods, and stimulations ultimately determined to be caused by the tire treads, which were noticeable due to the unusual smoothness of the turbine engine. [57]
A total of fifty identical Turbine Cars were built inbetween October one thousand nine hundred sixty three and October 1964. [1] [Two] They were all two-door hardtop coupes featuring air-over-oil power brakes and power steering. [58] [59] The cars featured independent front suspension with a coil spring at each front wheel, thereby eschewing Chrysler’s contemporary standard independent front longitudinal torsion bar system, albeit their rear suspension utilized off-the-shelf leaf springs. All four wheels were tooled with power-assisted drum brakes. [Four]
The car’s assets is finished in a metallic, root beer-colored paint dubbed “turbine bronze”. [47] [58] It prominently features headlights mounted in chrome bezels along with deeply recessed taillights, turn signals, and pod-shaped backup lights at the rear. This turbine-inspired styling theme is also carried through to the interior with the design of the center console. [51] The interior also features bronze-colored leather upholstery and deep-pile bronze carpet, along with brushed aluminum accents. [39] The cars additionally sported black vinyl hardtop roofs, leather-upholstered bucket seats, and whitewall tires. [60] [61]
The Turbine Car’s dashboard is predominated by three large gauges: a speedometer, a tachometer, and pyrometer, the latter of which monitors the temperature of the turbine inlet, the best component in the engine. [39] The appearance of the dashboard is mostly stock, albeit the tachometer and pyrometer regularly register abnormally high figures compared to piston-engined cars: 46,000 rpm and 1,700 °F (930 °C), respectively. [51] Additionally, all fifty five turbine cars used identical ignition keys. [62]
While two of the cars gave rails to visitors at the one thousand nine hundred sixty four Fresh York World’s Fair and another went on a worldwide tour, fifty of them were lent to the general public as part of a user program. [8] The cars were given to drivers for a period of three months at no charge to them, aside from fuel costs; participants also granted Chrysler in-depth interviews within two weeks of returning their cars. [Five] [63] During the existence of the user program, which ran from September one thousand nine hundred sixty four to January 1966, [64] the cars’ operational downtime was 4% early in the program, but it was diminished to just 1% by its conclusion. [65]
The user program helped identify a multiplicity of problems and shortcomings with the cars, including starter malfunction at high altitudes, [66] the difficulty of mastering the unusual eight-step beginning procedure (which, for some users, caused mistakes that from time to time resulted in engine harm), [67] and the cars’ relatively unimpressive acceleration. [36] [68] Nonetheless, the turbine engines were remarkably durable in comparison to contemporary piston engines. [Sixty nine] The most cited advantages of the turbine engine, according to the participants’ interviews, were its sleek and vibration-free operation, diminished maintenance requirements, and ease of beginning in different conditions; the most common complaints pertained to its slow acceleration, subpar fuel economy, and relatively high noise levels. [70] [63] Further investigating the latter complaint, Chrysler found that the distinctive sound of the car’s turbine, which was reminiscent of a jet aircraft engine, [Two] was positively received by approximately 60% of those involved in the user program but disliked by toughly 20% of their fellow users. [71]
The cars featured conspicuous warning labels cautioning drivers to avoid using leaded gasoline; albeit the turbine engine could run on it, the lead additive left debilitating deposits within the engine. [72] It was the one fuel Chrysler recommended not be used, albeit it was also by far the easiest one to obtain at the time of the user program. [39] Fuels commonly used by the public participating in the user program included diesel and house heating oil. [8]
In total, more than 1,000,000 miles (1,600,000 km) were accumulated in testing by the fifty cars given to the public, which were driven by a total of two hundred three users before the program ended in January 1966. [63] [70] [73] [74] The users represented one hundred thirty three cities in all forty eight contiguous states, plus Washington, D.C.; one hundred eighty were masculine and twenty three were female, their ages ranged from twenty one to 70, and 60% of them were Chrysler owners. [75] [76]
In April 1966, product planning and development vice president Harry E. Chesebrough noted that the fifty test cars would be taken off the road, regardless of whether or not the Chrysler Turbine Car went into production. [70] After Chrysler finished the user program and other public displays of the cars, forty six of them were demolished. Forty five of these cars were burned and crushed at a scrap yard south of Detroit, while the other was ruined at Chrysler’s Chelsea Proving Grounds. [77] [78] A widely circulated explanation was that the cars were demolished to avoid a substantial tariff on the imported Ghia figures, but author Steve Lehto notes that this has been “largely discredited”. [79] The destruction of the cars was also in line with the automobile industry’s practice of not selling non-production or prototype cars to the public, and Lehto opines that it was also influenced by Chrysler’s public relations concerns, namely the potential difficulty of keeping the cars running and fears that owners would substitute the turbine powerplants with piston engines. [79] According to a Chrysler executive who was quoted in Look, “Our main objective is research, and we did not want turbines turning up on used car lots.” [79] A similar practice was later used by General Motors with its EV1 when it terminated the program and demolished the majority of the cars in 2003. [80]
Further development of turbine engines by Chrysler continued through the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s, resulting in the creation of fifth-generation and sixth-generation engines; despite promising early results and a $6.Four million contract from the Environmental Protection Agency, the turbines ultimately failed to meet government emissions regulations and achieved relatively poor fuel economy. [36] [81] [82] Charles K. Hyde theorizes that the company’s effort to both increase and diversify its turbine program ultimately proved unsuccessful and spread its “already-thin executive talent pool even thinner”. [81] An October one thousand nine hundred sixty seven Department of Commerce report bluntly concluded that the turbine engine was “unsuited to automobiles”. [83] Nonetheless, development of automotive turbines continued, in part because turbine harass contains fewer unburned hydrocarbons and lower concentrations of other pollutants; in March 1971, Sam Williams’ Williams Research Corporation continued developing a turbine engine with funding from the National Air Pollution Control Administration. [84] Chrysler’s own turbine engine development continued through the mid-1970s, when it eventually discontinued its program due to being incapable to attain enough fuel economy, according to former company powertrain engineer Chris Theodore. [Ten]
One Chrysler Turbine Car, which was painted white with blue racing stripes (the foot car not to be painted in bronze), featured in the one thousand nine hundred sixty four film The Upbeat Set. [85]
Only nine Chrysler Turbine Cars survived. [45] [86] Two are retained by Chrysler (of three primarily kept by the company), five are on display at museums around the United States, and two have been acquired by private collectors. [87] Chrysler has displayed one of its cars at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Michigan, while the five cars on museum display were donated to the Detroit Historical Museum, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, the Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. [87] In 2005, the Detroit Historical Museum lent its car, which had been in warehouse storage, to the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan. [88] All of the cars donated to museums had their fan assemblies liquidated to render their engines inoperable, [86] albeit the car wielded by the Museum of Transportation was restored and returned to operating condition in the 1980s, permitting it to sporadically emerge at car shows. [88]
Only two Chrysler Turbine Cars have been acquired by private collectors. [86] One is possessed by Frank Kleptz of Fort Wayne, Indiana; this car was originally donated to the former Harrah Collection in Reno, Nevada, before being purchased by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan and then ultimately being sold to Kleptz at a car sale in Hershey, Pennsylvania. [89] The 2nd one is wielded by comedian and television host Jay Leno, who in two thousand nine purchased one of the three Chrysler Turbine Cars that had been originally retained by the company. [88] Both privately wielded Turbine Cars are operational. [90]
Locations of surviving Chrysler Turbine Cars