6 – Chrysler Turbine Car
In the optimistic ‘jet age’ of the early post-war 1950s, a number of car companies (including Fiat, General Motors, Renault and Rover) developed and demonstrated dramatic gas turbine-powered prototypes.
Rover’s P4-based ‘JET 1’ of 1950, for example, set a speed record for a jet turbine car in Belgium in 1952, where it achieved an impressive 150mph. Rover went on to develop this engine technology well into the 1960s, with its Rover-BRM competition racer competing in the Le Mans 24 Heures race in a special ‘experimental’ class with Grand Prix World Champion Graham Hill behind the wheel in 1963 and ’64, and joined by Jackie Stewart for 1965.
Chrysler went one step further by putting its Turbine Car into very limited production (just 55 units) between 1963 and ’64 to research gas turbine use on the road. The Turbine Car could operate on many different fuels, requiring less maintenance and lasting longer than conventional piston engines, although the jet engines were much more expensive to produce.
After its own in-house testing, Chrysler conducted a user programme from October 1963 to January 1966 that involved 203 individual drivers in 133 different cities across the United States, cumulatively driving more than one million miles.
This programme helped Chrysler to determine a variety of problems with the gas turbine cars, notably their complicated starting procedure, unremarkable acceleration, poor fuel economy and high noise levels. Chrysler’s experience also revealed key advantages of the turbine engine though, including remarkable durability, smooth operation, and relatively modest maintenance requirements. After the conclusion of the user programme in 1966, Chrysler reclaimed all 55 Turbine Cars and destroyed all but nine of them.
Turbine engines then lay dormant for some years, until Toyota revived the technology for car use with its 1987 GTV (Gas Turbine Vehicle) concept coupe. The GTV used Toyota’s Gas Turbine II engine, with a one-stage turbine used to drive the compressor while a second turbine was connected to the drive shaft. The second stage also took the place of the fluid flywheel (torque converter). Low-scale GTV production was planned, but this never materialised and Toyota lost interest in gas turbine motive power, along with the rest of the motor industry.