Chrysler turbine engine prototype cars?

I remember. My father was Sales Manager of a Chrysler dealership at the time. Chrysler had a tour of the gas turbine cars to various dealerships. We did not get to drive the car, however they fired it up several times. It was like standing in a wind tunnell if you were behind the car. The air was warm and didn't seem too toxic...but that was in the 60's when few cared.

There is more info here...

It is my dream car.

I wish I could figure out how the heat converter works.

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 16:28:29 GMT, "Ken Heslin" appears to have written:

Thank you Montgomery for those links.

This is about the engineering ideas Chrysler had built a good reputation and could have mass produced.

Too bad they never mass produced turbine cars.

Sure do remember them. Couple of difficult problems to overcome:

- Fuel consumption

- Noise

- Lots of exotic (expensive) metals required

- No real practical advantage over the internal combustion engine for cars

Great WOW factor though.

Around the same time, Chrysler was toying with novel auto A/C systems that did not require any refrigerant. Anybody remember those??

Regards, Al.

The story given by the attendents at the Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, MI is as follows:

When Chrysler was in financial difficulty before Lee Iacocca took over the government was checking out all their assetts and liabilities. They saw the turbine cars still intact although long since having served their purpose and basically told Chrysler they had to be sold or destroyed but could keep two as engineering training items. These 2 cars had to have their engines made inoperable and the story goes they were filled with concrete to satify the G-Men. The Ford Museum ended up with another complete car and one was sold to a private individual. The rest were dismantled, their engines taken completely apart and carefully strewn all over Chrysler's many buildings. When the gov't was satisfied and no longer was interested the Chrysler people recovered all the parts and built up 2 running engines and installed them into the 2 complete cars they had been allowed to save. According to the folks at the museum both cars still held by Chrysler are fully operable, as are all the vehicles that belong to the Chrysler Museum.

According to the museum staff 10 cars were reassembled after Chrysler emerged from their red ink. 2 remain at Chrysler, 1 at Ford, and 1 privately owned. No mention was made of the other 6. The one owned privately is complete and driveable and actually was featured on a tv car buff show a couple of years ago. I don't know if the Ford Museum car runs or is only a static display.

I've visited the mueum twice in the 6 years it has been in existence and heard more or less the same story from 2 different mueum guides.

They were demonstrated and displayed possibly using a plethora of fuels before the days of unleaded fuel, pcv valves, catalytic converters, environmental emission laws?

I remember seeing them displayed at the Ohio State Fair for a couple years in a row. Then nothing more was heard about maybe when they would ever be manufactured. They just disappeared.

Abbra cadabbra Poof! Poof!

I appreciate your good rendition of automotive history. Apparently, you do deserve respect for your attention to detail and facts. I applaud you. Always glad to read your posts. Keep up the good work.

The HVAC system used on the Turbine cars was a ROVAC .. Made in Massachusetts, couple miles from where I live. The ROVAC system sure looks promising, almost something for nothing. Air is compressed / de compressed to produce either heated or chilled air.

Norton Company entered auto racing to test ceramic engine parts, and held a key intrest in ROVAC, as the ceramic engines were designed without a conventional cooling system, the theroy being the ceramic can take the heat, and doesn't need a power sapping cooling system.

Turbine cars, Ceramic engines, ROVAC HVAC great ideas, too bad they are memories, not deFacto products. What gets me is, why weren't ROVAC's sold for home use ? Would be a natural for RV's

Hi all

Mine too :-)...

It is usually called a regenerator :-)

Here come´s the shortest explanation i can think of: As in all other internal combustion engines the power comes from heating the air after it has been compressed. The regenerator is a neat way of using the heat otherwise lost in the exhaust.

Have a look at the drawing top left in the link you sent us:

Happy motoring Henrik

This is an example of Yankee ingenuity and American engineering at the very best.

It was from a bygone era of private industry initiative to show their very best of a new idea.

I got to ride in one. Was only 15 but I still remember it as it was when I first started to become a car nut. Was at the '68 Worlds Fair in NY, they had a little "track" that they took you around at 10 - 15 mph as a back seat passenger. Got a ride across a little pond in a Amphicar there also.

Thanks for the kind comments Ken. As far as being a historian, well....... I guess I just have always liked cars of all kinds and find things like the Turbine cars interesting.

The story of the Turbines, as I heard it from the museum guides is typical of whatwent on during the early 70's at Chrysler. There wouldn't even be a museum if a certain few employees hadn't "stolen" all the old stored cars before the assets were counted and sold as a way of generating some income during the reconstruction under Iacocca. The cars were removed at night and on weekends in parts trucks, etc and taken to private garages here and there. No one wanted to lose the history of the company so they did this. Upper management had no idea this happened until after the fact and the red tape had been dissolved. They were then informed and the cars brought back to Auburn Hills where they remain today.

This story of the "stolen" museum cars has been well documented in several leading auto magazines and books pertaining to Chrysler Corp.

Makes you glad that some at the Big 3 are and were car guys too, not just bean counters.