Talk:Chrysler Turbine Car/Archive 1

The Lively Set
http://www.turbinecar.com/Lively.htm Starring Doug McClure, James Darren, Pamela Tiffen, Joanie Sommers, Peter Mann, Marilyn Maxwell and - The Fabulous Chrysler Turbine Car! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.100.250.97 (talk) 07:08, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Riding in the Vacuum Cleaner
My father got to drive the Chrysler Turbine car as the pace car at a regional race track in upstate New York in in about '64 or '65. I was in the passenger seat and one of the designers of the car was in the back seat. I was about 10 years old. You would have thought that it would have been one of the thrills of my life, but I was ticked off because I really wanted to sit in the driver's seat of one of the stock cars that were in the race and they told me I was too young. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.96.106.130 (talk) 19:25, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Problems the turbine program was not able to overcome
Here is a personal correspondence from an engineer who worked on the project:

From: Bill Gaston

Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 11:39 AM

To: Bruce Fullerton

Cc: Wayne Graefen

Subject: Re: Chrysler Turbine Car Question

Bruce,

In response to your question, what happened to the Chrysler turbine car project I will tell you what Jerry DeClair told me at a recent Chrysler Institute reunion in Detroit.

He and I started in the project in 1950. He was the compressor and turbine fellow and I was the combustion chamber, fuel system and regenerator fellow. The regenerator claims the heat discharged and puts it back into the cycle.

Jerry stayed with the project until its end and I left in 1951. Jerry told me that there were three or four problems pillaging the project which he felt were not solvable.

These were:

1. Production cost of the engine and transmission were about three times that of a comparable sized internal combusion engine and transmission.

2. Fuel consumption was not any where near competitive-- too high.

3. Idle of the unit was several thousand RPM's and even at that the delay from a traffic light was too slow and sluggish.

4. There were noise problems from the massive exhaust emitted.

This project was started because of a German developed regenerative gas turbine that was captured during WWII and given to Chrysler's research department for development into a more fuel efficient power plant for reconnaisance airplanes.

This project was one of several under way while I was there.

Bill —Preceding unsigned comment added by Isensee (talk • contribs) 14:58, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

why clean it up
why clean it up, it seems fine...


 * Agreed. This is one of the better articles on Wikipedia. The information presented is precise and to the point, and obviously hasn't been vandalized by trolls and/or overlorded by rogue admins and/or "wikinazis". If any changes need to be made, it should be limited to the addition of new historical and technical data. Those who've edited this article in the past should also be commended for their efforts. Damn fine work, kids! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.69.222.218 (talk) 06:52, 8 November 2011 (UTC)


 * recently, the speed chanel aired a segment on the Turbine Car featuring owner Frank Klepcz and that goofy asshole Dennis Guage. It would have been nice to include something more informative than Gauges stupid questions and Klepcz monosylable answers. I.E. "Looks like a 63 T-Bird to me", "Sure does". "how come?" "same designer, Engle'. Or better yet "I done had her up to 80 mile an hour once". What a shame such machinery is wasted on such a yokel. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.188.116.133 (talk • contribs)

My father drove the Chrysler Turbine car for a short period of time during 1966. We have a picture, in black & white, a side view of the car. It appears to be a silver car, and this was confirmed by my father (that it was silver) ... also, it is my brother in the photo with the car; he is standing in the photo - he was born in 1965. The emblem on the rear panel (aft of car) reads "turbine" and is not a Dodge Cornet as the article might imply. Back of the photo has writing, "JULY 1966 CHRYSLER EXPERIMENTAL TURBINE ENGINE" Regijean (talk) 21:53, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Early history
There should be more mention of Chrysler's earlier development; there were several auto engines, prototypes and concept cars, beginning in '54. (From: HowStuffWorks)
 * By 1954, the first of Chrysler's CR gas turbine engines designed for cars was ready. Dubbed "CR1" and rated at a modest 100 horsepower, it was installed in a stock-looking 1954 Plymouth Belvedere hardtop that ran successfully at the opening of Chrysler's new Chelsea, Michigan, proving grounds.

Here's the complete story from Chrysler (via turbinecar.com); this might repeat info from the article's reference #2, or might contain additional info (I haven't made a 1:1 comparison.) At any rate, I believe there should be an Early history section. ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 05:09, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Fate of the cars
The article states that the three remaining functional cars are in museums, then says two are in private hands. Which is the case? &mdash; User:ACupOfCoffee@ 20:41, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
 * You seem to be right; the numbers don't add up (or "subtract"). I'm just guessing, but perhaps the discrepancy comes from the 5 (pre-production) prototypes? ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 05:19, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

M1 tank
Although there is a link from Chrysler's turbine engine to the development of the M1 "Abrams" tank, this article's description is misleading and/or inadequate. Chrysler developed the XM1, ("X" designation = "experimental").

From: http://www.allpar.com/history/military/
 * In 1978, Chrysler delivered the first XM1 tank, the Army’s first turbine powered main battle tank...

And as mentioned, the production M1s have Honeywell AGT1500 (originally designed and produced by the Lycoming Turbine Engine Division). I can't find a direct link from Chrysler to Lycoming. Perhaps a bit of clarification is in order? ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 19:11, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Turbo Electric
My understanding is that gas turbines a re relaly efficient, but the only work well at their optimal RPMs. Be interesting to see a gas turbine/electric car, especially given that they can burn most fuels i.e. be able to agne between fossil and vegetable fules/alcohols with ease. You run the turbine at it's efficient speed to either charge batteries or if the power is required to power the motors direct i.e. generator to motors instead of generators to batteries. In effect using the batteries as a buffer when necessary. I thought about a mechanical linkage (transfer case) to change the output from the turbine to change between generator and a diff, but I suspect that all electric might be cheaper to build. Doesn't matter it's only a pipe dream. But I wish I could get ahold of one of those little gas turbines, e.g. like they use in small drones and cruise missiles and try the idea out. True batmobile sound! Jtan163 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:27, 29 July 2013 (UTC)