Over the span of 35 years, Chrysler has been working on turbine car projects. During this time, various development stages of turbines found their way into regular cars from Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth. There was one car, however, that stood out of the crowd. It was designed by Chrysler but coach built by hand within Ghia in Italy. It was powered by the fourth generation of Chrysler gas turbines; 55 were made in total. 50 of them were lent to 203 consumers for evaluating purposes and they were also part of a great marketing campaign by Chrysler.
It all began with the first generation turbine, which was installed into a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere. The car, and thus also the project, were unveiled to the public on March 25, 1953. Over the next couple of years, the gas turbines were further refined and became labeled as the second and third generations. Some of these cars were driven on cross-country trips, where they achieved similar gas mileage as contemporary V8 piston powered cars.
The advantages of the gas turbine were vast, although not all of them were similarly marketed or of much importance to the public at that time. Clearly, one of the biggest benefits was the ability to run the turbine on basically any flammable liquid: diesel, kerosene, jet fuel or even alcohol (apparently someone even run the car on Chanel No. 5 perfume). However, this fact was widely overlooked at a time when the gallon of fuel was around $0.30. It just didn’t matter in the 1960s. A decade later, when the oil crisis hit with a full swing, gas prices drastically increased to $1.20/gallon. By then, however, the turbine program was basically doomed to fail. Also, Chrysler was struck with big financial problems.
Other advantages were the fact that a turbine only used around 20% of parts of a traditional piston engine; it was thus lightweight, showed hardly any wear and the turbine cars were known for their smooth ride with hardly any vibrations since no parts scraped at each other. Also, the cars started without a problem even in harsh winter conditions and heat for the interior was instantly available.
Probably the most recognized and wildly popular turbine car was the Chrysler / Ghia built fourth generation. Elwood Engel was responsible for much of the design (he is also known for designing other cars, such as the Ford Thunderbird), while Ghia in Italy hand-built them (exterior, interior) before the cars were sent back to America where they received their powertrains. 55 of the “Ghia Turbine Cars” were produced, all but one sporting a “Turbine Bronze” paint job. The first five produced out of the 55 cars were prototypes, all different in styling. Only one was finished off in white, it later stared in a Hollywood production called “A Lively Set”.
The first of these Ghia manufactured turbine cars, which were simply labeled “Turbine” by Chrysler, were driven in Detroit in early 1962. Around a year later, on May 14 of 1963, the cars and a very unique customer evaluation program were made public. It would turn out to be one big, successful marketing campaign for Chrysler (unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the whole turbine program). Chrysler was about to lend the cars out to 203 people to test drive them for three months each, while they reported on how the car performed and how and what they liked or disliked. There never was a program like this, and there never has been since.
Chrysler, or rather the company that handled the requests, received over 30’000 applications for the 203 positions. On October 29, 1963, the first car was handed over to a lucky winner who got to drive the car basically free of cost for three months. Everything but fuel was paid for by Chrysler, including insurance. The event was largely covered by the media. Chrysler’s marketing and communication’s team did a great job in creating huge interest within the public and newspapers / magazines, which it managed to keep up until the very last car was returned on January 28, 1966, which also marked the end of the program. During this time, the participants racked up well over one million miles on the 46 cars used.
More or less everyone involved in the program loved the car, as did many of the reporters that got to drive one. During the 1964/1965 world fair in New York, Chrysler counted 18.5 million visitors to their exhibition, most of whom certainly came to see the turbine car. The lines of people waiting for a ride in a Ghia Turbine Car were supposedly very, very long. Nevertheless, Chrysler gave rides to 350’000 people.
In general, the cars were a success. However, there were issues that needed to be addressed before mass production would be feasible. While many problems could be sorted out with reasonable work (i.e. faster throttle response or deletion of lag when accelerating from standstill), one big and very costly issue could not be eliminated: the investment casting process needed to produce four of the most critical parts to the turbine.
During the same time, air-conditioning was becoming a wildly popular option among car buyers, which the Ghia’s were not fitted with. For a possible mass production, it would be a necessary addition to the car. In order to do run such a system, however, the engineers needed to get more power out of the turbine, which meant higher internal temperatures; and thus, even more expensive research into heat-resistant metals and production processes.
In addition, mass production required major investing in new tooling and the creation of a supply line, training of dealerships, technicians and so on.
Chrysler, already back in 1963, stated it would not sell any of the Ghia Turbines to the public. They did receive quite a few calls from people that really wanted to have a car right after the program ended.
Around 1967, 46 of the 55 cars were destroyed. Chrysler kept three while six were sold to museums to be put on display. Various reasons as to why that was done circulated. Import taxes on the Ghia produced bodies are still in the air (with doubt, though) but it seemed that Chrysler did not want the cars to end up on scrap yards or with piston V8s under their hoods due to lack of spare parts (which might also have shed a bad light on the program from a public relations perspective). After all, who would be able to do maintenance work on a turbine car?
To make matters worse for the turbine, after the oil crisis took its toll on the assumption that oil and gas will always be cheap, the government stepped in. With the creation of stricter tailpipe emission regulations, the “CAFE Standard” (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) and the Clean Air Act of 1970, Chrysler pulled the plug on the program. They did get very close to fulfill many or most of the regulations with the sixth and seventh generation turbines, though. Considering the ability to run on different fuels, it might have been a great option.
On top of that, Chrysler was also facing a financial crisis. For too long, Chrysler neglected to build smaller cars when the market demanded it. When they finally did realize what was going on, Japanese brands and the local competition had taken their market share.
Note:
The source for the content of this blog post is the book “Chrysler’s Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit’s Coolest Creation” by Steve Lehto. Americanaut is in no way affiliated with the book’s author; however, I can strongly recommend the book to any interested person. The above excerpt can be looked at as a brief summary. The book reviews in depth the interesting people behind the projects, the time period and tells the story of many of the participants in Chrylser’s turbine program.
If you’re interested in further internet reading about the Ghia Turbine Car, please consider some of the following links:
– Article on the Ghia Turbine Car in Automotive Traveler Magazine
– Hemmings Blog
– Chrysler 300 Club
– Turbinecar.com
– Turbine Car site on Facebook (by Steve Lehto)
Below you can find videos, further exploring the turbine concept.
Jay Leno, famed car collector and former talk show host, owns one of the 9 remaining cars – in running condition. You can see him taking his Ghia Turbine for a spin here:
Jay, if you ever take it out for a drive and need a co-pilot – I’ll even try to manage flying in from Switzerland…