Posted on 03/26/2021 6:04:26 AM PDT by C19fan
When it was unveiled at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, Ford's monolithic turbine-powered truck - affectionately dubbed 'Big Red' - was hailed as the future of motoring.
At 13 feet tall, it stood two and a half times the height of an average car. Its tandem trailers, stretching out 100 feet, were twice the length of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
And its futuristic 600-horsepower gas turbine engine convinced both the car-loving public and Ford motor executives that Big Red would usher in a new era of American motoring.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Cool! Where and when was that?
Here’s a different link as daily mail wants me to turn off my ad blocker:
Thanks! A $6.00 bearing was the culprit..
Yeah, that was what I had been told years ago.
Guy on the left seems to love his job a little too much.
WOW, they made them wear logo pajamas.
It also had a well known driver - I am thinking Parnelli Jones, but not certain after many decades.
Some of the tapes on that race are amazing - Jones was passing other cars like they were standing still.
He was leading the race, but broke down at some point, and retired.
I remember that race. I think Jones was gaining something around three seconds per lap when a bearing ate itself.
They did saw one on the road in 69 the fuel cost was to much to handle.
My Dad was an engineer on the Chrysler Turbine Car program. He got to bring one home for a week. The three kids had to fight over the back seats. There were two bucket style seats by the doors and an uncomfortable “hump” in the middle. We got lots of stares from other motorists.
He also brought home the white turbine car used in the movie “The Lively Set”. My Mom was thrilled to sit in the same seat as driver James Darren. Good times.
A bearing failed with 1 1/2 laps to go and that car was leading.
I cannot remember who built the car....
Which one? The guy third from left playing pocket pool or the guy far left holding his junk?
1967 was an amazing year at Indianapolis. Each year, the track speeds increased significantly. The traditional paper fold-out from the speedway program, having to change the lap time table.
Till 1967, a person could rely upon something of a typical wait time, until the cars came around the track to Turn 4, at, and near, the start of the race.
Suddenly, 1967 changed that, dramatically.
Near the flag station, the Green Flag having been thrown by Pat Vidan, we waited as usual, after the cars had past out of sight in Turn 1.
There was the usual distant roar of the engines of the pack, from then on; the sound a bit fainter along most of the back stretch - relative to our position. We would listen to the radio and watch the telephone station on an old wood platform near where Pat Vidan stood.
The engines. Earlier in the 1960’s, there were still many Offenhauser engines, and they are incredibly loud. But over the years, a few more of the V-8’s would show, also being loud but with a higher pitch. Usually, going into Turn 1, the old Offy’s would bark and backfire, as drivers let off the gas for a moment.
All that, gone from Turn 1, as the pack disappeared, after the Green flag.
So, we waited. Figuring where the pack was - probably Turn 3, and a brief pause.
When suddenly, the bright red-orange STP 40 car appeared all by itself in Turn 4.
It was stunning. At a glance, STP 40 appeared and entered the main straight . . . and then some cars of the pack appeared in Turn 4, at least 100 yards or more behind STP 40.
What we heard, as STP 40 came down the main straightway, was something that the usual race day visitor had never before heard at the track.
The air - slipping, streaming, and whipping by the body of the car. That is what you heard.
You could make out some of the faint whine of the Pratt & Whitney turbine - masked by the sound of the air being parted and passing over and around the car.
As if you took a heavy beach towel, held it up in the air in the back of a friend’s pickup truck, and heard that towel whip, as your friend sped down some beach road.
And then there was a little pause and almost a strange quiet - despite the oncoming roar of the pack.
As usuall, the pack roared by and into Turn 1, more barking and backfires by the Offy’s. (It was a lot louder than today’s.)
And we waited again.
Much sooner than expected, there was STP 40 again in Turn 4 all by itself; but this time, the lead was fantastic. Another 100 yards and more, well ahead of the pack.
Another lap, and STP 40 was already south of the Pit Entrance before the pack began to appear.
After the race, a Pratt & Whitney rep., seated near us, vanished - in order to investigate what happened to his engine.
The bearing gets the story, but actually, the source of that problem was a transmission seal that was failing.
The turbine powered vehicle’s vulnerability, in terms of its prospects back then, had been the transmission. A bit more accurate: the willingness of companies to mass produce the expensive transmission.
Yet, the 1960’s were a good time for gas turbine development - for imagining what might be.
One project, was to use gas turbines for pumping water to higher altitudes - a project for big city fire departments. But again, too expensive.
From my perspective, Detroit figured that regular passenger car owners, would not be a good market for gas turbine powered vehicles, but the large truck market might be.
I have forgotten the gentleman who was The Voice of Racing for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. He might have been Sid Collins.
Many visitors would listen to him on the AM radio circuit, and also carry a stop watch.
We used the paper foldout lap time table that had rows of speeds - and lap times . . . and thereby, fans calculated how fast their car was going.
Plus, lots of sun tan lotion.
Batman’s Batmobile
https://www.mecum.com/lots/CH1015-224561/1966-batmobile-replica/
” That 850 degree exhaust was a deal breaker.”
That is getting to be less uncommon. For the record, a fire truck will set a bush on fire in a church parking lot if it begins re-gen. That was a crowd pleaser. I was disappointed when Moses didn’t show up with some new commandments or something. (^;
Or sunburn ;-)
Great narrative about "being there" with a mix of Offenhauser, V8, and Pratt & Whitney.
Awesome!
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