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 ...
Ping!........................
I got to ride in a Chrysler Turbine car, it was amazing!
“I guess it did not work out.”
Small gas turbines aren’t efficient. Too much blade surface area per amount of airflow. Too much turbulence and boundary effect within the turbine.
A turbine car was raced in the Indianopolis 500 in 1968. If I remember correctly it did very well and almost won.
Yes they did make a few turbine powered cars. That 850 degree exhaust was a deal breaker.
Jay Leno has a turbine Chrysler.
It did very well. Then the rules were changed to limit intake area, and the advantage was lost for fundamental engineering reasons.
Jay Leno debunked the hot exhaust on his webcast 'Leno's Garage' expose on his Chrysler turbine car.
The Mammoth Car from Speed Racer.
It almost won the Indianapolis 500.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2018/05/25/fifty-year-flashback-lotus-turbine-car-almost-wins-indy
One could envision an entire highway littered with smoking hulks, sunk into several inches of hot asphalt.
I went through Big Red when I was a kid, saw the soda dispenser and decided right there,
“I want to be a truck driver!”
“The Mammoth Car from Speed Racer.”
That was my first thought as well!
Andy Granitelli’s STP Turbine Special, Came within 1 lap I remember, Broke down somehow..
“I want to be a truck driver!”
Did you? I was around some of the industry. I had a couple
of friends that were cross country drivers. But was I was
never interested.
Yes, Chrysler made a turbine engine that would run on nearly anything flammable. Look for it in Jay Leno’s Garage on youtube.
No. They never put the soda machines in, so I became an Elec Engineer instead. We had vending machines in the office, so kind of the next best thing ;).
In the 1967 Indy 500 the STP-Paxton Turbocar with driver Parnelli Jones was the only Turbocar Entrant (Car #40)
Parnelli Jones started 6th and came in 6th although a bearing failure forced him to stop from the lead with three laps to go. The sponsor was STP Oil Treatment and the owner was Andy Granatelli. The chassis was a Granatelli and the engine was a Pratt & Whitney turbine, a slightly different variant than the Pratt & Whitney turbines used in 1968. Parnelli Jones completed 196 laps, earned $55,767. and led 171 laps. Racing-Reference.info
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