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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
Modern Marvels made an episode that examined failed inventions. It briefly described the effort by Chrysler to develop a turbine driven car in the 60s and 70s. They actually had 50 or so cars built, and they worked fine, but the program was deemed impractical and canceled in 1981. One of the reasons given was the need for alloys that held up under high temperatures.
Turbine advantages include about 80% fewer parts than a typical gas/diesel engine and the ability to run on just about any flammable liquid or gas.
With new technologies available today maybe this could be made practical. The flexible fuel options would be a big advantage with all the oil issues today.
It sure would be fun to have a big budget and the time to play with this concept.
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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
There have been a few turbine powered race cars. Remember the STP turbine indy car in the 60s? And the land speed record is held by turbine powered cars.
I like the idea of building a still and making my own fuel 
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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
Frank, I think every non-drooling American knows that government entanglements spell doom for any project
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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
EW, the turbine car would require a tap into the fuel line with a petcock located on the dash. Lap of luxury I say.
Remember at the end of "Back to the Future" where Doc loaded the Delorean up with old banana peels and other stuff from the garbage? With a turbine car maybe you could install a still in the trunk and fuel the car with garbage in the same way
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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
Cutter, the link is coming up empty. The show said the Chrysler turbine car was designed by Ghia of Italy (IIRC) who built the car there and then shipped them to the states where the turbine was installed.
A little research and it turns out that the turbine would indeed be impractical. Turbines of the 60s were about 20% efficient, gas engines about 40% and diesels about 45%. The turbine efficiency can be increased but it's not easy. Sophisticated turbines used for electrical generation are now in the upper 40% efficiency range, but they use a combination of technologies that are impractical for cars. These technologies include steam cooling of the turbine blades to allow much higher operating temperatures (raising efficiency to the 35-37% range) and combined cycle, where the gas turbine exhaust at 1000 degF is recovered to make steam that powers a steam turbine which adds another 10-12%.
But it's fun to think about
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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
Batteries are an environmental debacle in the making. Fuel cells require hydrocarbons or hydrogen. Hydrogen isn't an energy source, at least not in a way that we have easy access to here on earth.
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