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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
So, when are you "flying" into to DC with your hand held out?
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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
KW; I saw that show and remember the auto magazine writeups on how we would all drive turbines with a George Jetson propeller on the roof. I do remember seeing one of the Chrysler concept turbine cars somewhere at an auto show back then, it was an ugly with a capital U beast tho. I think it was the science channel that had something about turbines being used in locomotives. Some grant money was involved in a bigger city nearby that had eight or ten turbine engine city busses, I don't know what they fueled them with. Our son was selling them the special turbine oil that was called for by the manufacturer at something like fifty bucks a gallon or so till a bean counter on the city budget dept. said it was foolish to spend that kind of money for oil. He had the city maintinence people use common 10/30 oil, KABLOOEY, end of turbines.
Art Arfons used to build some really fast land speed record cars with them and I see a few tractor pull tractors using them now. Lots of times those kind of guys sort of lead the way for future design, so who knows we all may drive turbine/hybrid/electric/hydrogen fueled cars after a while.
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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
KW: Was that make a still (comma) AND make your own fuel  ?
If you're talking diesel there's a product from Germany available here called Diesel Secret. It converts pretty much any clean, recycled or virgin veggy oil into diesel simply by pouring a small bottle into the mix.
As far a stills go, Kenny being a redneck can prolly loan you one of his.
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Is it time to bring back the turbine car
One of you guys give Obama a call, surely he has some stimulis money for us to fool around with some new ideas.
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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
They used a 62 Dodge for testing, see it on Allpar.
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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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01-23-2009, 13:31 
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