Hendryk
Banned
In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a fair bit of speculation that turbine engines would replace internal combustion engines in land vehicles. The Chrysler company, in particular, tried to get on the market a line of turbine-powered cars. Here is the '61 Turboflite concept car:
From Wikipedia:
From Wikipedia:
Did the turbine engine suffer from inherent flaws that would have made it unsuitable as the default powerplant for land vehicles? If not, how could we end up with turbine engines being at least as common as internal combustion engines by the early 21st century? Failing that, could we see them used in specialty vehicles, trains, or ships?The fourth-generation Chrysler turbine engine ran at up to 44,500 revolutions per minute, according to the owner's manual, and could use diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline, kerosene, JP-4 jet fuel, and even vegetable oil. The engine would run on virtually anything and the President of Mexico tested this theory by running one of the first cars—successfully—on tequila. Air/fuel adjustments were required to switch from one to another, and the only evidence of what fuel was being used was the odor of the exhaust.
The engine had a fifth as many moving parts as a piston unit (60 rather than 300). The turbine was spinning on simple sleeve bearings for vibration-free running. Its simplicity offered the potential for long life, and because no combustion contaminants enter engine oil, no oil changes were considered necessary. The 1963 Turbine's engine generated 130 brake horsepower (97 kW) and an instant 425 pound-feet (576 N·m) of torque at stall speed, making it good for 0-60 mph in 12 seconds at an ambient temperature of 85 °F (29 °C)—it would sprint quicker if the air was cooler and denser.
The absence of a distributor and points, the solitary start-up spark plug and the lack of coolant eased maintenance, while the exhaust did not contain carbon monoxide, unburned carbon, or raw hydrocarbons. Nevertheless, the turbine generated nitrogen oxides and the challenge of limiting them helped to kill the program.