Research Catalog

Title

• Chrysler's turbine car : the rise and fall of Detroit's coolest creation / Steve Lehto ; foreword by Jay Leno.

Author

Lehto, Steve

Publication

Chicago, Ill. : Chicago Review Press, c2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Leno, Jay

Description

xii, 228 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. (some col.); 24 cm.

Summary

From the Publisher: In 1964, Chrysler gave the world a glimpse of the future. They built a fleet of turbine cars-automobiles with jet engines-and loaned them out to members of the public. The fleet logged over a million miles; the exercise was a raging success. These turbine engines would run on any flammable liquid-tequila, heating oil, Chanel #5, diesel, alcohol, kerosene. If the cars had been mass produced, we might have cars today that do not require petroleum-derived fuels. The engine was also much simpler than the piston engine-it contained one-fifth the number of moving parts and required much less maintenance. The cars had no radiators or fan belts and never needed oil changes. Yet Chrysler crushed and burned most of the cars two years later; the jet car's brief glory was over. Where did it all go wrong? Controversy still follows the program, and questions about how and why it was killed have never been satisfactorily answered. Steve Lehto has interviewed all the surviving members of the turbine car program-from the metallurgist who created the exotic metals for the interior of the engine to the test driver who drove it at Chrysler's proving grounds for days on end. Lehto takes these first-hand accounts and weaves them into a great story about the coolest car Detroit ever produced.

Subject

• 1900-1999
• Automobiles, Gas-turbine > History > 20th century
• Chrysler automobile > History > 20th century
• Experimental automobiles > History > 20th century

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-218) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The promise of the jet age -- Chrysler's first "jet" car -- The fourth-generation engine : Chrysler's viable automotive powerplant -- The Ghia turbine car -- The user program : the ultimate public relations event -- The globe-trotting Ghia -- Other Ghias in America -- The user experiment -- Wrap-up of the user program -- The beginning of Chrysler's financial decline -- The problem of smog -- Chrysler's financial troubles -- Other manufacturers and the turbine -- The death of the turbine program -- The survivors -- Going for a ride in Jay Leno's Ghia.

ISBN

• 9781569765494
• 1569765499

LCCN

^^2010023636

OCLC

610819183

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library