I was fortunate to have been selected to ride in a Chrysler Turbine Car on a test track at the 1964-1965 NY World's Fair. It was quite a car and I still remember the ride today. I was 12 years old. As a keepsake, to commemorate my selection,I was given a model of the car, which is still on display in my home today.
@@danieljarrelljr5640 It really came down to the fact that a piston engine at that time cost about $300 to produce. A turbine engine cost $10,000. There was no way to make the car affordable or profitable. Then, emissions testing became a concern and the project was scrapped as a result of these two factors.
I AM 72 YEARS OLD NOW, BUT WHEN I WAS 17 AND LIVING IN A SUBURB OF DETROIT, MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR, DICK WANTON, WORKED FOR CHRYSLER AND HAD THIS CAR IN HIS GARAGE. I WENT FOR A RIDE ONE SATURDAY, AND I STILL REMEMBER TODAY WHAT A COOL CAR IT WAS.
SonnyGTA he is 72 years old show some respect ! beside (with all due respect) all old people talk loud , even on youtube , hell look how loud Jay talks lol , GET USE TO IT !
My Dad was one of the lucky winners of the 3 month test drive of this car. His time actually turned into 4.5 months as the engine fried when he was in South Dakota. They had to fly out a new engine, engineering crew/mechanics, and a driver to Sioux Falls to get it back to us in Wisconsin, so they gave us some extra time. I was 8 years old and remember riding in the backseat. The center console was fascinating to me, it was so different from our other cars! Dad was a bit of a gearhead and liked a little growl in his exhaust, so this was by far the quietest car that I rode in as a kid. Extremely smooth acceleration and a great ride, it was Dads 1st "luxury car". Weirdest thing Dad did was to keep a few bottles of whiskey in the trunk for spare fuel! I do have a model that Chrysler gave to all members of the test drive family, and a brochure that we got with it and would love to reunite it with this car if possible!
A family friend that worked for Chrysler had one of these to test drive and came by to show it to us, and took us for a ride. My Dad and I thought it was so cool, especially due to the styling and unique jet engine sound. I was the solo back seat co-pilot, as neither of my sisters had any interest. Little did I know, or did anyone know, how rare of a thing that was that I got to experience. Even thought that ride was about 56 years ago, I’ve never forgotten it... RIP Dad, and his friend Bob that treated us to a ride in the shiny penny as I called it.
This and other rare cars, couldn't be in better hands. Here's a collector who recognizes the signifigance of rare cars, and instead of locking them away, he share's everything about them. Thank you Mr. Leno!!! We greatly appreciate your custodianship of such historically important cars, and their importance to the history of this country.
Very cool. I was showing my 85 year old neighbor the video and he gets out a VHS copy of him driving the car around the Indianapolis 500 track. He worked as a salesman for Palmer Dodge and had the opportunity to drive it on the track. Very COOL!!!!
Beta came out in 1975, the Video Home System ( VHS ) came out in 1976. But they were as big as a suitcase, weighed about 40-50 pounds and the first Beta cost $1,500 dollars! The blank tapes ran about 20 to 30 bucks, movies were $80 dollars (or more). But by the late 80's these had come way down, in price and size and weight.
I worked at Chrysler engineering in the 70’s and we had several turbines that were installed in some of the C body vehicles. Jay was right about the short comings of the turbine. To me this was one of the last truly innovative vehicles to come out of Detroit. If anyone deserves to own one of these it’s Mr. Leno. He is a excellent custodian of automotive history and along with his celebrity status, he’s able to share it with us all. Thanks Jay, from one gear head to another!
When I was 12 years old (1964) I saw a Chrysler Turbine Car at Grossmount Shopping Center in La Mesa, CA. It was on an elevated platform. They started the engine , balanced a nickel on edge on the engine. They spun the engine to the 60 MPH equivalent. The nickel never moved. The exhaust gases were remarkably cool. And the car was just good-looking. A few months later I saw another turbine car in Anoka, MN. This car was just unforgettable. Thanks, Jay. Brian Grittner, Little Canada, MN
I saw the same demonstration at Midtown Mall in Rochester, NY in 1964. My dad and I got a chance to talk to the Chrysler representative as well. I was eight years old. Great memory.
Of all the vehicles Jay has, this is the one I would pick. Rare beast made by one of the big three, cool design and far out technology that never made production. Custodian is the ideal term here and Jay is the caretaker. Bravo
I was lucky enough to be hired [temporarily] at NBC in Burbank [in 1998] to swap out their old IBM PCs for the newer ones throughout their offices (including Jay's). But the best part of it was everyday, Jay would drive a different one of his cars to work. He was very affable and willing to talk to anyone who "flagged him down" to talk cars --- I talked to him a couple of times about MY favorites --- 60s muscle cars. One day he brought a super-vintage World War II motorcycle with sidecar attached. During his "lunchtime," Jay would give some of his workers rides in the sidecar --- he would drive around the block, I think --- just enough to give his passenger a thrill.
If this was any other man, we'd all think he was just a snobby rich man showing off. But it's Jay Leno, the chillest man to exist, who loves cars, drives cars, works on cars, and from what I've heard, will geek out about cars with anyone.
Jay is a very generous guy, and as he said in the video, he considers himself just a custodian of his cars. He's like a neighbor who owns cools stuff and enjoys sharing the experience with his friends.
I don't find myself jealous of his success, and I admire his passion for cars: I am an amateur in comparison, but I don't begrudge him for buying antique cars with his money. I think any of us with any interest in cars would enjoy collecting a few. Leno is just far more successful than the average person :-)
Growing up in western Pennsylvania, the Chrysler dealership was behind our house on the other side of a fence. Almost daily I would walk through the lot to home (and buy an orange or grape Crush in their outside pop cooler...i.e., like a large refrigerator on its back). One day I noticed the Turbine on display and a Chrysler rep giving a demonstration. At 14 years old, I stood in amazement with the rest of the crowd. For me, the height of technical wizardry about the car (besides it being a jet on four wheels) was when the rep lifted the hood and placed a nickel on its edge and stood it atop of the running turbine! It stayed there on its edge seemingly forever, never moving. I bought my Crush and walked home thinking of the world yet to come.
Right. A few years later landed Armstrong on the Moon using a rope-core computer. Nowadays we have 76 genders and unisex restrooms. What a time to be alive...
Jay Monay - I was lucky enough that my uncle Michael Manns is a specialist at restoring classic cars. He had a Chrysler Turbine car in his shop one summer (I won’t say whose, because it would sound like I was lying, but feel free to look it up) when I was there to visit. We did the nickel balancing thing! The smoothness and uniqueness stood out just as much to a young millennial as it did for Bill Tyson (I’m also from western PA, but Mike lives in Missouri)! Point is, these cars thankfully do still exist even though they didn’t go into production, and it is possible to see one at a car show or museum. I hope you do see one someday!
@@vitkriklan2633 Without LBJ, his so-called "Great Society", giveaway programs to undeserving minorities and "womyn", we'd be driving FLYING cars, terraforming the moon, colonizing Mars, and sending probes to Alpha Centauri. Most, if virtually not ALL technical advances, are due to WHITE people, especially GERMANS. Hence why the present-day war on whites, especially the white male, is SUICIDE in the long run.
Absolutely one of the most amazing and attractive cars ever to come out of Detroit. So glad to see it in Jay's collection where I know it will be preserved and loved for future generations.
I have so much more respect for Jays car collection than any other rich persons collection of new Lamborghini and Ferrari, this is actually a contribution to our history. If I got similar wealth I would also dedicate it at preserving unique and odd examples of automotive history. Dear Jay, I am grateful for what you have chosen to spend your money and time on and I think the future generations will also appreciate it.
Expensive, lackluster performance if driven like a normal car, poor mileage, emissions problems, fouled up if fed leaded gas... I love these cars, they're beautiful to look at and the engineering inside is fascinating. But it's easy to see why this 1960s iteration of the concept was never a commercial success. With more development, this idea could possibly have been more successful later on (Chrysler's turbine tech did find its way into the M1Abrams tank), but Chrysler was running into financial problems by the time they had made much progress on the above issues, and had to drop the unproven and risky development program in order to secure assistance.
@@SynchronizorVideos I completely agree with you on everything... until the M1 Abrams. The AGT-1500 gas turbine engine then known as the Jumo GT-15 was designed by Nazi engineer Dr. Anselm Franz while working at Jumo, Franz relocated to America and continued development of the Jumo GT-15/ PLT-15 at Lycoming. The Lycoming PLT-15 became a government program in 1965 as the TF-15 for the Navy and the AGT-1500 for the Army. Chrysler had nothing to do with the development of M1 or the AGT-1500.
@@sandervanderkammen9230 Well, the M1 was developed by Chrysler Defense, who beat out GM (whose tank prototype was using a piston diesel engine) in the initial design competition during the 1970s. So the tank is absolutely a Chrysler design. But you're correct, the turbine engine itself was the Lycoming AGT1500, and not related to Chrysler's in-house line of experimental turbine engines that went into the 1960s Turbine Cars (which Chrysler continued to play with and refine through most of the 1970s). What I should have said was that it was Chrysler's CONCEPT of a multifuel gas turbine prime mover plus a multi-speed transmission that was successful in the M1 tank, not Chrysler's turbine engine itself.
@@SynchronizorVideos Ah... NO. The M1 Abrams was designed by German manufacturer Krauss Maffei in conjunction with the U.S. Army Ordnance Dept. As the XM815 The General Motors X-M1 prototype powered by the Continental ACVR-1360 turbocharged multi-fuel Diesel engine won the Army's XM1 trials. Congress, after heavy lobbying by Chrysler and the State of Ohio overturned the Army's choice and forced it to buy the Chrysler bid. A very shameful chapter in American politics
My grandfather was head of quality control at New Process Gear in Syracuse NY during this project, and he used to tell stories of his trips to Detroit and rides in the Turbine. It was the pride of everyone involved. Thanks for the ride!
Lipe-Rollway and NPG had their fingers in everything from the 50s through the early 70s. If it had gears, bearings or mechanical gearboxes CNY produced the best.... Brown and Lipe, Crucible steel.... all the good stuff!
Someone who lived in Westvale on or near Parsons Road was lucky enough to have the use of one of these cars. I saw it many times since I didn’t live too far from there. I grew up around race cars so knew the Chrysler Turbine was something very special. I’m happy Jay Leno owns one of these and will preserve it.
My uncle, a doctor and avid car collector, was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take one of these turbine cars for a drive. One of his patients happened to be the guy in charge of the shop servicing these cars for the southeastern United States. I was just a kid at the time, but I remember wishing I could have been along on that ride. Still do.
My father-in-law was an engineer at Chrysler and worked on the turbine project and I've heard many stories throughout the the years. He's gone now, but seeing the car (and the one at Peterson Automotive Museum) is such a treat. Thanks for sharing it, Jay.
I recall like it was yesterday standing on a sidewalk at an intersection in northern Detroit when this strange car stopped at the traffic light 10 feet from me. I was only 11 or 12 and already a car nut but this one I couldn’t figure out. More than how it looked, the loud whine coming from it is what really grabbed me. If you’ve ever been in a car with a turbocharger it sounded like that whine without the other engine noise. One of the older boys shouted “it’s the turbine car”. Way cool.
I just wanna say, Jay, I love your show and watch it often when I come home from work. A customer of mine, used to be a Chrysler employee, called Jay and told him that he had the operators manual for this car. As the story was told to me, Jay flew he and his wife out to California, put them up in a hotel, and gave them a tour of the shop in exchange for the manual. Very cool. Jay seems like a real down to earth, cool guy.
See my comment above. The man you refer to is Mark Olson from Duluth, MN. His family was chosen as one of the evaluation families during the early 1960's. Mark Olson is the keeper of the flame for the turbine car. He has every known bit of literature, film clips, etc. Go to turbinecar.com It's a great website.
I am now 63 years old when I was 13 my father, who was a Chrysler mechanic, took our family to a showing of the Turbine car at Northwest Plaza in Hazelwood Mo a suburb located NW of St. Louis. In the video Jay sets a glass of water on the engine to show that there was no vibration, at the Hazelwood show I saw one of the spokesmen take a nickel and stand it on edge where Jay had the glass of water... very impressive. Everything about the car would just knock your socks off. You had to see it up close. To this day I still like the color chosen for it.
I had my first and only experience with a Chrysler turbine car at the Dekalb County fair in Auburn Ind. in September 1964. I was 19 years old at the time and a freshman at Indiana Univ. I came home for the fair and had no inkling I would see this revolutionary car. It was slowly cruising around the court house square and I marveled at the soft, low pitched turbine "whine" it emitted. I never had the opportunity to sit in it and I do not recall this was permitted while it sat on display, roped off midst the carnival gala that crowded the square. I was aware of the basics of this revolutionary design since my uncle had schooled me ahead of time. In the 1920's he was a test driver for Auburn, Cord, Dusenberg that was headquartered in Auburn. He also was a pilot and barnstormed around the Midwest, performed skywriting at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and eventually became a corporate pilot. Needless to say he loved anything that was mechanical and went fast. Although my encounter with the turbine car was brief it is vividly etched in my memory.
I saw one of these cruising along Mac Arthur Blvd. near Coolidge Ave. In Oakland, California in1964. I was driving a '59 Ford Ranch Wagon. The Turbine car passed me you could hear the subtle turbine whine. It was not noisy. Frankly the headlights reminded me of the 64 Dodge Dart front end treatment. Glad I had the experience..
Growing up in the 60's my best friend's Dad was a Chrysler exec, and actually had a demo car for a few days. Like Jay I thought we were finally in the "space age." His dad was pretty wild, and the only "reading" material he had on the car was an article in "Playboy." He gave us the magazine and said to only read the article. As 13 year old boys. This was a double treat.
I remember seeing one of the 3 turbine cars delivered to Buffalo, NY back in 1965. I was 15 and the sound was something you never forget. Thanks for the memories Jay.
Its kind of too bad this video doesn't do the starting sound justice. There is another video from a different vlogger that was at the garage for some occasion, and jay started it up for a few seconds. And that was an awesome sound.
As a 13-year-old, I was absolutely in love with this car. Like Jay, I saw it at the '64 World's Fair. Two or three cars were circling the Chrysler pavilion. However, one was parked in the driveway close to the low wall surrounding the perimeter. I had to stretch but I was able to reach out and touch the car! I'm 70 now, and I'm still just as much in love with it as I was back then.
@@steelyspielbergo Most cars did, but there is a BIG difference between a "Classic Car" of yesteryear and an "old car". Only "cars guys" like Jay (and me, and others who come here) know, and appreciate, the difference!!
My grandfather was a Chrysler Plymouth Imperial dealer. I keep hearing about these cars as a young kid. My dad was a pilot and was waiting anxiously for the car to hit the market but alas it wasn't to be. Thanks Chrysler for letting Jay Leno buy one. Jay will preserve it and share it with the world...
My next door neighbor was an engineer for Chrysler and brought this car home. I have always felt this was one of the coolest cars ever made. I was 15 and a car nut, as most of us growing up in Detroit were at that time, and still am to this day.
Jay is the ultimate car collector. Would've loved to know what this car cost back in 1963. I can't imagine hanging out with Jay, our conversations would go on forever.
This was great to see! My family was in Baton Rouge in '64 (when I was 11 years old), and I used to see one of these guys cruising around every once in a while. The sound of the engine was unmistakable then, and still is. Great to heat it again after so many years!
There was a time when all auto companies tried to pay attention to the details like that, Sadly the government and EPA and CAFE regulations ended up taking the lions share of development money away from the style department. Thus those awful dashes of the mid 80's cars.
I rememder a Chrysler I may be wrong with big rear wings with transmission push butons on the dash! first time I drove it when my friend was drunk and asleep, I had to wake him, he said and repeat push buton...tell me where or I leave you in the cars without the key, he extended his arm without looking and push the buton! He didnt remember cause Im sure he would have told that story many times to. our friends! last weekend I saw an old timer with I guess 52 pontiac? original except for motor, a 305, cause he had a hard time to find parts to rebuilt it. Look brand new I will try to talk to him. Who know he might sell it, hes not young but I guess not he love that car more than his wife I think! i might go to work friday for the day shift cause I wanted to take off for night shift starting saturday. in a few decades we wil talk about gaz engines, those 4 and 6 grandpa? no the V8, the masterpiece, the symbol of america like apple pie, not the souless 4 and 6, if it wasnt for those V8 I would talk alone and next time park ur china made Tesla iI hate n the back yard I have a good reputation in town! Bring a case of american beer and teach you how to drive without a computer and use your brain for the skill u need and youll be a real man!
LILPAPASMURF97, underneath the skin the Chrysler Turbine was just a plain old Chrysler-Dodge-Plymouth assembled out of stock Chrysler parts. It was outfitted to Imperial standards of luxury.
I was fortunate enough to drive one of these cars as a young aerospace engineering student in 1966. Chrysler's engineering team brought four of these to Penn State University and I was invited to drive one. As a turbine engine-powered car, I was fascinated by it, as I remember. I've been fortunate as a "car guy" and amateur racer to have been professionally involved with other unique protoypical cars, e.g. the GM Impact (an unfortunate name choice for an experimental vehicle!). I was assigned to manage a fleet of 36 Impacts and work with the GM engineering team in getting them test driven over a period of 4 weeks at a time by groups of volunteer drivers, allow us and GM to collect information on performance, range, enrgy use, etc. I was able to take them home with me from time-to-time and even drive them at high speed (120mph indicated) on the track at Pocono International Raceway to demonstrate the EV technology between heats at an SCCA event being held there.
At a certain point when cars become so rare it's not so much about money it's about who is going to preserve history. Jay respects the history and has access to the best mechanics and machinists in the world to preserve these gems.
Is Jay going to establish a museum for when he passes, so we can all admire these vehicles? I think there should ALWAYS be at least one of each car made kept preserved for historical purposes.
My Mailman back in the day was one of the lucky guys to get one of these beauties for the "test" ... He turned heads all day long with it...I was sadden when I found out they would not produce it...Now the less, I put my hands all over his test car and the day he had to give it back, I suggested he might hide it!!! Thanks for the memory Jay.👍👍
It's always so touching to hear someone with a real passion speak about something, I don't care what the subject is. When he talks about these cars you can hear the fondness he has for these machines.
When I was a kid, there was someone on my block who had one of these. I remember the sound of it as it drove by. Everyone thought it was the future. Now it's the past. :(
And without regulations we'd all be choking on smog and auto accidents would increase 10 fold. You want to trust big corporations to keep you safe? Good luck with that!
Leslie Horwinkle we're still using gasoline for the most part. and CAFE just seems to be a big scam that was pass onto the consumer.Remember back in the late 70s emissions did not apply to diesel engines ,we were told they burn clean. Now we have DEF.
As a custodian of a collector car you realize that , eventually you sell it, or after you leave your mortal coil, it becomes an inheritance, or another item sold from your estate.
Why the cars were destroyed is just stupid. The cars minus the engine were built in Italy. So, what? To protect American auto industry workers? Because of protectionist policies like this, the car industry, along with much of American manufacturing, was destroyed. Government is busy helping us right off a cliff as usual. Some things never change.
@@jimlovesgina "Because of protectionist policies like this, the car industry, along with much of American manufacturing, was destroyed." Protectionist policies do not destroy manufacturing jobs; they protect them. Unfair free trade policies that allow foreign manufacturers to dump their product in the US market at a lower than US production cost is what destroyed US manufacturing jobs. That and the excessive greed of Corporate CEOs, the board of directors and share holders. A profit is always necessary in order to sustain a business. However, when the profit becomes exorbitant, it will do more damage than good. And let us not forget the continuous policies that have devalued the US dollar throughout the life of the United States of America. Makes you kind of wonder how much those Chinese made products would cost if the value of the USD was where it was when the country began.
@@scotttovey To much truth in what you say. In modern times, the real nail in the coffin for American manufacturing was when Bill Clinton sign the free trade agreement that let American Corperation move their manufacturing operations to areas with cheaper labor. All those good paying manufacturing jobs went to Mexico & China where they exploit their work force by paying them in bean or rice. What do Americans get back? Shoddy goods made by an untrained workforce. It’s the politicians in a coup with Big Buisness that’s killing America.
@@scotttovey Cannot really argue your point. Look to Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Norway, Finland, etc...basically the entire European Union has a thriving manufacturing sector solely because of their protectionist-based regulations.
Thank you Mr. Leno for sharing some of your life's passions with us. I have always been a car fan. My first car was a Rambler coupe with a "Twin Stick" (overdrive) transmission. I had it for almost 2 years before I traded it for a '65 GTO (3 deuces). Not certain, but while I was overseas flying Huey's for a year, I suspect Dad had more fun with that car than I did before or afterward. He was 54 - 55 at the time, and I was tickled to offer him use of a 'mid-life crisis' car he NEVER would have bought for himself. My personal apologies for the malcontent, supercritical commentary that appears far too regularly in these comments, and I appreciate that you continue to share your experiences with those of us who envy, take joy from, and embrace your efforts.
Specific thanks for the 356C piece and for introducing Wilhoit Auto. That 2132 mod with the short shifter would love to be in my 356, but I'm afraid it needs an interior rebuild first.
Great show, Jay. I first saw this car in St. Louis when it was introduced in 1964. I was taken back on how innovative it was., feeling like the future had truly arrived. Little did I know that 50 years later I would still be amazed by it.
An ingenuous car and we're glad you own it Jay, we know you'll preserve everything about it and we're sure Chrysler is grateful it's in your care, as we are! Thanks for the giving us a rare look at this incredible car!!
You are my hero Mr. Leno! I love in Ky, a disabled coal miner, but I would gladly travel to California for a tour of your garages. You are a true car guy, and I love your videos. Thank you so much!
I saw the first one when I was fourteen. I was a paperboy. I heard a wierd sound and loved all the cars then. I kept watching and a jet turbine car came by. I was mesmerized, I came home and told my brother and said no way but later read about it in the newspaper in Portsmouth.
This was great to see! My family was in Baton Rouge in '64 (when I was 11 years old), and I used to see one of these guys cruising around every once in a while. The sound of the engine was unmistakable then, and still is. Great to heat it again after so many years!
The big 3 often copy-catted their rivals popular models, although this design came from Italy, so it's a bit surprising that they 'borrowed' so much of the design from an American car, but they were clearly influenced by the body style of the early-mid '60s Thunderbirds, although the front and back of this car is just plain ugly, IMHO.
Mr. Leno, Thank you so much for keeping this bit of history alive. I am fifty years old and I can honestly say that I was totally unfamiliar with this car and this type of engine. I can't wait to forward this to a friend who loves cars. Of course, I am sure that he is probably very familiar with this car. Thank you for sharing your passion for cars and automotive history with so many people who would quite likely never know about these amazing pieces of history. As I was watching this, I could not help but think that this technology could very likely, with all of the advancements that have been made since 1963, be brought back to life. Again, thank you.
I didn't ever know, that there is or was an turbine engine built in a car. I would rather know how much fuel this engine consume, than if it is possible, to do burn outs with it :-) Anyone else? Or was it in the video?
hurius...no, that car's not from our Earth's timeline, welcome to the M.E. I like that car very nice engineering....I like this universe better, it's a step up.
It's a beautiful video of a historic car, but jay doesn't teach anything. In this video he misinforms you and hides the real reason why these cars were destroyed. He talks about loud noise but car in smooth and quiet. He says upcoming emissions made this car impossible to produce any further, yet we see no heavy smoke in the exhaust; in fact all planes today must have not existed because of air pollution. This car has very few moving parts, extremely little gas mileage after it warms up, which makes it a very reliable vehicle that is cheap to maintain with super cheap gas mileage. This is the real reason why. Same for example like Royal Rife cured cancer in 1930s using effective sound waves treatment which is cheap, healthy way to treat cancer, but big pharma destroyed his lab and discredited his work. Anyone who duplicated his work was killed. I guess you get the point.
My dad never got to drive that car even though he worked as an exec at Chrysler Corp. I loved that car so much I had a model of it. I once saw one on a neighborhood street in Detroit, it sounded so cool, like a jet cruising by. What a blast from the past to see this, Jay, thanks!
Another marvelous video from Jay. He gets my vote to be The World's Most Accomplished Auto Enthusiast. In the video, he said there are only two turbine cars in private hands in all the world, and he has one of them. When I was a kid, the Chrysler Turbine cars were legendary. Chrysler actually worked on the gas turbine for automotive propulsion up to about 1980. They did a lot of work to improve its fuel economy and it did get better, but it always remained behind the gasoline engine which was improving all the time, too.
I took two years of elective auto shop in high school in the mid 1960s. The most valuable automotive courses I've taken. Saved me $1,000s in repairs. I remember in high school auto shop where our teacher talked about this car. He also talked about and showed a movie with Turbinique putting a turbine engine on a go kart and racing it against some kind of dragster. I believe they also equipped a NASCAR racer with a turbine engine, but the engine was slow to respond to throttle demands (spool up took too long as did spool down). Cat converters get just about as hot and they've been known to start grass fires. Cool difference between a gas engine stall vs turbine engine flameout. It's a jet without wings.
I had seen the turbine car at the grand opening of the Chrysler sterling plant in Sterling heights Mi. I believe in 1967. Also the turbonique engines were three different styles two of them were like rockets type large on was bolted on the rear end of a cars deferential, the other could be use on a go kart in witch in was use at the drag strip. The kart could do 220 mph in 6 sec. on 1/4 track. with 2 engines mounted. The 3rd style was a small supercharger self propel with a built in fuel tank to run the supercharger, If you look up the name Jack McClure He was the guy that race his go kart against top fuel dragsters.
@absoftitanium, oh gawd, my first ever "Hot Rod" magazine that our auto shop class teacher sold to us in grade 9 (he sold these mags to his students in class) was the 1967 version with Andy Granatelli's Indy 500 car on the cover. Too bad that mag dissolved from old age a few years ago; I hung on to that forever.
As a 14 year old kid, like Mr Leno, I too was fascinated by this car. I recall having a booklet by Hot Rod magazine featuring 1964 cars and the Turbine was on the cover with a great story inside. I kept that for years. A local outdoor mall had a display of 1964 cars and one of these was on display. I was in heaven. Tried to get dad to buy one.
who are these people who dislike videos that theres no reason to dislike? its no political or in your face. its a man showing his car. i dont get some viewers. 🤔
Actually, for the most part, I'm a GM guy. No hate here, I can appreciate all cars. They all have there own charm. Some people are just too lazy to find it. I gave the video a thumbs up.
In 1964 I was with my Dad at North Star Chrysler & Plymouth in LA when we was buying a Plymouth Fury. He was always a Plymouth buyer. They had the Turbine Car there demonstrating it. I was lucky to be able to ride in the car as my Dad was doing the paper work on his car. This dealership was in downtown LA so the ride was on surface streets. I do remember the man from Chrysler telling me the car had the equivalent of 130 horsepower but it felt like a V-8 powering it at 200 horsepower. When I asked him what the cost was, he chuckled and said it was not for sale and he thought the cost was about $50,000 in 1964 dollars. It was a neat ride and when I found out it would burn just about anything, I thought for sure it would be a hot seller. Jay was fortunate to be able to get this and in great running condition. Chrysler was innovative just like the Chrysler Air Flow 30 years earlier.
Thanks again for actually driving this iconic car and being its custodian. I vaguely remember that one of the problems found in customer/real world testing was that the drivers would not wait for the temperatures to stabilise on startup so basically hitting the starter and putting it in drive which was detrimental to the turbine due to the higher temps on startup common to any gas turbine.Typical human impatience which may have been helped by some education. The engine would look different to a normal jet engine because it has the regenerator which is crucial to "fuel economy" ( relative term) at part loads.Lots of problems with materials and sealing due to the temperature extremes. Not sure whether the technical challenges have been licked yet but with gas turbines in their infancy and no ceramics, it would be a weak point for regular consumer use. One thing they got 100% right was the styling. It still looks retro cool!
*Excellent point, Yes damage due to "hot starts" was and is still a serious problem in gas turbine engines.. although modern engines equipped with FADEC have auto-start features which minimize damage from an impatient operator. Ceramics have been used as early as the very first turbine engines... the world's first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me-262 used ceramics in its -004B engines.*
I am 68 and never heard of this car either. I was an auto mechanic and rebuilt many a chrysler transmission in my day.. Now I am obsessed with motorcycles and I own 12 of those from the 70's and 80's. Thanks Jay for this film..I know it's been out for 10 years but this is the first time I have seen it.. Really cool history.
I miss living close enough to see Jay out and about enjoying his cars. Thanks for another fantastic video, and thanks for keeping automotive history from fading away.
My grandmother's brother, a high school science teacher, was one of the civilian test drivers. He really enjoyed the look and feel of the car. I am impressed that Leno was able to obtain one of these, since so few survived the crusher. They make Tucker 48s look commonplace, even though both were produced in comparable numbers.
In 1965, when I was a student at Howard University Law School, They brought one of these turbine cars there for people to see and after I showed great interest in it, I was given a chance to drive it around part of Washington D.C for about 10 miles. It was wonderful to drive. It handled very well, was very quiet and the fact that it was powered by a gas turbine was fascinating. I had studied physics in undergraduate school and hoped that they would put it into production, but they never did. It could have led to a revolution in automotive design and possibly eventually replaced the piston engine over time. To bad Chryler had so many financial problems then and decided not to pursue it I am thankful that I had the chance to drive one.
I don't remember if I have commented before and it really does not matter. I lived and worked at the Villa Marina Motel in Newport Beach in the early 60s when I was in college. This was on the bay, just to the north of the bridge going over to Balboa Island for those in So Cal. A family on Bayside Drive had one of these that I saw a number of times. What an awesome car! It is wonderful that Jay owns one of these and does a fantastic job of preserving his vehicles and sharing with the rest of us.
Who else do you go to in this world for classy, sexy automotive styling but the Italians? Ferraris and Lamborghinis are at the head of their class. Pininarina and Ghia are top notch in their field.
I got to drive one of these when I lived in Detroit in ‘64. My friend knew 2 nuns who had been chosen to have it for a couple of months, and when I went to his house one night, it was there. The nuns gave me the keys and let me drive it. Imagine what it was like, when I, a 16 year old, took it out at night on Woodward Avenue, cruising the drive-in’s! Still remember that night. Magnificent.
Love the idea of us being custodians for the next person....nice sentiment and a real message about cherishing and preserving landmark achievements. Jay is as entertaining as he ever was.
*I remember that Chrysler quite well, back in the 1960's my father thought that this car was the future of the U.S. automotive industry, he said that piston driven cars were a thing of the past. America thought it was unstoppable in that era... it's a shame we weren't able to follow through. Thanks Jay, you're truly the best!*
@assassinlexx From what I understand, the turbine engine just isn't viable as an everyday, reliable and efficient mode of automotive power when compared to the internal combustion engine. I agree that it would be a novelty, but in reality it simply isn't of any reliable benefit to the industry.
@@tommyboy6494 *Oh, poor goofy, discombobulated, persona non grata 'Mr. Rogers' & Your giddy 'Neighborhood'... You are the sole person on earth that has any concept whatsoever of what subject to which you are (so oddly) alluding. The inexplicably nature of your incongruous reply is indeed valid evidence of a severe lack of functioning brain cells. Qualunque cosa, a chi importa? ... Enjoy life, 'Mr. Rogers', in your own weird little 'Neighborhood'. And.. With all due respect... feel free to, Vai a farti fottere.* 👀
When this car came out in 1963 I was growing up in Dearborn, Mich and I was amazed at the idea of a turbine powered car. I was born in 1950 and so the car hit the roads around Southfield, Mich when I was 14 and I remember being amazed seeing how the styling was so familiar to the 1963 Ford Thunderbird that one of my neighbors was driving. Then in 1967 the first turbine powered car hit the racetrack for the Indy 500..... would have won the race if not for a $15 bearing that gave out!
Pretty cool that they really tried to make a turbine car and put thought and got very close to succeeding in making it work out for the masses. Great video Jay, nice to see chrome on the inside of a car for once. And the design that they put into that rear-view mirror is unique. Beautiful ❤️
Something you mentioned is something that I really miss, Chrome in the interior. There's just something so elegant about that. Back when I was a kid , that was a relatively common thing. The only time I see that anymore is when someone either restores or even customizes older vehicles. (Ah the memories).
As I was sitting at the bus stop on the way to high school, I saw this remarkable-looking car pull up to the light, then stop. I thought it was just some kind of new "concept car" until I actually heard the engine running... it sounded EXACTLY like the turbine of a jet airplane, only quieter. It was so cool that I nearly jumped up and shouted, but there were other people sitting next to me who would have thought I was crazy. That was my only experience with a turbine-powered passenger car, but I'll never forget it.
I remember as a teenager going to a Chrysler dealer in West Hartford, CT and being one of the original turbine cars being demoed by the dealer. What a thrill! If I only brought a camera.
The boys in the Chrysler experimental department didn't give up after this car. I've seen a photo of a Chrysler K-Car with a turbine in it. Like Jay said, fuel economy was always a problem they couldn't overcome. In mechanical engineering this is usually called the 500hp rule. Once a gas turbine is putting out less than 500hp, the thermal efficiency drops like a rock. It's the reason you don't see many gas turbines in light aircraft. Gas turbines depend on the mass of the airflow through the engine to develop power and with a small engine it becomes very difficult to get a lot of air through without the flow going supersonic.
While a simple turbine drive won't be practical in a car for the above reasons, There were some proposals to build a hybrid turbine-electric powertrain. There was a concept car from Jaguar (don't remeber how it was called).
@@mancubwwa the ev-1 from gm was originally going to be a turbine hybrid but because the ev-1 was only tested in California they had to go all electric to be compliant with zero emission guidelines in California.
We have steam/gas turbine engines that capture lost thermal energy and use steam to spin the turbine. These new engines have thermal efficiencies of 66%. Piston engines can suck it.
I like Jay.... he's a regular guy with a lot of cool cars and plenty of $$$. Sounds like a Chrysler aficionado. My dad owned one of the biggest garages in the southwest in the 1950s - 60s. We had a lot of oddball cars parked in our driveway through the years. Henry J, Kaiser, 59 two-tone Desoto, Supercharged glass body Avanti, Studebaker Golden Hawk, MG-TD...etc.
Jay is a VEHICLE aficianado.Take a gander of his other episodes - there are more than cars in them. Seeing the Chrysler Turbine again (yes - I remember the movie in which the Turbine appeared) makes me wonder exactly WHY the Turbine was never mass-produced - and could it be revived. (Remember - the Turbine was built originally using 1963 technology - why could a similar vehicle be built using MODERN technology?)
Boy, did you just bring back some memories for me. I saw everyone of the cars you mentioned, during my youth, and the places where I saw them just flashed into my mind...Wow!!
I was fortunate to see the car at the NY World's Fair. Fell in love with it. Kudos to Jay for being a wonderful custodian of American automobile history.
Thank you, Jay, for your wonderful work! [To those complaining about the pronunciation of "turbine": Pronouncing the word with a long-"i" is what is called a spelling-pronunciation (forcing pronunciation to conform to the literal spelling [think of the sound of English if this were done to all words, as with "night" and "through"]), which is incorrect and also something for which the Brits are infamous (confer "been" incorrectly pronounced as "bean" and not correctly as "ben," as the word comes from the Anglo-Saxon "beon," whose pronunciation is closer to "ben" than "bean"). Furthermore, we see other vowel-sounds of terminus syllables of words such as "hostile" pronounced as "hostel" and "candidate" as "candidet," which are closer pronunciations to their linguistic origins than their spelling-pronunciations, for which - again - the Brits are infamous and incorrect.] Jay, at 16:53: "Just the residual effect of MY [not "me"!] putting the glass down." :-)
You are right. For examples: the exact same spelling yet two different pronunciation of "produce", (1-to make something /2-vegetables) and "combine" (1-add together 2-harvesting machine ). But my all time favorites, which only till recently have changed to reflect the phonetic spelling, are forecastle ("fokesil") and victuals ("vittles"). There are WAY too many ("meny") exceptions to the rules : bear vs beard & hears vs hearse, etc.
I grew up in Rochester NY. Someone in the area had a turbine car and came to my Dad's station to fill up on kerosene. As a 10 year old I was in awe when he started the engine and we peered at the tach. I even got to sit in the car! Great video!
This, when new, was a PLYMOUTH! I was lucky enough to see it up close when I took my gramma's 1962 Dodge 440 in for oil change and the PLYMOUTH Turbine was in the shop at Tidewater Dodge 'showing off'.
Jay Leno has been an automotive archeologist for some years. These videos preserve the history of technology and he should be praised for his perseverance and investment in an aspect of our history that has attracted such extraordinary engineering and design.
I was fortunate to have been selected to ride in a Chrysler Turbine Car on a test track at the 1964-1965 NY World's Fair. It was quite a car and I still remember the ride today. I was 12 years old. As a keepsake, to commemorate my selection,I was given a model of the car, which is still on display in my home today.
i too got a ride @ the fair, shotgun!-)
I was a young kid and my parents had brought me there also. I never forgot that "Jet Car".
That's awesome.
If only the oil companies would have allowed mass production.
@@danieljarrelljr5640
It really came down to the fact that a piston engine at that time cost about $300 to produce. A turbine engine cost $10,000. There was no way to make the car affordable or profitable. Then, emissions testing became a concern and the project was scrapped as a result of these two factors.
I AM 72 YEARS OLD NOW, BUT WHEN I WAS 17 AND LIVING IN A SUBURB OF DETROIT, MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR, DICK WANTON, WORKED FOR CHRYSLER AND HAD THIS CAR IN HIS GARAGE. I WENT FOR A RIDE ONE SATURDAY, AND I STILL REMEMBER TODAY WHAT A COOL CAR IT WAS.
OW! my ears!!!! Please stop SHOUTING!
SonnyGTA he he
Just imagine the price tag If he sell that car
SonnyGTA he is 72 years old show some respect ! beside (with all due respect) all old people talk loud , even on youtube , hell look how loud Jay talks lol , GET USE TO IT !
erdingtown no wonder YOU HAVE ALL CAPS, BECAUSE ALL GRUMPY OL' MEN LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING
My Dad was one of the lucky winners of the 3 month test drive of this car. His time actually turned into 4.5 months as the engine fried when he was in South Dakota. They had to fly out a new engine, engineering crew/mechanics, and a driver to Sioux Falls to get it back to us in Wisconsin, so they gave us some extra time. I was 8 years old and remember riding in the backseat. The center console was fascinating to me, it was so different from our other cars! Dad was a bit of a gearhead and liked a little growl in his exhaust, so this was by far the quietest car that I rode in as a kid. Extremely smooth acceleration and a great ride, it was Dads 1st "luxury car". Weirdest thing Dad did was to keep a few bottles of whiskey in the trunk for spare fuel! I do have a model that Chrysler gave to all members of the test drive family, and a brochure that we got with it and would love to reunite it with this car if possible!
@jayleno
@jayleno
@jaylenosgarage check this out
A family friend that worked for Chrysler had one of these to test drive and came by to show it to us, and took us for a ride. My Dad and I thought it was so cool, especially due to the styling and unique jet engine sound. I was the solo back seat co-pilot, as neither of my sisters had any interest. Little did I know, or did anyone know, how rare of a thing that was that I got to experience. Even thought that ride was about 56 years ago, I’ve never forgotten it...
RIP Dad, and his friend Bob that treated us to a ride in the shiny penny as I called it.
This and other rare cars, couldn't be in better hands. Here's a collector who recognizes the signifigance of rare cars, and instead of locking them away, he share's everything about them. Thank you Mr. Leno!!! We greatly appreciate your custodianship of such historically important cars, and their importance to the history of this country.
69 polara convertible owner here
@@manuelferreira4345 You must be proud. That is a very cool ride.
@@manuelferreira4345 That’s a boat with wheels
@@Noname-kk1tu wanna sell it to get another 300
Very cool. I was showing my 85 year old neighbor the video and he gets out a VHS copy of him driving the car around the Indianapolis 500 track. He worked as a salesman for Palmer Dodge and had the opportunity to drive it on the track.
Very COOL!!!!
Bob Stegs they never had VHS tapes until the late 70s....
Much like folks today getting their old photos digitized my neighbor had his old movies updated to VHS.
Beta came out in 1975, the Video Home System ( VHS ) came out in 1976. But they were as big as a suitcase, weighed about 40-50 pounds and the first Beta cost $1,500 dollars! The blank tapes ran about 20 to 30 bucks, movies were $80 dollars (or more). But by the late 80's these had come way down, in price and size and weight.
CordiaSR That's like watching a TH-cam uploaded of a 90's show and going "they didn't have TH-cam back then."
What would be really cool is to convert the VHS to digital and upload it here.
I worked at Chrysler engineering in the 70’s and we had several turbines that were installed in some of the C body vehicles. Jay was right about the short comings of the turbine. To me this was one of the last truly innovative vehicles to come out of Detroit.
If anyone deserves to own one of these it’s Mr. Leno. He is a excellent custodian of automotive history and along with his celebrity status, he’s able to share it with us all. Thanks Jay, from one gear head to another!
Thank God we have a real car guy to preserve these unique vehicles! Thanks Jay!
He’s like the exact opposite of whistling diesel
We are blessed that Jay has such a passion for all things mechanical and is financially able to collect and save so many special vehicles.
Vin Wiki sent me here....its like going back in time seeing Steve tell the same story lol
Haha same here.
Same!
Guilty
Ditto
Same!
We're fortunate to have Jay to preserve & share these cars for future generations. Thank you Jay!!
Except he can’t pronounce the word turbine the moron
When I was 12 years old (1964) I saw a Chrysler Turbine Car at Grossmount Shopping Center in La Mesa, CA. It was on an elevated platform. They started the engine , balanced a nickel on edge on the engine. They spun the engine to the 60 MPH equivalent. The nickel never moved. The exhaust gases were remarkably cool. And the car was just good-looking. A few months later I saw another turbine car in Anoka, MN. This car was just unforgettable. Thanks, Jay. Brian Grittner, Little Canada, MN
A uh uh in
I remember someone putting a nickel on the car and it never moved.
I saw the same stunt in St. Catherines, Ontario. It's true...that coin stood rock solid as they revved up the engine.
I saw the same demonstration at Midtown Mall in Rochester, NY in 1964.
My dad and I got a chance to talk to the Chrysler representative as well.
I was eight years old.
Great memory.
@@blueeyeswhitedragon9839 Canadian nickel wasn't circular. Get story though.
Of all the vehicles Jay has, this is the one I would pick. Rare beast made by one of the big three, cool design and far out technology that never made production. Custodian is the ideal term here and Jay is the caretaker. Bravo
Do you not like to say Chrysler or America?
@@bennyboyy7????
Jay should be “SAINTED” for his incredible love and sharing of automotive history and reverence to car culture. Thanks Jay!
La noire game makers used his collection for cars in the game.
I was lucky enough to be hired [temporarily] at NBC in Burbank [in 1998] to swap out their old IBM PCs for the newer ones throughout their offices (including Jay's). But the best part of it was everyday, Jay would drive a different one of his cars to work. He was very affable and willing to talk to anyone who "flagged him down" to talk cars --- I talked to him a couple of times about MY favorites --- 60s muscle cars. One day he brought a super-vintage World War II motorcycle with sidecar attached. During his "lunchtime," Jay would give some of his workers rides in the sidecar --- he would drive around the block, I think --- just enough to give his passenger a thrill.
Can't stand him. Just blathers on and on.
@@gitterplayr
Certainly not for being funny.
If this was any other man, we'd all think he was just a snobby rich man showing off.
But it's Jay Leno, the chillest man to exist, who loves cars, drives cars, works on cars, and from what I've heard, will geek out about cars with anyone.
Jay is a very generous guy, and as he said in the video, he considers himself just a custodian of his cars. He's like a neighbor who owns cools stuff and enjoys sharing the experience with his friends.
This rings true, hearing him talk about how he went to the World's Fair to see this car when he was just 14.
@Dave Micolichek He would!
@@betsybarnicle8016 my dad took us to the worlds fair to see it also . I was in the 4th grade !
I don't find myself jealous of his success, and I admire his passion for cars: I am an amateur in comparison, but I don't begrudge him for buying antique cars with his money. I think any of us with any interest in cars would enjoy collecting a few. Leno is just far more successful than the average person :-)
Growing up in western Pennsylvania, the Chrysler dealership was behind our house on the other side of a fence. Almost daily I would walk through the lot to home (and buy an orange or grape Crush in their outside pop cooler...i.e., like a large refrigerator on its back). One day I noticed the Turbine on display and a Chrysler rep giving a demonstration. At 14 years old, I stood in amazement with the rest of the crowd. For me, the height of technical wizardry about the car (besides it being a jet on four wheels) was when the rep lifted the hood and placed a nickel on its edge and stood it atop of the running turbine! It stayed there on its edge seemingly forever, never moving. I bought my Crush and walked home thinking of the world yet to come.
Bill Tyson I wish I could have been there for that
Right. A few years later landed Armstrong on the Moon using a rope-core computer. Nowadays we have 76 genders and unisex restrooms. What a time to be alive...
Jay Monay - I was lucky enough that my uncle Michael Manns is a specialist at restoring classic cars. He had a Chrysler Turbine car in his shop one summer (I won’t say whose, because it would sound like I was lying, but feel free to look it up) when I was there to visit. We did the nickel balancing thing! The smoothness and uniqueness stood out just as much to a young millennial as it did for Bill Tyson (I’m also from western PA, but Mike lives in Missouri)!
Point is, these cars thankfully do still exist even though they didn’t go into production, and it is possible to see one at a car show or museum. I hope you do see one someday!
evshrug I'm pretty interested in whose turbine car, and man I was born in the wrong generation
@@vitkriklan2633 Without LBJ, his so-called "Great Society", giveaway programs to undeserving minorities and "womyn", we'd be driving FLYING cars, terraforming the moon, colonizing Mars, and sending probes to Alpha Centauri. Most, if virtually not ALL technical advances, are due to WHITE people, especially GERMANS. Hence why the present-day war on whites, especially the white male, is SUICIDE in the long run.
Absolutely one of the most amazing and attractive cars ever to come out of Detroit. So glad to see it in Jay's collection where I know it will be preserved and loved for future generations.
The Italians do make the best looking cars...
I have so much more respect for Jays car collection than any other rich persons collection of new Lamborghini and Ferrari, this is actually a contribution to our history. If I got similar wealth I would also dedicate it at preserving unique and odd examples of automotive history. Dear Jay, I am grateful for what you have chosen to spend your money and time on and I think the future generations will also appreciate it.
I'm onboard with you !!!!!
I like that Mr. Leno will actually take his cars out and drive them. A car is wasted if it never gets driven.
And what makes it really nice is Jay's friendly presentation. A real classy showman. And a friend.
Just an amazing car. None of the reasons they stopped production of this car were good enough in my opinion.
You want to pay a half million dollars for a car that is slower and get worse millage than the V-8 version???
Sounds like a good enough reason to me.
Expensive, lackluster performance if driven like a normal car, poor mileage, emissions problems, fouled up if fed leaded gas...
I love these cars, they're beautiful to look at and the engineering inside is fascinating. But it's easy to see why this 1960s iteration of the concept was never a commercial success.
With more development, this idea could possibly have been more successful later on (Chrysler's turbine tech did find its way into the M1Abrams tank), but Chrysler was running into financial problems by the time they had made much progress on the above issues, and had to drop the unproven and risky development program in order to secure assistance.
@@SynchronizorVideos I completely agree with you on everything... until the M1 Abrams.
The AGT-1500 gas turbine engine then known as the Jumo GT-15 was designed by Nazi engineer Dr. Anselm Franz while working at Jumo,
Franz relocated to America and continued development of the Jumo GT-15/ PLT-15 at Lycoming.
The Lycoming PLT-15 became a government program in 1965 as the TF-15 for the Navy and the AGT-1500 for the Army.
Chrysler had nothing to do with the development of M1 or the AGT-1500.
@@sandervanderkammen9230 Well, the M1 was developed by Chrysler Defense, who beat out GM (whose tank prototype was using a piston diesel engine) in the initial design competition during the 1970s. So the tank is absolutely a Chrysler design.
But you're correct, the turbine engine itself was the Lycoming AGT1500, and not related to Chrysler's in-house line of experimental turbine engines that went into the 1960s Turbine Cars (which Chrysler continued to play with and refine through most of the 1970s).
What I should have said was that it was Chrysler's CONCEPT of a multifuel gas turbine prime mover plus a multi-speed transmission that was successful in the M1 tank, not Chrysler's turbine engine itself.
@@SynchronizorVideos Ah... NO.
The M1 Abrams was designed by German manufacturer Krauss Maffei in conjunction with the U.S. Army Ordnance Dept. As the XM815
The General Motors X-M1 prototype powered by the Continental ACVR-1360 turbocharged multi-fuel Diesel engine won the Army's XM1 trials.
Congress, after heavy lobbying by Chrysler and the State of Ohio overturned the Army's choice and forced it to buy the Chrysler bid.
A very shameful chapter in American politics
My grandfather was head of quality control at New Process Gear in Syracuse NY during this project, and he used to tell stories of his trips to Detroit and rides in the Turbine. It was the pride of everyone involved. Thanks for the ride!
As a CNY'er I did not know that. Have they ever done a story on NPG's involvement with the vehicle?
Lipe-Rollway and NPG had their fingers in everything from the 50s through the early 70s. If it had gears, bearings or mechanical gearboxes CNY produced the best.... Brown and Lipe, Crucible steel.... all the good stuff!
Someone who lived in Westvale on or near Parsons Road was lucky enough to have the use of one of these cars. I saw it many times since I didn’t live too far from there. I grew up around race cars so knew the Chrysler Turbine was something very special. I’m happy Jay Leno owns one of these and will preserve it.
This car is definitely owned by the right person. Thanks for sharing Jay.
My uncle, a doctor and avid car collector, was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take one of these turbine cars for a drive. One of his patients happened to be the guy in charge of the shop servicing these cars for the southeastern United States. I was just a kid at the time, but I remember wishing I could have been along on that ride. Still do.
You were there! Just in your mind! Sam Shull
My father-in-law was an engineer at Chrysler and worked on the turbine project and I've heard many stories throughout the the years. He's gone now, but seeing the car (and the one at Peterson Automotive Museum) is such a treat. Thanks for sharing it, Jay.
Jay Leno is the epitome of what every car guy wants to be
He just has the bank account to fund his addiction. If you or I had 100s of millions. We too would probably have the same garage
@@towertito2149 he started on his collection when he wasnt rich and famous though.
A billionaire?
@@rodneyhalljr623 All car guys do. You just reach a financial ceiling, and Leno doesn't have one.
@@rodneyhalljr623 yea, he started out as a used car salesman!
I recall like it was yesterday standing on a sidewalk at an intersection in northern Detroit when this strange car stopped at the traffic light 10 feet from me. I was only 11 or 12 and already a car nut but this one I couldn’t figure out. More than how it looked, the loud whine coming from it is what really grabbed me. If you’ve ever been in a car with a turbocharger it sounded like that whine without the other engine noise. One of the older boys shouted “it’s the turbine car”. Way cool.
I just wanna say, Jay, I love your show and watch it often when I come home from work. A customer of mine, used to be a Chrysler employee, called Jay and told him that he had the operators manual for this car. As the story was told to me, Jay flew he and his wife out to California, put them up in a hotel, and gave them a tour of the shop in exchange for the manual. Very cool. Jay seems like a real down to earth, cool guy.
See my comment above. The man you refer to is Mark Olson from Duluth, MN. His family was chosen as one of the evaluation families during the early 1960's. Mark Olson is the keeper of the flame for the turbine car. He has every known bit of literature, film clips, etc. Go to turbinecar.com It's a great website.
That car is a beauty. Never heard of that car.
Same I heard about it on a podcast, and I legit thought they were mispronouncing turbine.
It as a sensation back in the 60s! My uncle got to drive one. He said that it drove like it cost, half a million dollars.
look up helicoptor engined car. 50,s. tucker. the big 3 saw it as a threat,so had it banned. theres a film about it.
@@IlissaMR they're not mispronoucing turbine.
@@chuck2895 It did cost a half million dollars.
I am now 63 years old when I was 13 my father, who was a Chrysler mechanic, took our family to a showing of the Turbine car at Northwest Plaza in Hazelwood Mo a suburb located NW of St. Louis. In the video Jay sets a glass of water on the engine to show that there was no vibration, at the Hazelwood show I saw one of the spokesmen take a nickel and stand it on edge where Jay had the glass of water... very impressive. Everything about the car would just knock your socks off. You had to see it up close. To this day I still like the color chosen for it.
I had my first and only experience with a Chrysler turbine car at the Dekalb County fair in Auburn Ind. in September 1964. I was 19 years old at the time and a freshman at Indiana Univ. I came home for the fair and had no inkling I would see this revolutionary car. It was slowly cruising around the court house square and I marveled at the soft, low pitched turbine "whine" it emitted. I never had the opportunity to sit in it and I do not recall this was permitted while it sat on display, roped off midst the carnival gala that crowded the square. I was aware of the basics of this revolutionary design since my uncle had schooled me ahead of time. In the 1920's he was a test driver for Auburn, Cord, Dusenberg that was headquartered in Auburn. He also was a pilot and barnstormed around the Midwest, performed skywriting at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and eventually became a corporate pilot. Needless to say he loved anything that was mechanical and went fast. Although my encounter with the turbine car was brief it is vividly etched in my memory.
I saw one of these cruising along Mac Arthur Blvd. near Coolidge Ave. In Oakland, California in1964. I was driving a '59 Ford Ranch Wagon. The Turbine car passed me you
could hear the subtle turbine whine. It was not noisy. Frankly the headlights reminded me of the 64 Dodge Dart front end treatment. Glad I had the experience..
No you didn't Dave, are you smokin' the drapes again?
Growing up in the 60's my best friend's Dad was a Chrysler exec, and actually had a demo car for a few days. Like Jay I thought we were finally in the "space age." His dad was pretty wild, and the only "reading" material he had on the car was an article in "Playboy." He gave us the magazine and said to only read the article. As 13 year old boys. This was a double treat.
Yeah right Bob,, are you smokin' the drapes again?
I remember seeing one of the 3 turbine cars delivered to Buffalo, NY back in 1965. I was 15 and the sound was something you never forget. Thanks for the memories Jay.
That's awesome to know that 3 of these cars were in buffalo at one point, me being from buffalo makes me happy.
@@thetrueatx1518 Another buffalo person here aswell!, Awesome!
if it was in the winter maybe they were there to melt the snow!! ;D
Its kind of too bad this video doesn't do the starting sound justice. There is another video from a different vlogger that was at the garage for some occasion, and jay started it up for a few seconds. And that was an awesome sound.
How cool! I’m in Buffalo as well & wonder who got them to drive or own?
As a 13-year-old, I was absolutely in love with this car. Like Jay, I saw it at the '64 World's Fair. Two or three cars were circling the Chrysler pavilion. However, one was parked in the driveway close to the low wall surrounding the perimeter. I had to stretch but I was able to reach out and touch the car! I'm 70 now, and I'm still just as much in love with it as I was back then.
Jay leno is 100% correct we're only custodian for the next person
As long as its not some idiot who does not understand why and how these cars must be maintained and shared.
I restore antique violins and this comment also connected with me. It's how many collectors talk about the 300 year old valuable instruments.
@@travwil2461951 So, you are talking about our children, right?!! ;D
my old cars went to the scrapyard
@@steelyspielbergo Most cars did, but there is a BIG difference between a "Classic Car" of yesteryear and an "old car". Only "cars guys" like Jay (and me, and others who come here) know, and appreciate, the difference!!
My grandfather was a Chrysler Plymouth Imperial dealer. I keep hearing about these cars as a young kid. My dad was a pilot and was waiting anxiously for the car to hit the market but alas it wasn't to be. Thanks Chrysler for letting Jay Leno buy one. Jay will preserve it and share it with the world...
My next door neighbor was an engineer for Chrysler and brought this car home. I have always felt this was one of the coolest cars ever made. I was 15 and a car nut, as most of us growing up in Detroit were at that time, and still am to this day.
Jay is the ultimate car collector. Would've loved to know what this car cost back in 1963. I can't imagine hanging out with Jay, our conversations would go on forever.
The company never put a price on them,hardly suprising when they cost about 50.000 dollars or more to build
This was great to see! My family was in Baton Rouge in '64 (when I was 11 years old), and I used to see one of these guys cruising around every once in a while. The sound of the engine was unmistakable then, and still is. Great to heat it again after so many years!
Look at that machined rear view mirror mount - no detail left untouched!
When cars were "kinetic sculpture"!
Haha! I noticed that too! What a beautiful Car!
There was a time when all auto companies tried to pay attention to the details like that, Sadly the government and EPA and CAFE regulations ended up taking the lions share of development money away from the style department. Thus those awful dashes of the mid 80's cars.
21:56
I rememder a Chrysler I may be wrong with big rear wings with transmission push butons on
the dash! first time I drove it when my friend was drunk and asleep, I had to wake him, he said and repeat push buton...tell me where or I leave you in the cars without the key, he extended his arm without looking and push the buton! He didnt remember cause Im sure he would have told that story many times to. our friends! last weekend I saw an old timer with I guess 52 pontiac? original except for motor, a 305, cause he had a hard time to find parts to rebuilt it. Look brand new I will try to talk to him. Who know he might sell it, hes not young but I guess not he love that car more than his wife I think! i might go to work friday for the day shift cause I wanted to take off for night shift starting saturday. in a few decades we wil talk about gaz engines, those 4 and 6 grandpa? no the V8, the masterpiece, the symbol of america like apple pie, not the souless 4 and 6, if it wasnt for those V8 I would talk alone and next time park ur china made Tesla iI hate n the back yard I have a good reputation in town! Bring a case of american beer and teach you how to drive without a computer and use your brain for the skill u need and youll be a real man!
This car looks more futuristic than modern cars!
+LILPAPASMURF97 yes but retro futuristic
ehsan74827 like the Time Machine of 1960 film.
LILPAPASMURF97, underneath the skin the Chrysler Turbine was just a plain old Chrysler-Dodge-Plymouth assembled out of stock Chrysler parts. It was outfitted to Imperial standards of luxury.
LILPAPASMURF97 ikr
Brian Magee THATS WHAT I THOUGHT! Though I thought that was a Chevy.
I was fortunate enough to drive one of these cars as a young aerospace engineering student in 1966. Chrysler's engineering team brought four of these to Penn State University and I was invited to drive one. As a turbine engine-powered car, I was fascinated by it, as I remember. I've been fortunate as a "car guy" and amateur racer to have been professionally involved with other unique protoypical cars, e.g. the GM Impact (an unfortunate name choice for an experimental vehicle!). I was assigned to manage a fleet of 36 Impacts and work with the GM engineering team in getting them test driven over a period of 4 weeks at a time by groups of volunteer drivers, allow us and GM to collect information on performance, range, enrgy use, etc. I was able to take them home with me from time-to-time and even drive them at high speed (120mph indicated) on the track at Pocono International Raceway to demonstrate the EV technology between heats at an SCCA event being held there.
Anytime someone says there is 50 or less of a car in private hands, I just automatically assume that Leno has one.
And he can tell you in detail everything about them.
Their interesting cars, not just over powered race cars but vehicles that people used in their lives.
At a certain point when cars become so rare it's not so much about money it's about who is going to preserve history. Jay respects the history and has access to the best mechanics and machinists in the world to preserve these gems.
@@paultrigger3798 as ford said when they beat ferrari @ lemans: there's no substitute for cubic dollars;-)
50 or fewer...ftfy;-)
Is Jay going to establish a museum for when he passes, so we can all admire these vehicles? I think there should ALWAYS be at least one of each car made kept preserved for historical purposes.
Except a Prius
@@mohammedrahall4127 A Prius is definitely a historical car. Don’t take it for granted.
I've seen comments like this on a few of Jay's vids. Hopefully still a couple of decades before we need to start worrying!
@@NoLongo lol, people love to hate on the Prius. I own a 2006 Prius so it's 15 years old now. It's a great car.
@@mohammedrahall4127 every car is worth saving 1
My Mailman back in the day was one of the lucky guys to get one of these beauties for the "test" ... He turned heads all day long with it...I was sadden when I found out they would not produce it...Now the less, I put my hands all over his test car and the day he had to give it back, I suggested he might hide it!!! Thanks for the memory Jay.👍👍
saddened*
Matthew, are you smokin' the drapes again? That's called stealing!
It's always so touching to hear someone with a real passion speak about something, I don't care what the subject is. When he talks about these cars you can hear the fondness he has for these machines.
When I was a kid, there was someone on my block who had one of these. I remember the sound of it as it drove by. Everyone thought it was the future. Now it's the past. :(
basically the car sector is struggling because of too many regulations.
And without regulations we'd all be choking on smog and auto accidents would increase 10 fold. You want to trust big corporations to keep you safe? Good luck with that!
PAUL PETERSON wow what a very backward comment. many regulations are paid and then put in place to ensure their products are use .
@@Roadking556 I think I know what you tried to say but nah, gov't demanded all of them. Like CAFE stds. You don't think car Co.'s want those do you?
Leslie Horwinkle we're still using gasoline for the most part. and CAFE just seems to be a big scam that was pass onto the consumer.Remember back in the late 70s emissions did not apply to diesel engines ,we were told they burn clean. Now we have DEF.
It's so admirable how he considers himself as the custodian of his cars and not as its owner...
As a custodian of a collector car you realize that , eventually you sell it, or after you leave your mortal coil, it becomes an inheritance, or another item sold from your estate.
Why the cars were destroyed is just stupid. The cars minus the engine were built in Italy. So, what? To protect American auto industry workers? Because of protectionist policies like this, the car industry, along with much of American manufacturing, was destroyed. Government is busy helping us right off a cliff as usual. Some things never change.
@@jimlovesgina
"Because of protectionist policies like this, the car industry, along with much of American manufacturing, was destroyed."
Protectionist policies do not destroy manufacturing jobs; they protect them.
Unfair free trade policies that allow foreign manufacturers to dump their product in the US market at a lower than US production cost is what destroyed US manufacturing jobs. That and the excessive greed of Corporate CEOs, the board of directors and share holders.
A profit is always necessary in order to sustain a business. However, when the profit becomes exorbitant, it will do more damage than good.
And let us not forget the continuous policies that have devalued the US dollar throughout the life of the United States of America.
Makes you kind of wonder how much those Chinese made products would cost if the value of the USD was where it was when the country began.
@@scotttovey To much truth in what you say. In modern times, the real nail in the coffin for American manufacturing was when Bill Clinton sign the free trade agreement that let American Corperation move their manufacturing operations to areas with cheaper labor. All those good paying manufacturing jobs went to Mexico & China where they exploit their work force by paying them in bean or rice. What do Americans get back? Shoddy goods made by an untrained workforce. It’s the politicians in a coup with Big Buisness that’s killing America.
@@scotttovey Cannot really argue your point. Look to Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Norway, Finland, etc...basically the entire European Union has a thriving manufacturing sector solely because of their protectionist-based regulations.
Thank you Mr. Leno for sharing some of your life's passions with us. I have always been a car fan. My first car was a Rambler coupe with a "Twin Stick" (overdrive) transmission. I had it for almost 2 years before I traded it for a '65 GTO (3 deuces). Not certain, but while I was overseas flying Huey's for a year, I suspect Dad had more fun with that car than I did before or afterward. He was 54 - 55 at the time, and I was tickled to offer him use of a 'mid-life crisis' car he NEVER would have bought for himself. My personal apologies for the malcontent, supercritical commentary that appears far too regularly in these comments, and I appreciate that you continue to share your experiences with those of us who envy, take joy from, and embrace your efforts.
Specific thanks for the 356C piece and for introducing Wilhoit Auto. That 2132 mod with the short shifter would love to be in my 356, but I'm afraid it needs an interior rebuild first.
Great show, Jay. I first saw this car in St. Louis when it was introduced in 1964. I was taken back on how innovative it was., feeling like the future had truly arrived. Little did I know that 50 years later I would still be amazed by it.
An ingenuous car and we're glad you own it Jay, we know you'll preserve everything about it and we're sure Chrysler is grateful it's in your care, as we are! Thanks for the giving us a rare look at this incredible car!!
Chrysler no longer exists.
That is how Jay acquired this car.
You are my hero Mr. Leno! I love in Ky, a disabled coal miner, but I would gladly travel to California for a tour of your garages. You are a true car guy, and I love your videos. Thank you so much!
I saw the first one when I was fourteen. I was a paperboy. I heard a wierd sound and loved all the cars then. I kept watching and a jet turbine car came by. I was mesmerized, I came home and told my brother and said no way but later read about it in the newspaper in Portsmouth.
This was great to see! My family was in Baton Rouge in '64 (when I was 11 years old), and I used to see one of these guys cruising around every once in a while. The sound of the engine was unmistakable then, and still is. Great to heat it again after so many years!
Thanks for the experience Jay! Love how you take such good care of your cars.
Lol! Jay's probably never turned a wrench in his life. He's a millionaire who pays people to take care of his toys for him.
Anyone else notice a striking design style similarity to the later years Ford Thunderbird?
The 64 to 66 generation!!!
Yes I’ve always thought that. Ford never complained?
I was thinking Studebaker.
The big 3 often copy-catted their rivals popular models, although this design came from Italy, so it's a bit surprising that they 'borrowed' so much of the design from an American car, but they were clearly influenced by the body style of the early-mid '60s Thunderbirds, although the front and back of this car is just plain ugly, IMHO.
Studebakers are cool.....the Avanti!!
Mr. Leno,
Thank you so much for keeping this bit of history alive. I am fifty years old and I can honestly say that I was totally unfamiliar with this car and this type of engine. I can't wait to forward this to a friend who loves cars. Of course, I am sure that he is probably very familiar with this car. Thank you for sharing your passion for cars and automotive history with so many people who would quite likely never know about these amazing pieces of history. As I was watching this, I could not help but think that this technology could very likely, with all of the advancements that have been made since 1963, be brought back to life. Again, thank you.
I love that I learn so much from the Jay Leno's Garage videos. As always , thank you for your preservation efforts and display of automotive history.
Very agreed!!
I didn't ever know, that there is or was an turbine engine built in a car. I would rather know how much fuel this engine consume, than if it is possible, to do burn outs with it :-) Anyone else? Or was it in the video?
hurius...no, that car's not from our Earth's timeline, welcome to the M.E. I like that car very nice engineering....I like this universe better, it's a step up.
hurius Fuel consumption is of no consequence.
It's a beautiful video of a historic car, but jay doesn't teach anything. In this video he misinforms you and hides the real reason why these cars were destroyed. He talks about loud noise but car in smooth and quiet. He says upcoming emissions made this car impossible to produce any further, yet we see no heavy smoke in the exhaust; in fact all planes today must have not existed because of air pollution. This car has very few moving parts, extremely little gas mileage after it warms up, which makes it a very reliable vehicle that is cheap to maintain with super cheap gas mileage. This is the real reason why. Same for example like Royal Rife cured cancer in 1930s using effective sound waves treatment which is cheap, healthy way to treat cancer, but big pharma destroyed his lab and discredited his work. Anyone who duplicated his work was killed. I guess you get the point.
A true treat of the internet, watching and listening to Jay Leno enthuse over the rise and proliferation of the internal combustion epoch...
My dad never got to drive that car even though he worked as an exec at Chrysler Corp. I loved that car so much I had a model of it. I once saw one on a neighborhood street in Detroit, it sounded so cool, like a jet cruising by. What a blast from the past to see this, Jay, thanks!
Another marvelous video from Jay. He gets my vote to be The World's Most Accomplished Auto Enthusiast. In the video, he said there are only two turbine cars in private hands in all the world, and he has one of them. When I was a kid, the Chrysler Turbine cars were legendary. Chrysler actually worked on the gas turbine for automotive propulsion up to about 1980. They did a lot of work to improve its fuel economy and it did get better, but it always remained behind the gasoline engine which was improving all the time, too.
I took two years of elective auto shop in high school in the mid 1960s. The most valuable automotive courses I've taken. Saved me $1,000s in repairs. I remember in high school auto shop where our teacher talked about this car. He also talked about and showed a movie with Turbinique putting a turbine engine on a go kart and racing it against some kind of dragster. I believe they also equipped a NASCAR racer with a turbine engine, but the engine was slow to respond to throttle demands (spool up took too long as did spool down).
Cat converters get just about as hot and they've been known to start grass fires.
Cool difference between a gas engine stall vs turbine engine flameout. It's a jet without wings.
I had seen the turbine car at the grand opening of the Chrysler sterling plant in Sterling heights Mi. I believe in 1967. Also the turbonique engines were three different styles two of them were like rockets type large on was bolted on the rear end of a cars deferential, the other could be use on a go kart in witch in was use at the drag strip. The kart could do 220 mph in 6 sec. on 1/4 track. with 2 engines mounted. The 3rd style was a small supercharger self propel with a built in fuel tank to run the supercharger, If you look up the name Jack McClure He was the guy that race his go kart against top fuel dragsters.
@absoftitanium, oh gawd, my first ever "Hot Rod" magazine that our auto shop class teacher sold to us in grade 9 (he sold these mags to his students in class) was the 1967 version with Andy Granatelli's Indy 500 car on the cover. Too bad that mag dissolved from old age a few years ago; I hung on to that forever.
As a 14 year old kid, like Mr Leno, I too was fascinated by this car. I recall having a booklet by Hot Rod magazine featuring 1964 cars and the Turbine was on the cover with a great story inside. I kept that for years. A local outdoor mall had a display of 1964 cars and one of these was on display. I was in heaven. Tried to get dad to buy one.
who are these people who dislike videos that theres no reason to dislike? its no political or in your face. its a man showing his car. i dont get some viewers. 🤔
lol!
Probably Ford or GM guys who just automatically hate anything Chrysler ever made.
Steven C Al Gore, using 139 different accounts
Actually, for the most part, I'm a GM guy. No hate here, I can appreciate all cars. They all have there own charm. Some people are just too lazy to find it. I gave the video a thumbs up.
Unhappy people trying to spread a little more unhappiness around.
In 1964 I was with my Dad at North Star Chrysler & Plymouth in LA when we was buying a Plymouth Fury. He was always a Plymouth buyer. They had the Turbine Car there demonstrating it. I was lucky to be able to ride in the car as my Dad was doing the paper work on his car. This dealership was in downtown LA so the ride was on surface streets. I do remember the man from Chrysler telling me the car had the equivalent of 130 horsepower but it felt like a V-8 powering it at 200 horsepower. When I asked him what the cost was, he chuckled and said it was not for sale and he thought the cost was about $50,000 in 1964 dollars. It was a neat ride and when I found out it would burn just about anything, I thought for sure it would be a hot seller. Jay was fortunate to be able to get this and in great running condition. Chrysler was innovative just like the Chrysler Air Flow 30 years earlier.
Thanks again for actually driving this iconic car and being its custodian. I vaguely remember that one of the problems found in customer/real world testing was that the drivers would not wait for the temperatures to stabilise on startup so basically hitting the starter and putting it in drive which was detrimental to the turbine due to the higher temps on startup common to any gas turbine.Typical human impatience which may have been helped by some education.
The engine would look different to a normal jet engine because it has the regenerator which is crucial to "fuel economy" ( relative term) at part loads.Lots of problems with materials and sealing due to the temperature extremes. Not sure whether the technical challenges have been licked yet but with gas turbines in their infancy and no ceramics, it would be a weak point for regular consumer use. One thing they got 100% right was the styling. It still looks retro cool!
*Excellent point, Yes damage due to "hot starts" was and is still a serious problem in gas turbine engines.. although modern engines equipped with FADEC have auto-start features which minimize damage from an impatient operator. Ceramics have been used as early as the very first turbine engines... the world's first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me-262 used ceramics in its -004B engines.*
I am 68 and never heard of this car either. I was an auto mechanic and rebuilt many a chrysler transmission in my day.. Now I am obsessed with motorcycles and I own 12 of those from the 70's and 80's. Thanks Jay for this film..I know it's been out for 10 years but this is the first time I have seen it.. Really cool history.
I miss living close enough to see Jay out and about enjoying his cars. Thanks for another fantastic video, and thanks for keeping automotive history from fading away.
My grandmother's brother, a high school science teacher, was one of the civilian test drivers. He really enjoyed the look and feel of the car. I am impressed that Leno was able to obtain one of these, since so few survived the crusher. They make Tucker 48s look commonplace, even though both were produced in comparable numbers.
I love Jay's comment about not being the owner but a custodian for the next person. True true!!
In 1965, when I was a student at Howard University Law School, They brought one of these turbine cars there for people to see and after I showed great interest in it, I was given a chance to drive it around part of Washington D.C for about 10 miles. It was wonderful to drive. It handled very well, was very quiet and the fact that it was powered by a gas turbine was fascinating. I had studied physics in undergraduate school and hoped that they would put it into production, but they never did. It could have led to a revolution in automotive design and possibly eventually replaced the piston engine over time. To bad Chryler had so many financial problems then and decided not to pursue it I am thankful that I had the chance to drive one.
I remember seeing a demonstration at the Milwaukee mile, everyone was hypnotized by the sight and sound.
I don't remember if I have commented before and it really does not matter. I lived and worked at the Villa Marina Motel in Newport Beach in the early 60s when I was in college. This was on the bay, just to the north of the bridge going over to Balboa Island for those in So Cal. A family on Bayside Drive had one of these that I saw a number of times. What an awesome car! It is wonderful that Jay owns one of these and does a fantastic job of preserving his vehicles and sharing with the rest of us.
from italian im proud ..to know that a italian designer Ghia they have draw this masterpiece of american car ..
Who else do you go to in this world for classy, sexy automotive styling but the Italians? Ferraris and Lamborghinis are at the head of their class. Pininarina and Ghia are top notch in their field.
My VW Karmann Ghia convertible still turns heads and steals hearts!
I got to drive one of these when I lived in Detroit in ‘64. My friend knew 2 nuns who had been chosen to have it for a couple of months, and when I went to his house one night, it was there. The nuns gave me the keys and let me drive it. Imagine what it was like, when I, a 16 year old, took it out at night on Woodward Avenue, cruising the drive-in’s! Still remember that night. Magnificent.
Love the idea of us being custodians for the next person....nice sentiment and a real message about cherishing and preserving landmark achievements. Jay is as entertaining as he ever was.
*I remember that Chrysler quite well, back in the 1960's my father thought that this car was the future of the U.S. automotive industry, he said that piston driven cars were a thing of the past. America thought it was unstoppable in that era... it's a shame we weren't able to follow through. Thanks Jay, you're truly the best!*
It's all about money. Shame that no one wanted to make this tech easily applicable or do more with it. Would love to drive a jet powered vehicle. LOL
@assassinlexx From what I understand, the turbine engine just isn't viable as an everyday, reliable and efficient mode of automotive power when compared to the internal combustion engine. I agree that it would be a novelty, but in reality it simply isn't of any reliable benefit to the industry.
jd, are you smokin' the drapes again?
@@tommyboy6494 *Oh, poor goofy, discombobulated, persona non grata 'Mr. Rogers' & Your giddy 'Neighborhood'... You are the sole person on earth that has any concept whatsoever of what subject to which you are (so oddly) alluding. The inexplicably nature of your incongruous reply is indeed valid evidence of a severe lack of functioning brain cells. Qualunque cosa, a chi importa?
... Enjoy life, 'Mr. Rogers', in your own weird little 'Neighborhood'. And.. With all due respect... feel free to, Vai a farti fottere.* 👀
@@MrMenefrego1 you spend to much time bogarting jd
You are the man Jay, or custodian of the ultimate collection. They are meant to be driven.
True !
Thank you Mr. Leno for preserving and sharing this great car.
Never saw this car before. It looks fantastic inside and out. Wild, but, not too wild design. Thanks for showing it Jay.
Thank You Jay for allowing us to view your auto. It is amazing. In 1964, I was 12 but remember this.
When this car came out in 1963 I was growing up in Dearborn, Mich and I was amazed at the idea of a turbine powered car. I was born in 1950 and so the car hit the roads around Southfield, Mich when I was 14 and I remember being amazed seeing how the styling was so familiar to the 1963 Ford Thunderbird that one of my neighbors was driving. Then in 1967 the first turbine powered car hit the racetrack for the Indy 500..... would have won the race if not for a $15 bearing that gave out!
I was there for the race. Jones lead the race almost all the way, then with 2 laps to go... My seats were just above his pit. Great race.
Yeah right Ted, are you smokin' the drapes again?
Pretty cool that they really tried to make a turbine car and put thought and got very close to succeeding in making it work out for the masses. Great video Jay, nice to see chrome on the inside of a car for once. And the design that they put into that rear-view mirror is unique. Beautiful ❤️
Something you mentioned is something that I really miss, Chrome in the interior. There's just something so elegant about that. Back when I was a kid , that was a relatively common thing. The only time I see that anymore is when someone either restores or even customizes older vehicles. (Ah the memories).
@@charlesmauro5905 Aren't many cars with chrome on them anywhere anymore. I too miss that about the old cars.
I worked at a Chrysler dealership and this car was brought in the showroom when it was first built. I was in love.
As I was sitting at the bus stop on the way to high school, I saw this remarkable-looking car pull up to the light, then stop. I thought it was just some kind of new "concept car" until I actually heard the engine running... it sounded EXACTLY like the turbine of a jet airplane, only quieter. It was so cool that I nearly jumped up and shouted, but there were other people sitting next to me who would have thought I was crazy. That was my only experience with a turbine-powered passenger car, but I'll never forget it.
Your only experience with a turbine-powered passenger car??? Look up the definition of experience! Do you still bogart?
@@tommyboy6494 Jesus mate, get a life will ya?
@@marvindebot3264 plan ahead
"To the Batmobile!!!!"
I remember seeing it at the woulds fair in NYC in 63-64 I had won a ride in it on the oval track. my seat had the special ticket. it was cool
Why must all the cool stuff die off?
yeah, me too, it drove around sounding different..it was a product that went nowhere
To get the car for a couple of weeks required you to submit an entry form and win the draw.
As Jay said it was limited to around 360 +/- winners.
I remember as a teenager going to a Chrysler dealer in West Hartford, CT and being one of the original turbine cars being demoed by the dealer. What a thrill! If I only brought a camera.
The boys in the Chrysler experimental department didn't give up after this car. I've seen a photo of a Chrysler K-Car with a turbine in it. Like Jay said, fuel economy was always a problem they couldn't overcome. In mechanical engineering this is usually called the 500hp rule. Once a gas turbine is putting out less than 500hp, the thermal efficiency drops like a rock. It's the reason you don't see many gas turbines in light aircraft. Gas turbines depend on the mass of the airflow through the engine to develop power and with a small engine it becomes very difficult to get a lot of air through without the flow going supersonic.
While a simple turbine drive won't be practical in a car for the above reasons, There were some proposals to build a hybrid turbine-electric powertrain. There was a concept car from Jaguar (don't remeber how it was called).
Jaguar c-x75
Aspen to.
@@mancubwwa the ev-1 from gm was originally going to be a turbine hybrid but because the ev-1 was only tested in California they had to go all electric to be compliant with zero emission guidelines in California.
We have steam/gas turbine engines that capture lost thermal energy and use steam to spin the turbine. These new engines have thermal efficiencies of 66%. Piston engines can suck it.
I like Jay.... he's a regular guy with a lot of cool cars and plenty of $$$. Sounds like a Chrysler aficionado. My dad owned one of the biggest garages in the southwest in the 1950s - 60s. We had a lot of oddball cars parked in our driveway through the years. Henry J, Kaiser, 59 two-tone Desoto, Supercharged glass body Avanti, Studebaker Golden Hawk, MG-TD...etc.
Jay is a VEHICLE aficianado.Take a gander of his other episodes - there are more than cars in them. Seeing the Chrysler Turbine again (yes - I remember the movie in which the Turbine appeared) makes me wonder exactly WHY the Turbine was never mass-produced - and could it be revived. (Remember - the Turbine was built originally using 1963 technology - why could a similar vehicle be built using MODERN technology?)
Boy, did you just bring back some memories for me. I saw everyone of the cars you mentioned, during my youth, and the places where I saw them just flashed into my mind...Wow!!
One of the best Leno's garage yet! LOVE the turbine car. Always have! What a treat to see it as presented!
I was fortunate to see the car at the NY World's Fair. Fell in love with it. Kudos to Jay for being a wonderful custodian of American automobile history.
Thank you, Jay, for your wonderful work!
[To those complaining about the pronunciation of "turbine": Pronouncing the word with a long-"i" is what is called a spelling-pronunciation (forcing pronunciation to conform to the literal spelling [think of the sound of English if this were done to all words, as with "night" and "through"]), which is incorrect and also something for which the Brits are infamous (confer "been" incorrectly pronounced as "bean" and not correctly as "ben," as the word comes from the Anglo-Saxon "beon," whose pronunciation is closer to "ben" than "bean"). Furthermore, we see other vowel-sounds of terminus syllables of words such as "hostile" pronounced as "hostel" and "candidate" as "candidet," which are closer pronunciations to their linguistic origins than their spelling-pronunciations, for which - again - the Brits are infamous and incorrect.]
Jay, at 16:53: "Just the residual effect of MY [not "me"!] putting the glass down." :-)
What?
No, WE are correct. It’s our language 🤣
You are right. For examples: the exact same spelling yet two different pronunciation of "produce", (1-to make something /2-vegetables) and "combine" (1-add together 2-harvesting machine ). But my all time favorites, which only till recently have changed to reflect the phonetic spelling, are forecastle ("fokesil") and victuals ("vittles").
There are WAY too many ("meny") exceptions to the rules : bear vs beard & hears vs hearse, etc.
Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed.
Part of Jay's appeal is his down to earth, you can talk to me about it attitude. He seems like your brother or best friend.
I remember seeing this car at the 1964 World's Fair in New York with my parents. My dad was very impressed. :)
You are the Man Jay. Thank you for preserving so many pieces of automotive history and sharing it with all of us.
This very car, with Jay, was shown in James May's show "Cars of the People". It 's a very nice show, 2 seasons, 3 episodes per season.
Captain Slow?
I have no clue of how many times I've seen this video since it was published... As a Chrysler Corp cars lover, this is a masterpiece to me!!
I was 10 when my father and I went to see it at a local mall. Thanks for the memory.
I grew up in Rochester NY. Someone in the area had a turbine car and came to my Dad's station to fill up on kerosene. As a 10 year old I was in awe when he started the engine and we peered at the tach. I even got to sit in the car! Great video!
Thanks Jay for not only preserving cars, but also making these videos. Otherwise, some of this would be lost to history...
Thank you Jay Leno for sharing this with the world. That's so amazing.
This, when new, was a PLYMOUTH!
I was lucky enough to see it up close when I took my gramma's 1962 Dodge 440 in for oil change and the PLYMOUTH Turbine was in the shop at Tidewater Dodge 'showing off'.
Jay Leno has been an automotive archeologist for some years. These videos preserve the history of technology and he should be praised for his perseverance and investment in an aspect of our history that has attracted such extraordinary engineering and design.