Jack, ya shoulda been @ the WPC Club's 1985 Natl Meet, in Detroit!
You coulda sat in the Proving Ground's Turbine car, (@ "Black Lake",
where the 75th Anniversary "group Photo" was taken) & also, got yer
feet burned by its 2000F (?) idling-exhaust , too.
Of course, RHIP, so El (erstwhile) Presidente, Sherwood Kahlenberg got
to drive it, a bit, there, but just seeing/feeling it, "alive", there,
(as opposed to visiting it, in a museum-venue!) was a unique experience,
as were ALL the factory-tours/visits that Sherwood "arranged", during
the years that he was the Honcho, @ the WPC ---a MAGIC time; THANX, S.
.
AS a digression, Sherwood, in/at the 81(?) Natl Meet, was able to
schooze the Corp, to the extent that it was, then,
'struggling/beginning-to-recover, financially', agreed to provide a
guided-tour of its K-Car Assembly Plant . It was such a "unique" event,
that Ioaccoa's 2 daughters (un-pretentiously) were part of the tour,
which consisted of a 'train' of connected/pulled-"golf-carts" (for lack
of a better description!)
OK; back to the T-cars. George Huebner (ex-engineering director, for
them) gave a presentation/discussion to the membership, and described
the evolution of the turbine engines--I think that there were 3 distinct
designs, leading up to the Turbine car's engine, and that the T/engines
were put into special 59 Dodges & Plymouths.
The 66 Charger was 'scheduled/planned' to have a TURBINE engine, in it.
IIRC, the goverment withdrew its funding, for the T/engine's
development, perhaps (can't recall, precisely) because its MPG was still
not very good, was expensive to produce, and had NO
engine-compression-braking,. being a turbine engine)---so, when the
Gov-funding ended, Chryco looked @ the program, & said :"kill it".
Mr Huebner was NOT happy about the complete scrapping of the program.
The biggest impediments were the 'poor' mpg, & the cost/warranty of
production.
btw, there is a silent video, on the WEB, I've seen, showing the filmed
Gov-mandated destruction of 'most' of the T/cars (cause Chryco didn't
want to pay 'big-bux' , to pay for special import duties, on the 53(?)
T/cars, that were shipped, from Italy/Ghia.
btw(ii) Jay Leno was instrumental in arranging to have a
spare/operational turbine engine (from a St Louis [?] museum) be
sold/given to the one private-owner of a real T/car (that he acquired
w/o an engine)--a magazine, a few years ago, featured that car, & My
Classic Car has done a feature, on that car.
This is all, extemporaneous, courtesy of my musty brain cells---but,
it's mostly correct!!!
Neil Vedder
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