Chrysler Turbine Program

We all know about the 1963 Chrysler Turbine cars, but the program started in the 1950s and lasted until the mid 1970s. From Wiki here's the list of cars that were built with turbine power during that time. I was trying to find information on others, but all I can find was info on the 1963. I wonder what happened to the rest? Were they all crushed or did some make it to
museums?

1956 Plymouth Belvedere
1957 Plymouth Fury
1960 Plymouth Fury
1962 Plymouth Fury (2)
1962 Dodge Dart (2)
1961 Dodge 2½ ton stake
1963 Chrysler Turbine Cars (50)
1964 Plymouth Furys (2)
Prototype Dodge Charger
1966 Dodge Coronet
1973 B-Body sedans (3)
1976 4-door Dodge Aspen (3)
Concept F-body 79 Mirada
Concept 1980 Chrysler Lebaron

Where are they now?

Sir, this is a follow!

I think I've seen a photo of an early-50s Plymouth turbine car - '53/'54-ish - but that was a long time ago.

Pictures from the end of the program with the 70s era cars are here:

https://www.turbinecar.com/misc/Gross-Photo/Gross-photos.htm

Guess my memory still works...

Speaking of which, I remember a Jerry Gross from my time working at B&M around '70-'72, and he was a PR guy.
He liked to claim he "was the guy that came up with the '68 bumblebee stripes when he worked for Chrysler".
Maybe he bounced back & forth, maybe there's 2 guys with that name...

I think only the 1963 was the one that was made in substantial numbers. The others may have been one-off experimentals?

Yup, the point of the '63 cars was to put them in the hands of average folks for a while and get their feedback.
IIRC, there were 50 cars, and they were rotated among the public for about 3 months each for about a year.
I'm thinking the styling was an effort to increase desirability; I thought they looked great then & still do.
I'd bet the others were one or two builds, and probably crushed afterwards, as Chrysler tended to do.

The rumor on the 63s is that Chrysler had a hard time getting some of them back. Seems reasonable. All but a couple were crushed by the bean counters. Bodies hand built by Ghia, imported on some sort of limited use waiver to avoid paying taxes and actually cheaper to cut up than keep. Hard to watch footage exists.

Oddly enough, youtube has a decent archive on the turbine program. Chrysler did a coast to coast road trip, stopping at a Dealer near you, in one of the 50s mules. There's a good vid on that. There's also a short one that mentions the mules from the 70s and oddly, a small fleet given to the EPA for evaluation. I say oddly because because part of the death of the turbine program was their "gasoline only" emissions test rule. There's a couple interesting ones about the world tour they took the 63 on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsmWMOsi7xY 1955 TV Promo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NiS3HPuK1A 195x cross country promo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH2GkL2jlYc 1962 cross country documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is-NEPD-Hdk pre 1963 Chrysler promo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0eEGgaORak 1963 World Tour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_YRNQoQFjM 1963 Evaluation program promo by Chrysler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnpfb8VDnZs 1963s destroyed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwyZBzcplsQ 70s / 80s Home Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Crzngf3SwQ 2013 50th Anniversary styling exercise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWev6JTI6S0 40 years in 20 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FhsN-IuGA The Jo-Han edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7g-nHhsg_4 1991 Interview w/ 1963 tester

Ok, it can be a deep rabbit hole and ya kinda missed one: the M1A1 gas turbine powered main battle tank was designed and prototyped by Chrysler.

I am sure most know this But Jay Leno has one of the 63 Turbine cars he bought from Chrysler. He does one of his "Jay Leno's Garage" you tube shows about it and it is very interesting, he takes it for a drive etc.

https://youtu.be/b2A5ijU3Ivs

I am fairly sure I saw one of the 63 Cars at a Mopar Event at Heartland Park Topeka in the late 90s. I don't know why that is something I remember I just remember it driving through the pits. I was 18 or 19 at the time and had zero interest in anything but drag racing so I didn't pay it much attention. Today I would have been much more interested lol.

Mopar Action did a 3 part series about 10 years ago.

I have factory concept drawings in the museum from the 50's, including a rear turbine engine design.

In 1963, a friend of mine wen tot see the turbine car when he was a kid. His parents were on the list to get a car to try out. They didn't get one, but received some literature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS_p4Jhv3Ek

I have seen this car locally, although not in a very long time.

Now that's cool and why am I not surprised they dropped one in a truck?

So the question is where are those late 70s turbine cars now?!

The book covers several turbine vehicles. First was a 54 Plymouth followed up with a 55 Plymouth. A 56 Plymouth four door was added to test reliability and the car ventured on a cross country trip. The car also was used to test fuel mileage, and required repair. Next car was a 59 Plymouth for road testing, driving from Detroit to NY. Power was up from the 130 range to 200hp with material change and improved recuporator. Third generation engine technology made its way to a 61 concept car and a 60 Plymouth 4 door and the 60 truck I pictured. Another coast to coast turbine car was made, a 62 Dodge "turbo dart" that was joined by a 62 Plymouth Fury for evaluation in the LA area between December 61 through April 62. Another pair of the same cars were made and the four toured the US major cities as demonstrators of the turbine technology. In February of 62, announcement was made to build 50-75 cars (the 63 turbine cars we are all familiar with). Another truck, a 62 box truck was also made. The Dart, Fury and truck were on display at the February 62 Chicago Auto Show. The book I have ends at the 63 Ghia Turbine cars, though I know the technology was evaluated well into the 70s. That should give you the list of cars someone was asking about.

Most people have forgotten that Chrysler had a turbine truck program. I'd hate to see the fuel a loaded medium truck would consume.

In 1977 I was at the Chrysler Proving Grounds in Chelsea, MI with what is now known as the Winged Warriors/ National B-Body Owners Association. We were gathered on the oval when the Chrysler exec who was hosting us directed our action up the track & urged us to be quiet. Suddenly a white sedan, a Coronet I think, “whooshed” past, only the noise of it cutting through the air giving a hint that it was there. I noticed there weren’t any turbine cars of that vintage on the above list, but it really seems that it was the ‘77 mid-size body. But that was a long time ago so maybe it was ‘73-74 style. But it was the current turbine technology that they were developing at the time.

Unfortunately, once it was gone, that was it, they didn’t display it for us to see.

click the link I posted above with label "home movies" - there's a white 73ish satellite in the first few seconds. If an actual later coronet, probably part of the test fleet the EPA had. There's a clip of that one out there somewhere too. Part of the 1980 loan guarantee package was scraping the turbine program.

just looked again and I swear there's a Cordoba in the bay next to the Satellite. Around 20 sec in there's shot of a door with "Department of Energy" on it. Makes more sense than the EPA. also: who else but Chrysler engineers would swap a motor while wearing a shirt and tie?

Allegedly the regenerator got fuel mileage within range of typical v8. I won't say fuel mileage is completely irrelevant but it's less of an issue when burning cheap fuel. Corn oil, moon shine, lighter fluid, grain alcohol. see also: emissions.