Inside Out: Jay Leno's Chrysler Turbine Car

[StevieRay9O]

Interesting read on Wiki, search for 'Chrysler Turbine Car'. Seems that the biggest problem was limiting the emission of nitrogen oxides despite it producing very little carbon monoxide & other pollutants. Also found out Leno built his own turbine car; article at popularmechanics.

[DEZZIS51]

I rode in one of these at the New York World's Fair in '64.......

[bored1980]

"It's a jet; It's a turban"

Wow! It's powered by an Indian headdress!

[ashegheaty]

986 trillion light years per second is the speed of the vehicle .

[re7urd]

1 inch/gallon

[bisquik3006]

Right next to a dime a dozen Chevelle, and a dime a dozen Vette. You think they could have found a better spot for him to park.

[CarsandCoffeeIrvine]

@bisquik3006 Jay's a modest guy. He parked it himself, and he wanted to park it there. He doesn't need or want to be the center of attention :)

[hottrodmike]

@bisquik3006 losers drive those every day cars.. chevy guys are poor posers trying to be cool..

[raconter1]

There were quite a few of these lent to volunteer drivers in 1964 for testing for 3 months at a time. All eventually went back to Chrysler. Essentially, it ate gas at a great rate, and the metals required for the turbine were too expensive for mass production. Nice video! :) Jack

[CarsandCoffeeIrvine]

@raconter1 Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

[raconter1]

@CarsandCoffeeIrvine My pleasure! I was one of the drivers who applied to Chrysler to drive one of these turbines...unfortunately, I was rejected! :) Jack

[StevieRay9O]

@raconter1 The other issue was the high noise levels! However, smaller quieter turbines made for helicopters are now being tried in road vehicles; Jay Leno has a bike powered by one.

[raconter1]

@StevieRay9O Hey, Stevie Ray! Yeah, I guess I have to be reminded that they did the best they could with the technology that existed in 1964..a lot has happened since that time. Very interesting! :) Jack

[mustang2005]

that probably sucks fuel like no tomorrow but that's pretty awesome

[PAMAROSHOUSE]

@mustang2005 you can run it on diesel,gas,perfume.according to chrysler theres a 9 minute video on yt from 1962 they drive one from new york to la,and they use gas,diesel,and jet fuel.

[MrSFSTUDIOS]

That's Jay's favorite car driving denim shirt!

[gatts300]

250 hair dryer of power. btw awesome card

[22ness0hayden]

"come back come back come back" - what??? I can't hear a fucking word!!!

[taylorgpa]

Why can't Chrysler do something good like this now instead of the crap they stamp out from the crap factories.

[taylorgpa]

Is it a 4 cylinder or 6? LOL, just kidding.

[lotanerve]

I guess the inside part is later.

[jimpeel]

How in the fuck did he get one of these? There were fifty made and the government made them destroy them or they would have had to pay big fees for them. All but ten were scrapped and those were donated to museums on permanent loan. I actually saw one on the street in Burbank, CA when I was a kid. They were given to ordinary people to operate on the streets as concept/research cars. There is one in the Los Angeles museum of natural history at Exposition park. I drool whenever I see it.

[moijesuismoi99]

Would the car fly lol.It sounds awesome.

[winterstellar]

Does it run on jet-fuel? : )

[TheSSSdriver]

@winterstellar

It runs on anything that is combustable. So yes, it runs on Jet-fuel (altough diesel or normal fuel is just fine).

[BrentAudi]

Very cool sounds! I wonder what the top speed is? Also, is it very loud at highway speeds?

[jeepers2655]

see the short video of Chrysler wrecking the Turbine cars they had is stock?.......what a waste.......kinda noisy like a hoover......but unique!

[bobcooper31]

It's absolutely incredible that any car company could even think about building such a monstrous lemon. What the hell did they think it was going to achieve over conventional cars. Just imagine the complaints from your neighbours if you set off to work before dawn every day. That incredible whining noise would attract a lot of complaints and probably get the car sabotaged.

[mrspivvy]

@bobcooper31 The fact it had much fewer moving parts, required much less maintenance, would run on anything combustible. I think mostly they did it because they could. back in the day Detroit tried just about everything. a similar kind of deal with the rotary engine really...something of a dead end

[Dogurasu]

It's very cool car but it's really no surprise that it didn't make it into production.

It sounds like a vacuum cleaner.

Fantastic collectable though.

[JG40061]

Great looking car Jay-Keep it up

[luckyanniefish13]

There is more than one operational Turbine Ghia, check out the book "Chrysler's Turbine Car" by Steve Lehto. It was a very interesting book about the entire Turbine program at Chrysler, including an in depth history on the 55 Turbine Ghia cars that were built(this is the model Jay Leno owns) It was a Chrysler Turbine drivetrain in a body manufactured by Italian Company Ghia.

[GrandMoffSilvey]

I want to know what jay leno pays in car insurance :-) he's had a few tickets.

[vintagemachines]

Does he have the 1955 Plymouth Turbine car???

VM

[vintagemachines]

I would love to ride in this car! Mr Leno should reenact the cross country turbine tour that Chrysler did in 1963. Have a lottery of some type (car rescuers?) for vintage machine buffs to vie to ride a leg of the journey... And a j-turn would be quite a sight also :)

VM

[56BUICKRiviera]

Sounds like it can fly!

[ConnorTuber]

is there a reason hes ALWAYS wearing the same shirt.

[tomuss94]

@ConnorTuber Yeah, he spends all his money on cars.

[jerywilliams]

@ConnorTuber I never thought about that before, until you posted that i realized that he does always wear that same blue denim shirt! He must open his closet and just have a row of the same outfit. Hmmmm what should i wear today?

[Wikkedbrisbane]

@ConnorTuber Thats how he can afford cars like this !

[VauXHallc2JyM]

how many cars have jay lenoo...???? =O

[caraddict27]

as far as i know theyre is 4 left 2 for private 2 for museum they-res 2 running

[GOUGOUNETTE]

OMG...THANKS JAY FOR THIS POST..

WOW I WAS SURCHING FOR THIS CAR FOR A LONG TIME...

YOUR AMAZING..

THANKS AGAIN..

[petershaman]

Ultra rare turbine car - who's got it? Jay, obviously

He has wickest cars in the entire universe!

[mzhukov]

The car WAS running when he bought it. And he bought it from the Chrysler Museum, not Ford. There is another running one at the St Louis Museum, Chrysler has one running and the one privately owned by a collector in Indiana also runs. There are NINE (9) left of the 55 that were originally built.

[dcmayer2]

I am a Die Hard Chrysler fan, and this turbine car is great. However, does anyone else think it sounds like an old Electrolux vacuum cleaner?

[itsmacintosh]

Does anyone have like a diagram of the inside of the engine like how it works? or is it a turboshaft????? How did they make the tranny work?? Wouldn't the torque converter explode at 60000???? SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

[bigwoolleypenguin]

@itsmacintosh Hi I am no expert on this Chrysler turbine , but I have driven Leyland gas turbine truck here in UK. There is no torque converter . The engine itself is , by definition a " torque converter " & it doesnt need one . In the UK trucks the engine is geared permanently to the wheels . When the truck stops the turbine stops , as the turbine starts to turn the truck starts to move . It is actually very simple mechanically when compared with conventional engines & transmission.

[itsmacintosh]

@bigwoolleypenguin Dude o.O what did you drive? I am in wales now... I wanna see this in action! That answers some questions but opens the door to others! How does the trubine restart every time you want to go? What brand is this? Can i get a book like a techincal book here?? MUST KNOW!!!! Thanks

[bigwoolleypenguin]

@itsmacintosh Hi , I am afraid I dont know much technical / engineering information. I am an " old " ( Im not that old ) truck driver , been driving all sorts of trucks, buses & commercials over the years. British Leyland once built some revolutionary gas turbine trucks ( around 1969 / 1970 )These were full size " premium " heavy weight ( 38 ton articulated ) artic tractor units, six-wheel double-drive 6 x 4 s. A guy has restored one & it is on Youtube somewhere put in Leyland gas turbine truck.

[bigwoolleypenguin]

@itsmacintosh Shell had a number of these trucks in their petrol tanker fleet in the 70s as I believe did various other large companies . I think BRS had some . A few still exist / have been restored. As I said the turbine is geared straight to the wheels , there is a 5 speed automatic air-operated gearbox. When the wheels stop ( when the truck stops ) the turbine stops. When you put your foot on the gas to move off again the turbine starts turning and the wheels start to move .

[bigwoolleypenguin]

@itsmacintosh I am afraid I dont know much technical stuff as I said. I once recall looking at a very good , very thick technical text book all about gas turbine vehicles , cant remember waht it was called or who by but it shouldnt be hard to find. Peterbilt & Ford in US made gas turbine trucks in the 70s and VW did one in the VW transporter van . Leyland also did a Rover turbine car as well as the truck. Check out Leyland gas turbine truck on Youtube , youll see the restored one running.

[StuPadazzo]

The guy filming this states that it's only one of three running left. It is my understanding that this is the ONLY one running left. And it wasn't running when he got it from the Ford Museum.

[CarsandCoffeeIrvine]

Oh wow, didn't know that. I didn't have time to ask him about the car, so I just used Wikipedia, which is sometimes wrong.

[palevictory]

>@StuPadazzo

>The guy filming this states that it's only one of three running left. It is my understanding that this is the ONLY one running left.

...there's at least one other in (excellent) running condition. What's more, it's extremely nice, a bit better than the one Leno has.

[Aussiewayne100]

@StuPadazzo There are 4 running, I own one!

[marktse]

@Aussiewayne100 sweet! man i wish this was more popular. Why didn't the turbine engine catch on?

[TheBizkit83]

@marktse they never caught on because of fuel economy.

[vcval]

@TheBizkit83 humm no it is too economical aka it can run on almost any fuel even perfume or alcohol look at some other videos on you-tube they were hand built by ghia in italy and imported to the america with out having the tax payed that is why they were destroyed after the 6 month test period so Chrysler didn't have to pay the import tax" the official story" personally i think it is a bullshit story they could have sold the cars to cover the import tax but didn't

[blackrosetiger13]

@StuPadazzo No he was correct this is one of 3 running only 9 of the Ghia body Chryslers have survived. There are other Chrysler turbine cars in existence but they do not have the Ghia bodys

[blackrosetiger13]

@StuPadazzo No he was correct this is one of 3 running only 9 of the Ghia body Chryslers have survived. There are other Chrysler turbine cars in existence but they do not have the Ghia bodys. thats what makes this car special

[sixtiesforever1966]

@StuPadazzo WHY THE FORD MUSEUM? IT'S A CHRYSLER

[bobcooper31]

@sixtiesforever1966 Chrysler were probably going to trash it cos it was such a big embarrassment to them and Ford purchased it to show the world what trash cars their competitors were building.

[sixtiesforever1966]

@bobcooper31 WOW! I understood that the government bought it to keep it off the road because it would run on anything combustible. I rode in one and the car rode just fine. Of course don't stand behind the exhaust.

Like standing behind a jet with heat. Thank You! Sir David

[silverbird58]

nope ford had its turbine program as did gmc , hwever when granitelli "was told " ? to turn off his turbine indy car > (funny we didnt see it race afterwards either) . the whole event was canned and forced out "at any cost" much like the wing cars and the magnetic powered model T .. my poersonal favorite was tom ogles Galaxie 500

[StuPadazzo]

@sixtiesforever1966 Seriously? You can't be serious... You know there's a world-famous museum with Henry Ford's name on it in Dearborn, MI that houses ALL kinds of cars from automotive history with his name on it right? ...it's called "The Henry Ford Museum". The first time I saw a Chrysler Turbine was at the Henry Ford Museum back in the early 80's. Although Jay got his from Chrysler, the Henry Ford Museum had one too for many, many years.

[MrNitro65]

@StuPadazzo HE BOUGHT IT FROM THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM AND IT WASM ALWAYS OWNED BY CHRYSLER SO JAY LENO IS ACTUALLY THE FIRST OWNER OF THE CAR

[srercrcr]

@StuPadazzo And what would a Chrysler be doing in a Ford museum?

[StuPadazzo]

@srercrcr "THE" Ford Museum... not "A" Ford Museum. The Henry Ford Museum located at 20900 Oakwood Blvd in Dearborn , Michigan... Had one on display for many years. It's a car museum with the guy's name on it...

[mocus1]

@StuPadazzo there's another old guy that has a running one.....he was on My Classic Car

[rickmeister177]

@StuPadazzo There are actually others that run. The Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, MO has one that operates - theirs is actually the only one on public display that does. Beautiful cars, I wish there were more than 9 left. The video of them being destroyed is heartbreaking!

[drockjr]

@StuPadazzo Not true..there is a collector in NYC that actually drives his. I wish these were still around..

[mikeys316]

@StuPadazzo No sir there is another runnin g one left belongs to an estate of a gentlmen in terre haute ,indiana who passed away late last year

[johannes914]

Awesome and rare car. First time i see one in action...

Makes the same sound as a vacum cleaner ! .. LOL ...

[spangelosf43]

This car is priceless and I love that Jay just drives it around to local car shows. I'm jealous.

[midgetman2142]

cool