Authors@Google: Steve Lehto

In 1964, Chrysler gave the world a glimpse of the future. They built a fleet of turbine cars--automobiles with jet engines--and loaned them out to members of the public. The fleet logged over a million miles; the exercise was a raging success.

These turbine engines would run on any flammable liquid--tequila, heating oil, Chanel #5, diesel, alcohol, kerosene. If the cars had been mass produced, we might have cars today that do not require petroleum-derived fuels. The engine was also much simpler than the piston engine--it contained one-fifth the number of moving parts and required much less maintenance. The cars had no radiators or fan belts and never needed oil changes.

Yet Chrysler crushed and burned most of the cars two years later; the jet car's brief glory was over. Where did it all go wrong? Controversy still follows the program, and questions about how and why it was killed have never been satisfactorily answered.

Steve Lehto has interviewed all the surviving members of the turbine car program--from the metallurgist who created the exotic metals for the interior of the engine to the test driver who drove it at Chrysler's proving grounds for days on end. Lehto takes these first-hand accounts and weaves them into a great story about the coolest car Detroit ever produced.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Steve Lehto
• Chrysler's Turbine Car
• Authors@Google

[Gordoux]

Really weird setting for a talk. What´s the point of the dude sitting and reading, trying not to fall asleep on the back? Not happy with a dude, at the end, another dude shows up!

The talk is basically describing photographs, that we can´t see. To me it means that Google think nobody watches this talks any way.

The talk was interesting, it would have been more interesting if I could have seen the photographs.

[mzhukov]

The talk was conferenced in with some other Google locales. Those people were watching through videoconferencing technology involving a little camera on top of the screens you cannot see. The people in this room could see the power point; the people in the other locations could see the powerpoint and the speaker. It would have been nice though (I agree) to have the pics available for everyone . . .

[tallman1928]

For those who wonder how will the kingdom of God in the Earth be, the first step will be to choose the best capable faculted persons from among the faithful to create the leadership pyramid.

[ClemKropotkin669]

Dnload the audio from this tune at speedyconversion doht cohm.

[m8kzardoz]

huffingtonpost(dot)com/steve-l­ehto/why-chryslers-turbine-car­_b_760065.html#s154974

some images of cars talked about in this presentation

[TheKub]

Google definitely needs to add a link to the slide presentation in the doobly doo.

[MarkoKraguljac]

Fascinating :)