Frank drives like I feel . . . old and slow! My favorite line is "Where are all these people going?!" I can relate. What an amazing vehicle! Way, way ahead of it's time. Thanks for posting.
Jay Leno also has one of these car. He had featured this car on one of his web shows. Later, he bought his from Chrysler. Bill Harrah had his Chrysler Turbine car on display in his auto collection in Sparks, NV. As with all the cars loaned to museums for display, Bill Harrah's had a turbine engine on display next to the car. So, Bill Harrah's car actually had 2 engines. The car had an engine installed in it. I saw this car myself at Harrah's car collection. I also saw one on display in an L.A. museum. The story is that when these cars were loaned to museums, a crucial part was removed so the car couldn't be driven. Chrysler had been experimenting with turbine engines in it's cars long before this car and it's siblings were built. This was the first car which was specifically designed and built for the turbine engine. Chrysler continued to experiment with the turbine engines into the 1970's, installing them in it's regular cars. Emissions and fuel mileage were the final nails in the coffin which ended the turbine engine experiments.
Great! I was 10 in 1963, and our family were a "Chrysler a family",....well specifically, our Pop liked to buy Dodge's. In 63 or 64, Pop always bought the newest car for our Mom, who was a school teacher. Pop would take over the older car, he was a business owner. So he got her the Dodge Dart, it had a white exterior, and a red interior, and it had a convertible top. It was a cute looking "compact" car, and shared some body design elements, with the Turbine Car. As a family we went to an auto show, held in an arena in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, we lived out in the suburbs. I wish I had saved the original sales brochure, we were given, promoting the Turbine Car. I was always fascinated by The Turbine Car, back then and even now. I recalled one of the selling points was, that it could be fueled by many things. Perfume,.....(like what women sprayed on themselves), and any kind of drinkable alcohol,...I'm guessing Vodka. (Neat, stirred, & not shaken) And good ole reliable, American gasoline. I'm 70, presently.
Always thought this to be one of the best looking cars I'd ever seen. From behind, it resembles a mid 60's mo par Polara or something similar. A really cool concept with that turbine.
The Transportation museum in St. Louis has one and they start it for the the crowd every Easter Sunday at the car show in Forest Park. I posted a video on RU-vid a few years ago.
I just saw a video on how Jay Leno's Turbine car has just been fixed after breaking down a few years ago. Williams who build and work on Turbines did the engine fix.
My father’s business associate had o e to test in 1963. I got to drive it (supervised). It had very poor acceleration. I almost got run over making a left turn in front of an oncoming truck.
You can forget about miles per gallon and start thinking in gallons per minute even when you're sitting at a stop sign. Not to mention the noise is going to drive you nuts eventually. It's pretty obvious why this idea was a dead end but I wish I could find a copy of the 1964 movie "The Lively Set" with Doug McClure, James Darren, Pamela Tiffin and the turbine car.
Thanks Dennis - nice episode. I understand that Frank passed on a while back. Do you know where this car is today? Hopefully it’s still being maintained and driven.
Beautiful car collection! Thanks,..I love this video. Was the Turbine Car engine sounds, in this video exaggerated? If they weren't,....then I could see why it was failure. The jet engine-like and or vacuum cleaner sounds were unpleasant to my hearing.
@@MyClassicCarTV Wow,...I was surprised how loud it was, and it was giving me a headache. I was expecting it to be nearly silent, or gently humming. It reminded me of the vacuums one hears in a hotel, when they are cleaning your up your suite.
What sort of gas mileage did the turbine get between city and highway driving? I'd assume in the city it was quite low, and on the highway, it should do rather well.
Who would have ever put up with all that noise while driving around? ( for those insided feel like they're in a constant Jet flight and those outside would feel like they're living next to an airport!)
The first time I saw the Chrysler turbine car was when I was a kid in 1964 and a movie came out called "The Lively Set" starring James Darren Pamela Tiffin and Doug McClure and the car was featured in a race.
The car was sold by "HYMAN LTD" of St. Louis Missouri, several years after Frank Kleptz passed away. Jay Leno's car was one of three that Chrysler had.
Well, maybe not this car, but the turbine engine project kept going well after these were done doing their demonstration tours. Fuel economy and emissions were one thing, but at the end of the day, they could never get the cost of the engine itself down enough to make it profitable, how ever I'm sure the engineers at various aircraft companies were able to harvest the fruits of Chryslers labor in trimming down the cost of their jet engines.
@@MyClassicCarTV Curious though, one of the old promotional posters shows a different mirror, and it's body colored. Just makes me wonder if the original mirror was replaced with another mopar mirror at some point in time, or did it inspire the later mirror design? I dunno, I just notice little things like that and it makes me curious
