August 13, 2009 9:14 AM
Spinning the Chrysler Turbine with Leno
Steve Lehto - Author
Back before jet engines were being strapped to cars aiming to break the land-speed record, there was the Chrysler Turbine. As many car buffs know, Chrysler was the only automaker to put serious effort into making turbine cars, that is, cars powered by jet engines.
By 1963, Chrysler’s R&D had progressed far enough to build a fleet of turbine cars and lent them to a handful of consumers to prove the vehicles were viable. In fact, it’s amazing how many people remember seeing the distinctive bronze cars whooshing around in the mid-1960s, complete with 60,000 rpm engines that ran on just about any fuel imaginable.
One of them is Jay Leno, who was as interested as I was in the Turbine program, which is the subject of my book, which has a working title of “The Chrysler Turbine Car.” Somewhere along the line, I sent him a copy of the manuscript, as his “car guy” stature is well known to all. A few years later Jay gave me a call. It turns out the comedian didn’t have a mere passing interest in the vehicle, but in fact he had just purchased one of the three surviving Turbines that Chrysler had kept at the end of the program. (Six others were donated to museums).
I told him everything I knew about the car and he offered to let me drive his if I was ever in California. Last month I got the chance to drop by Jay’s famous garage. After he let me drive the Turbine car, Jay invited me stay for lunch, during which he asked if I’d ever gone for a ride in a steam car. Has anyone ever answered “yes” to that question? Moments later, Jay and I were steaming around Burbank (which is as fun as it sounds).
Jay, who has offered to write a foreword for my book, has also promised to not let the Turbine sit idle in his garage. Last I spoke with him he’d driven it almost 400 miles. Everywhere he goes, people ask him: “What type of car is that?”
It’s a turbine car. And it was built by Chrysler.
Steve Lehto is a Grand Blanc attorney and the author of “Michigan’s Columbus: The Life of Douglass Houghton,”(
www.momentumbooks.com)
LINK:
Chrysler Group LLC: Chrysler Corporate Blog - Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Mopar, GEM
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