The Chrysler Turbine Car never caught on, but one thing is for sure: teenagers would have loved it. The Chrysler Turbine Car was part of a decades long effort by the Chrysler Corporation to develop a mass market gas turbine powered automobile. Building on work that began in the early 1950s, Chrysler launched a nationwide user experiment program with 50 hand-built Ghia bodied turbine cars in 1963. The cars were powered by a 130 hp regenerative gas turbine engine that ran on anything from kerosene

If you’ve heard about the Chrysler Turbine car, you might hear people say things like “It shoots flames out the back”, or “Don’t stand behind it!” While it’s true that turbine engines produce an incredible amount of heat, Chrysler was actually able to develop an ingenious device called a “Regenerator” that took heat from the exhaust and warmed the intake air, resulting in dramatically better efficiency AND exhaust temperatures cooler than a regular piston-engined car! Want to learn more about th