Jay Leno's Rare 1963 Chrysler Turbine Car
Jay Leno arriving at and leaving the 2024 Holiday Motor Excursion presented by the Horseless Carriage Club (HCCA) of Southern California in his very rare 1963 Chrysler Turbine Car. Built as part of Chrysler's experimental program to test the use of gas turbine engines in automobiles, the Turbine Car was introduced in 1963 and featured bodywork designed by Elwood Engel and built by Carrozzeria Ghia in Italy. It is powered by the company's fourth-generation (A-831) turbine engine mated to a 3-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission. The engine, which idles at around 20,000 rpm and can rev up to around 40,000 rpm, produces 130 horsepower and 425 lb-ft of torque. A total of 55 Turbine Cars were built, 54 of which were finished in Turbine Bronze, including five prototypes and 50 cars as part of a public user program to help identify potential problems and gauge production viability. The user program involved over 200 users and resulted in over 1 million miles of driving. While the turbine engine offered several benefits including durability, vibration-free operation, and the ability to run on various fuels, it was criticized for its complicated starting procedure, slow acceleration, and weak fuel economy. Upon conclusion of the user program in 1966, Chrysler destroyed all but nine of the cars. Of the nine remaining cars, three were initially retained by Chrysler and the rest were donated to museums. This example, chassis no. 991242, was one of the three retained by Chrysler and was sold to Jay Leno in 2009. After the engine seized several years later, Jay commissioned Gregg Williams, whose father played a key role in developing and producing the original engine, to assemble a team of engineers to recreate it. Chrysler continued development of its turbine engine until the late 1970s when the program was ultimately abandoned due to high costs and emissions regulations.
If your name is Jay Leno, you can show up to whatever event you want in whatever car you want and easily steal the spotlight. With such a large and diverse collection of cars to choose from, Jay usually arrives at car shows in something fitting for the event's theme, be it an antique classic or a modern exotic. And after bringing the same '31 Duesenberg to the past two years' Holiday Motor Excursions, I was really looking forward to being surprised this time around. And boy was I surprised. First, who shows up to a horseless carriage event in a car about half a century too new and expects to park up front and center? And regardless of what event it is, how many people have the option of waking up in the morning and having to choose between driving something with traditional cylinders or driving something with a turbine? HCCA events often attract an occasional steam-powered or electric-powered car (both of which were actually quite common over a century ago). But a car with a fricking jet turbine? Even by today's standards, that's the stuff of sci-fi movies.
As Jay says in the video, this car wasn't meant to be a race car. And that's unfortunate, since countless high-performance cars have been inspired by jets and most turbine-powered experimental cars look like spaceships and were designed for speed. While this car's jet-inspired design cues are obvious in front and especially out back, its overall design is rather conservative by today's standards. Plus, it deserves an award for having the least creative name ever given to a turbine-powered car. Still, witnessing this car driving on its own power is an experience even most seasoned car enthusiasts find extraordinary. With its high-pitched sound thanks to an RPM range far above what's commonly associated with road-going vehicles, I find it hard to believe Jay wasn't just using the road for taxiing before achieving supersonic speeds and blasting off across time or into distant galaxies.
Chrysler's experimental car may not have reached production or led to a production turbine-powered car, but it certainly represents an incredibly interesting piece of automotive history. This particular car survived years of road testing, managed to avoid demolition, and was made available for sale by Chrysler to someone who happens to enjoy putting miles on even the rarest and most unusual cars and would go to extraordinary means to keep it on the road even when it meant commissioning a full bespoke engine rebuild. And thanks to Jay's decision that morning to go turbine-powered, those of us at the horseless carriage event were treated to a rare glimpse of what the world could have been like if Chrysler's program succeeded and streets became filled with cars that fired up like jets and sounded like they were ready to take flight.
Do you think there will ever be a turbine-powered mass-production car? Leave a comment on YouTube and let me know!