Chrysler Turbine Car - Legacy

Legacy

After Chrysler finished the user program and other public displays of the cars, 46 of them were destroyed. Chrysler announced that this was necessary to avoid a stiff tariff, but that was only part of the story. The destruction of the cars was in line with the automobile industry's practice of not selling non-production or prototype cars to the public. This practice was also later used by General Motors with its EV1.

Of the remaining nine cars, six had the engines de-activated and then they were donated to museums around the country. Chrysler retained three operational turbine cars for historical reasons; two of the three are now owned by the "WPC Museum". All of the turbine cars owned by the "WPC Museum" are in running condition at the archives of the museum. The last turbine car that is functional, owned by the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, was photographed for Mopar Action magazine, and appears at car shows around the United States from time to time. One Turbine car is on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and it will be part of the exhibition Driving America, opening in early 2012.

Only two Chrysler Turbine Cars are in the hands of private collectors: One was purchased by private automobile collector Frank Kleptz of Terre Haute, Indiana and is functional. Kleptz's Turbine Car was originally donated to the former Harrah museum in Nevada. The second one is owned by comedian and television host Jay Leno, who purchased one of the three Chrysler Turbine Cars which had been originally retained by Chrysler. Leno wrote that

Most were destroyed by Chrysler for tax and liability reasons, which is a shame, because to this day everyone who rides in a Turbine says, "Whoa, this feels like the future!" You turn the key and there's a big woosh and a complete absence of vibration... I think it's the most collectible American car—it was so different. Most of all, the Chrysler Turbine is a reminder that all the cool stuff used to be made in the U.S. I hope it will be again.

Chrysler's turbine engine program did not die completely with the destruction of the Ghia cars. A new coupe body, which was to become the 1966 Dodge Charger was considered for a new generation turbine engine. Nevertheless, the Chrysler went on to develop a sixth generation gas-turbine engine which did meet nitrogen oxide regulations, and installed it in a 1966 Dodge Coronet, though it was never introduced to the public.

A smaller, lighter seventh generation engine was produced in the early 1970s, when the company received a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for further development, and a special bodied turbine Chrysler LeBaron was built in 1977 as a prelude to a production run. By then the company was in dire financial straits and needed U.S. government loan guarantees to avoid bankruptcy. A condition of that deal was that gas-turbine mass production be abandoned because it was "too risky" for an auto company of Chrysler's size.

A Chrysler Turbine Car, painted white with blue racing stripes, featured in the 1964 film The Lively Set. The car, loaned to the producers by Chrysler, was one of the test 'mules', and was returned to Chrysler after production. It was among the cars scrapped.

While Chrysler's work with turbine engines never paid off in the retail automobile sector, the experiments proved fruitful with the incorporation of a Honeywell AGT1500 into a slightly different product, the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, developed in the late 1970s by Chrysler Defense (which was later sold to General Dynamics).