and you thought they were pushed off a boat ?

[Greg Myers]

I did , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKumqcKuv1g&list=FLX6eO8vzEpBCznrjKjJX1xw&index=174

Edited July 27, 2013 by Greg Myers

[MAGNUM4342]

[MachinistMark]

good riddance to Chrysler junk

[Blown03SVT]

I had to go Google this car after watching it. I was curious how a few cars made it past the crusher. Jay Leno's is one of 3 that still run out of 9. Neat stuff.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/jay-leno/vintage/jay-leno-drives-one-of-the-last-chrysler-turbines

[george 53]

They once drove all around here. You could see them Downtown or on the freeway. Then after the trial period, of I THINK a year, they were all scrapped out. Jay Leno and another guy in cali own one each and some dude in Arizona i think has the third one. They ALL run.

[Harry P.]

Like George said, Turbine cars were given to various industry bigshots, local businessmen and celebrities for a real-world, on-the-road evaluation. After the evaluations, most of the cars were scrapped, and many people think it had something to do with import duties (the cars were bodied by Ghia in Europe and shipped back to the US).

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/01/30/on-the-destruction-of-the-chrysler-turbine-cars-and-import-duties/

[slusher]

I hate to see anything classic scraped and Mopars for one...

[Maindrian Pace]

They were scrapped in Jan 1968. Chrysler tried to give as many as possible to museums, but few were interested. Import duties of a few hundred dollars a car had nothing to do with it, they were scrapped for liability reasons just like concept cars have been before and since.

-MJS

[Greg Myers]

They were scrapped in Jan 1968. Chrysler tried to give as many as possible to museums, but few were interested. Import duties of a few hundred dollars a car had nothing to do with it, they were scrapped for liability reasons just like concept cars have been before and since.

-MJS

Thank you for sharing that with us Mike.

[Deathgoblin]

Makes me sad.

[Longbox55]

One of them was in Illinois, saw it at a show in Indy a couple of years ago with Illinois plates on it.

[uncle potts]

That's just freakin' wrong!

[charlie8575]

You mean all these years of blaming the IRS was mis-assigning blame?

Meh- I'll still blame them, it's fun!

Charlie Larkin

[1930fordpickup]

They were scrapped in Jan 1968. Chrysler tried to give as many as possible to museums, but few were interested. Import duties of a few hundred dollars a car had nothing to do with it, they were scrapped for liability reasons just like concept cars have been before and since.

-MJS

I am not questioning your comment Mike, just wondering how the liability would be different after the first year? Is it because they would have to sell the cars?

[Greg Myers]

Let's see, http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/01/30/on-the-destruction-of-the-chrysler-turbine-cars-and-import-duties/

[2000-cvpi]

The Hemmings blog and wikipedia are not the most reliable sources. This site is much more thought out, researched and backed by first hand interviews and facts about the Chrysler Turbine car. There is also a excellent book by Steve Lehto on the Turbine car program at Chrysler.

Www.turbinecar.com

Five are running out of the nine that were not scrapped. Chrysler tried to give them to museums, but only nine were taken. They were scrapped not for the tax duty, but the liability of having a regular Joe own a turbine car. They didn't want the good will that they had built over the loan tours to be ruined by whomever bought one and trashed it. Or got into a serious accident with one.

[zenrat]

Or put the engine from one into a deuce...

[charlie8575]

Or put the engine from one into a deuce...

I have to admit, that would make an interesting model.

Too bad I plan on building my Turbine Car. I wonder if someone could be talked into casting the engine out of resin?

Charlie Larkin

[Guest]

good riddance to Chrysler junk

Whatever. That was hard to watch. I'm getting a unbuilt Johan full detail Trubine car kit from a fellow at another forum, it's missing a couple of the wheels and tires. I may build it with a hemi.

[lanesteele240]

Sad when you cant give them away

[MachinistMark]

Typical dodges! Can't give em away!

Watched it for about the 5th time this am. Still giggled.

[Harry P.]

I received this from a "reliable source." Can't vouch for its accuracy, but let's say I trust that this guy knows what he's talking about:

The story on why they were scrapped is that Chrysler wrote down the cost of the entire program against the cars. I.E. if the program cost X million dollars (nobody knows exactly how much, but it was a lot), they wrote off that loss divided equally against the "production" run of 50-55 cars depending on who you believe. Which meant that each car had a BIG price tag on it if Chrysler wanted to keep/sell them. The cars either had to be destroyed or the government had to be paid the pro-rata cost they wrote off on each car. There's a "cover story" that it had to do with import duties because Ghia made them in Italy, but that's BS. Chrysler's accountants got a big tax break off the deal for the company. The government only knew about the "production" cars, but there were prototypes that weren't officially "in the books," so Chrysler could keep them without fear of discovery. Those are the ones that exist today, along with a couple that just slipped through the cracks.

Now when it comes to on-the-road trials, it was not bigshots and famous people that drove the cars, it was Joe Average. Chrysler milked the program for a ton of PR by randomly having families drive them for a few months. They logged their comments on the cars, which was actually a veiled PR program and reliability test. One of my best ChryCo buddy's father was one of the handful of field service techs on that one. They took broken cars to dealers, hid them, and had the MoTown tech guys fly in to diagnose/repair them after hours. Very cloak and dagger. Burned-up Torqueflites were the biggest issue. Power-braking the car gave it snappy performance but the loose torque converters overheated easily if you did that.

Chrysler also had them at the '64 World's Fair. My parents drove one. A postscript was that many oldtimers had Turbine Car hubcaps in their offices as ashtrays before smoking was banned in the building!

[2000-cvpi]

I don't know where to start with all of the BS in your statement from a reliable source Harry. Whomever that is is full of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH.

[Harry P.]

I don't know where to start with all of the BS in your statement from a reliable source Harry. Whomever that is is full of crap.

What part is he wrong on?

[2000-cvpi]

The entire first paragraph is bogus. Ghia only made 55 cars, fifty for the trial driver program, and five for Chrysler to test. The entire Chrysler turbine program started about 1954 and ran until almost 1980. So there wasn't any reason to have a tax write off for the turbine program, since it was already started and didn't end for ten plus years after the crushing of the Ghia turbines. The cars that are left over are from the fifty that were driven in the trial program. Chrysler kept three, one they test crashed and then destroyed. The other two were in the Chrysler museum until they sold one to jay Leno. They still have one.

Edited July 27, 2013 by 2000-cvpi