What ever happened to Chrysler's TURBINE CAR? (Part 1)

(From Allpar.com)
For decades, Chrysler worked on an alternative engine design that might have provided a very flexible alternative. It ended without fanfare in 1979, and was never picked up again - as far as we know. At Chrysler Corporation, the earliest work on gas turbine engines dates back to before World War II, when an exploratory engineering survey was conducted. These studies showed that, although the gas turbine engine had strong possibilities of being an ideal automobile engine, neither materials nor techniques had advanced to the point where the cost and time of intensive research would be warranted.

At the close of World War II, studies of completely new concepts in gas turbine design were started. As a result of this work, Chrysler was awarded, in the fall of 1945, a research and development contract by the Bureau of Aeronautics of the U. S. Navy to create a turboprop engine for aircraft. This program - although terminated in 1949 - resulted in the development of a turboprop engine which achieved fuel economy approaching that of aircraft piston engines.