What ever happened to Chrysler's TURBINE CAR? (Part 5)

(From Allpar.com)
Plymouth Turbine: The second generation

After extensive laboratory tests, a second engine was installed in a standard production 1959 Plymouth four door hardtop. In December, 1958, this latest Turbine Special made a 576-mile test run from Detroit to New York. The results showed significant improvements in fuel economy, along with roughly double the horsepower.

Three major engine components (compressor, regenerator and burner) showed significant improvements in operating efficiency . The compressor efficiency was brought up to 80 per cent, a 10 per cent increase. The regenerator or heat exchanger unit reclaimed almost 90 per cent of the heat energy in the exhaust gas whereas peak efficiency in the 1956 cross-country run was around 86 per cent. Burner efficiency also was improved so that it was approaching the point of ideal combustion.

Less apparent, but fully as important as the engine design advances, was the progress in turbine metallurgy. Prior to this time, automotive turbine metals were similar to those used in aircraft jet engines, which would not be suitable for automotive production for two key reasons: cost, and the lack of availability in the quantities needed. Through Chrysler metallurgical research, new materials were developed which contained plentiful and relatively inexpensive elements and could be fabricated by conventional means.

Chrysler engineers designed the third generation of the turbine and introduced it in three different vehicles. The initial showing was to newsmen on February 28, 1961. The vehicles were displayed publicly in Washington, D.C., March 5-9, 1961, in conjunction with the Turbine Power Conference of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, co-sponsored by the Department of Defense.

The first of these gas turbine vehicles was an experimental sports car called the Turboflite. In addition to the engine, other advanced ideas of the car were the retractable headlights, a deceleration air-flap suspended between the two stability struts, and an automatic canopied roof. This "idea" car received wide public interest and was shown at auto shows in New York City, Chicago, London, Paris, etc. The other vehicles were a near-stock 1960 Plymouth and two-and-a-half-ton Dodge truck.