turbine engine for a geo metro

[Vince-HX]

noise pollution?

Shooting flames would be cool though

[cfg83]

Hello -

Dodge tried, but I think it was too finicky and soaked up gas like a paper towel :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gy_fNjOy98

Photos of Chrysler turbine engines and cars

The turbine itself. Chrysler wrote: "The present performance and economy of the Turbine are comparable to a conventional car with a standard V-8 engine. The engine will operate satisfactorily on diesel fuel, kerosene, unleaded gasoline, JP-4 (jet fuel), and mixtures thereof. And, even more interesting, it is possible to change from one of these fuels to another without any changes or adjustments to the engine."

Chrysler turbine engines and cars

The big complaint from the consumers was poor fuel economy at idle and lower speeds. Unfortunately, this wasn't something further refinement could alter very much, since high rpm is inherent in gas turbine operation. I suspect this was the main reason that the U.S. Government ended its support for Chrysler's turbine research--the Goverment's goal was to lower fuel consumption in vehicles, not increase it, never mind the fuel flexibility.

CarloSW2

[Doofus McFancypants]

issue with turbine engines is the speed variation needed for automative applications.
They operate at a narrow rpm band most effectively
Series hybrid would be awsome.

I recall seeing something where i guy did this with a Hummer..
have to search for it again - but he has some CRAZY MPG as the setup charged the batteries in like an hour.

Steve

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Did you ever stop and ask why - in a hypercompetitive auto market - nobody ever offered a turbine?

Hyper-competitive? But what were/are they competing on? Not fuel economy, that's for sure.

You could ask the same question about a lot of things. How come Detroit has never offered a real sports car? How come it doesn't build small pickups or vans? Why did GM drop the electric car? How come nobody ever offered hybrids before Honda & Toyota? There were working experimental models in the 70s: Godfather of the Hybrid

[cfg83]

jamesqf -

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Hyper-competitive? But what were/are they competing on? Not fuel economy, that's for sure.

You could ask the same question about a lot of things. How come Detroit has never offered a real sports car? How come it doesn't build small pickups or vans? Why did GM drop the electric car? How come nobody ever offered hybrids before Honda & Toyota? There were working experimental models in the 70s: Godfather of the Hybrid

Fantastic article. I never knew about any of this. I thought hybrids only happened on paper in the universities in the 1980's.

CarloSW2

[Big Dave]

Why did GM drop the electric car? Same reason everybody else did: batteries.

[metromizer]

Originally Posted by cfg83

jamesqf -



Fantastic article. I never knew about any of this. I thought hybrids only happened on paper in the universities in the 1980's.

CarloSW2

I worked on Bill Brobeck's Hybrid in 1982 in Berkeley, CA


so far as a 'thrill show' check out Ron Patrick's converted turbine engine
Jet Beetle

[Will]

A jet powered Geo.......... Come on, a JET POWERED GEO!!! What could possibly be more cool than that?

[Funny]

Originally Posted by Will

A jet powered Geo.......... Come on, a JET POWERED GEO!!! What could possibly be more cool than that?

Jet Powered New Beetle

Not cooler, just completed, now make one in a Geo and that would be one hell of a sleeper!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Why did GM drop the electric car? Same reason everybody else did: batteries.

That doesn't exactly hold up, since the people that had those EVs seemed to be quite happy with the batteries they had. Sure, there are a lot of people who couldn't have used the EVs with the sort of range they had, but isn't that a big part of Detroit's problem, thinking that every vehicle has to work for everyone, so they wind up building cars that only suit the almost-mythical average driver?