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William
02-08-2015, 10:34 AM
That most people forgot, or never heard about.

If you are a car geek, you might find these interesting. Up first, The Chrysler Turbine (Jet) car. Pretty amazing engineering for the time...

1963 Chrysler Turbine: Ultimate Edition - Jay Leno's Garage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2A5ijU3Ivs

If you don't want to watch the video...
...Just 55 Turbines were built. Chrysler held on to five for evaluation and made 50 available for testing by 203 families nationwide who were chosen from 30,000 volunteers. Each family kept the car for three months. As part of the deal, the drivers recorded impressions and mileage in little logbooks. Chrysler had a special team of mechanics on call who flew out and fixed the cars right away if anything went wrong....

...The car was the brainchild of chief engineer George Huebner, who began studying the feasibility of turbine-powered vehicles in the mid-1940s. The engine's smoothness and durability seemed to be a viable alternative to the piston engine. It has few moving parts—just fan blades on a shaft separated by a combustion chamber—one spark plug and no cooling system. A compressor at the inlet pressurizes incoming air, which then combines with fuel and ignites. The expanding charge spins the turbine section that is geared to the output shaft. The car was rated at 130 hp and 425 kb-ft of torque at stall speed, about the same as a contemporary 318-cubic-inch V8.....

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a11786/jay-leno-drives-one-of-the-last-chrysler-turbines/










William

William
02-08-2015, 10:40 AM
Up next...

132 mph in 1925!!

The 1925 Doble Steam car...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUg_ukBwsyo


If you don't want to watch the video...

....The smoothness and force of the acceleration, however, never fail to amaze me—it's like the Hand of God pushing you along. I was running at 85 mph the other day, and there was more to go. It's dead silent on the road, just wooooooooshhhhhh!!! Back in the day, Hughes was clocked at 132.5 mph on a Texas highway, faster than anything with an internal combustion engine....

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a6228/jay-leno-and-his-doble-steam-cars/





After watching this you wonder why this wasn't taken further. I like the quip about some Mercedes engineers telling him this couldn't be done after he told them about the car. :)




William

William
02-08-2015, 10:50 AM
Running on Natural Gas....

Coast to Coast in 89 hours running on LNG...


Magnolia Special.
New Orleans designer J.T. Nesbitt took Jay's question (Why isn't natural gas sexier?) as a challenge, and answered it by creating this gorgeous CNG. Inspired by '30s grand prix racers, the Magnolia Special made it from New York to Los Angeles in 89 hours!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeRg217H_3A

Again, if you don't want to watch the vid..
The construction of this very special automobile began in September 2009. A unique, bare chassis was fabricated from specially formed lightweight, fully boxed steel rails to meet the wheelbase requirement of 116 inches. High strength 20 inch wheels were built specifically for the Excelsior racing tires, and joined with the bare chassis in December of 2009.Powertrain placement to achieve a 47% front, 53% rear overall weight distribution was calculated, and mounts fabricated. The inline six cylinder engine with a bore of 3.6 inches and stroke of 4.2 inches was selected for the ability to produce tremendous torque at lower rpm and allow more time for the highly stable fuel to achieve complete combustion. The octane rating equivalent for natural gas is 130, therefore, high compression 12.5:1 pistons were specially forged and high lift, short duration camshafts utilized.

The five speed transmission drives a rear differential equipped with positive traction and a 3.00 gear ratio for lower rpm at higher road speeds. The solid rear axle articulates with a 4-link system and Panhard rod, and is suspended by adjustable coil-over shocks....

http://bienvillestudios.com/index.php/magnolia-special/






William

William
02-08-2015, 11:08 AM
Btw, the fact that the Chrysler Turbine could be run on Tequila would put Dave T. on the ground, whimpering in a fetal position. ;)






William