From 1963 to 1965 a fleet of 50 custom-built, petrol-turbine powered Chrysler automobiles were given free to families across the United States for real world testing and evaluation. These special cars were only a small part of the decades long development in turbine power for automobile use.
The dream of the Chrysler Turbine development team was adapting jet engine power for production automobile use with little, or minimal, impact on the automobile ownership experience. Each selected family received a turbine powered car for four months. By the end of the testing program more than 200 families were able to experience driving a car with a completely new kind of power plant.
Two Chrysler Turbine cars arrived in my hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. One was given to the Hodges family who lived just two miles down the street from my family!
Words can't describe the feeling of having "the future" cruising along the street in front of my house.
At the end of the testing program all turbine cars, except for five, were destroyed by federal DOT requirements. Only three cars survive today with one of them owned by Jay Leno. While the idea of a "jet powered" car sounds futuristic Chrysler Corporation had to end the development program because the cost of each engine was approximately 8 times the cost of the car it was installed in. If available for purchase, a 1963 Chrysler Turbine car would've cost as much as two Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II from the same year.
Here's a 20 minute film from Chrysler Corporation detailing the cars development and testing:
