- Hi, and welcome to Car Stuff.
I'm Scott.
- And I'm Ben.
- And Ben, we recently went
to the dream car exhibit
at the High Museum of Art in
downtown Atlanta, Georgia,
and we saw an incredible vehicle there.
We saw the Firebird XP-21.
- [Ben] Oh yeah, look at this
crazy contraption, Scott.
It's like a jet on wheels.
- [Scott] Yeah, it's like a jet.
- I pretty much just said that.
- Oh, yeah, I guess you did.
(techno music)
- And the Firebird really
is a jet powered car.
I mean, it's got a 370 horsepower
Whirlfire Turbo Power gas engine
and it weighs 2,500 pounds.
- [Scott] Wow, and here's where
it gets a little bit weird.
They think this car can go
up to 200 miles per hour,
but they're not exactly sure
how fast it can actually go.
- Right, because at the
time, there was only one guy
who was actually qualified to drive it.
- That's right, a man
named Emmett Conklin,
and he tested the Firebird
up to about a hundred miles per hour,
but then he had to shift into second gear,
and when he did, the
wheels started to slip
and he lost traction, so
he had to back it down.
We don't really know how fast it could go.
- [Ben] Yeah, he was just trying
to avoid that crash, right?
- [Scott] Exactly right.
- [Ben] Look at the vehicle's shape.
That bullet shape might not
be the most practical thing,
but the pieces of a good idea are there.
- [Scott] Sure, jet engines
are faster and more powerful
than typical car engines,
but the question is,
why don't we use them in cars today?
- Good question, Scott,
because we know that the
Firebird was tough to steer,
but it also wasn't shaped
at all like a typical car.
- Yeah, and some of
those handling problems
can be traced to the shape of the vehicle,
rather than the power source.
- But other car manufacturers
took this idea a step further
and they actually made a
production gas turbine car.
- Yeah, that's right,
there was the Chrysler
Turbine Car program,
and that ran from about 1962 until 1964,
an honest to God, gas
turbine car, in production.
- [Ben] Now this thing could
run on multiple types of fuel.
It could run on diesel,
it could run on kerosene,
it could run on JP-4 jet fuel,
it could even run on vegetable oil.
- [Scott] Yeah, that's
right, unfortunately though,
the program was scrapped,
as were nearly all of the gas
turbine cars from Chrysler.
- Nowadays, we know there are a few simple
but compelling reasons
that we don't use these sorts of engines
in production cars, right?
- That's right, and the first reason
is that gas turbine engines
run a lot more efficient,
but only when they're at higher speeds.
- Yeah, and most cars tend
to run at a lower speed,
so this engine is not
ideal for a daily driver.
- [Scott] And fuel economy
may be a concern as well
with gas turbine powered cars,
they have kind of an
inferior throttle response
when compared to piston driven engines.
- [Ben] So no matter how
cool they might look,
and they do look really cool,
it just might not be worth it
to have gas turbine engines
in most cars.
- Well that's true, at least for now.
But who knows?
With future innovations and
processes and technologies,
the future may bring us
something very exciting.
- Yeah, so let us know what you think
about gas turbine cars in the comments.
Thanks so much for watching.
Be sure to like, share, and subscribe
so that you can always stay up to speed
with the latest Car Stuff.
Up to speed, did you...
- I get it.
- It's like a pun.
- It's a good pun.
- I'd like a one to ten on it.
- Like a negative two.
- It has a 370 horsepower
Whirlfire Turbo Power gas engine
and it weighs 2,500 pounds.
- And here's where it
gets kind of crazy, Ben.
(laughs)
I did it, I said it.
