How Jay Leno Resurrected His Chrysler Turbine Car
When you own an experimental car from nearly 70 years ago, parts are only the start of your problems when things go wrong. If anyone is going to be an example of problems like this it’s Jay Leno. The man has a collection that spans pretty much the entire existence of the automobile, and that brings about a whole host of unique problems to solve when things go wrong.
The latest example is the Turbine Bronze Chrysler coupe that was recently brought back to life after an unfortunate engine seizure some time ago. Jay bought the car directly from Chrysler and drove it around regularly for a few years before the turbine stopped one day and turned the car into a very fancy, very interesting, very expensive rolling paperweight. If you think whatever car you have is impossible to get parts for, now imagine the parts you are searching for are aircraft-grade and were produced as part of an experimental program 70 years in the past. There are no spare parts. None.
So what to do? Well, you go to the place that built the parts in the first place. Jay shipped the car to Williams International in Detroit, Michigan. The man who picked up the phone was Gregg Williams, the son of the man who was instrumental in the initial development and production. Williams International is still in the business of gas turbine engines and offered a space to repair the turbine engine from Jay’s car. Now they just needed to reverse engineer the powerplant to figure out what went wrong.
Instead, Jay and Gregg decided on an easier route and started making phone calls. Before long there were engineers from the initial development, many of whom were well into their 80s, who rallied to supply any knowledge and input they could. Jay mentions that these very engineers might have squirreled away blueprints and drawings that could help reproduce parts.
Even with the drawings, producing turbine parts is on a totally different level than making a short run of pistons or forging a crankshaft. The speeds and temperatures that turbines run at are radically different than those of standard automotive engines. Luckily Williams was able to step in with the production capability and material science to put Jay’s Turbine back on the road. Fascinatingly, according to Gregg, multiple parts were produced using metal 3D printing.
After it’s back together, the pair go for a cruise in the car and talk about some of the finer points of driving something that idles at 20,000rpm. The engine is also so well-balanced that vibration is nearly non-existent. It’s surely a wild feeling from the driver or passenger seat as the Turbine whirrs down the road, and luckily the car is running again so that even more people can experience the feeling firsthand.
On a side note: it’s interesting that Jay pronounces turbine as “turban”. Is that American pronunciation? Here in Canada (and UK?) we say turbine rhyming with “alpine”
Well, I’m from the southern US and I say it way you do, but I’ve heard lots of people pronounce it “turbeen.”
Remember seeing one at 64 Worlds Fair in Flushing New York. I was 11,also remember the 007 Aston Martin
one word: MONEY!!! No need to waste time making it sound like he did it himself. I wouldn’t even read the article.
…but you did….
When I was in my early teens in Brookline, Massachusetts, I had a paper route, Monday-Saturday, and I delivered papers year-round on my bicycle (not much fun in the winter). But when you are on a bike you see so much more and find it easy to stop when you see something interesting. That included seeing a Chrysler turbine car owned by a woman on my route, for the year or two people were able to lease them. I remember seeing it regularly during that time and even remember which direction the house faced. Alas I never got a ride.
How is a car made n 1964 70 years old? Or is this some flashback article published 10 years from now? Regardless, these are beautiful cars and I see some of the lines in other Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth vehicles of the same era.
I think its because in the video the owner of the co. states that it was 70 yrs ago from its original development.
Just wondering how an 80 year old engineer worked on “an experimental car from nearly 70 years ago”? I’m picturing a factory full of 10 year old engineers designing and building these things. LOL
as a kid growing up in Bellwood Illinois, I would see the Chrysler turbine a couple times a week filling up at the Holiday gas station on Manheim Road, a block from where I lived, listening to the car pull into the station and drive away was pretty exciting.
I attended high school in Ft Lauderdale when those turbine cars were new. I remember coming alongside one at a stop light while riding home along A1A (the beach road) in our school bus. A couple of my friends thought it was a new Thunderbird until I said…”Listen. Does that sound like a piston engine?” What we heard was the unmistakable sound of a jet aircraft. I never saw the car again, so it must have belonged to a visitor, as even then Ft Lauderdale was a tourist mecca.
On a side note, a local guy owned at least a dozen Tuckers; I attended school with his daughter, and periodically he’d pick her up in a Tucker–a different colored one each time.
Ft Lauderdale was, and still is a hotbed of exotic vehicles…
When I was a kid, now 69, a family at my church in St. Louis, won the use/testing of the car for a year I think, and I got to ride in it once. As I recall it doubled as a mosquito fogger from time to time. 🙂
As a teen in the day, I saw one driving east on Puritan between Marlowe and Hubble in Detroit. I can still picture it after all these years.
I had the fortunate experience of riding in Jay Leno’s Turbine Car in December 2014. The ride came about as I got a call from him in 2013 about a Chrysler 300G coupe he was considering for purchase. I have a 300G convertible I’ve owned for many years, and we discussed Chrysler Letter cars and the G in particular. He said he would get back with me once he decided on a purchase. Fast forward to Fall of 2014, he called again and said he bought a 300G coupe, and invited me to come down and have a look at the G and tour his garage. I agreed and went to his garage in late 2014. We looked at the 300G, and as we walked through his collection, I mentioned to him that of all his cars, the one that stands out the most to me was the Chrysler Turbine Car. He said, “Wanna take it out”? Naturally I agreed, and after disconnecting the battery maintainer (battery in trunk, 24 volt for starting) he fired it up. An interesting note, the exterior door handles looked just like those on the 300G. I mentioned that I had heard that the sound of the Chrysler Turbine starting was that used on the Batman TV show in the ’60s, Jay said “I’m going to see Adam West next week, I’ll ask him if he knows”. We drove it out of the garage and onto the streets of Burbank and onto the freeway. As we were on the freeway entrance ramp, I said something along the line of “punch it”. He just laughed and said “this car isn’t easy to get parts for, so Its best to not push it”. Of course I readily agreed and felt a bit sheepish, but only for a moment. I brought my original mint Chrysler Turbine car brochure with and asked him to sign it and he said “Are you sure”? I just nodded yes. He asked if I would be willing to do a video with him on his 300G once it was properly sorted. I agreed, and he called me in July 2016 to do the 300G video, its on YouTube. We remain friends.
I actually took a ride in a turbo car at the NY Worlds Fair in ’63-’64? My friend’s father worked for Chrysler.
Amazing…As we were watching Jay’s video, I was telling my wife about the fact that my Parents had taken us to the 1964 Worlds Fair and I remember watching the car driving around the track, it seemed like non stop. I would have been 9 at the time. Then Jay speaks of his recollection of the 64 Worlds Fair. So happy Jay spends so much time and money Preserving and restoring so many autos.
There is video of the guys discussing it with each other at the facility.
I’ll chime in with my seeing one at Riverside International Raceway back when they were new.
If I had the funds, one of those would be in my collection.