destruction of the turbine car

[cdr]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Io9gInXrA1A

[myk]

Sickening...

[Baldwinvette77]

if only there was a death penalty for destroying artwork 

[Daytona R/T SE]

The destruction was due to the Government wanting to tax the Fu%& out of Chrysler for every turbine car left in one piece.

[green69rt]

Sad to see original work or pieces of history destroyed.

[A383Wing]

I think there are 3 originals left today....Jay Leno has one

[cudaken]

One of them is in St Louis Mo. I con my way into sitting in it.

Cuda Ken

[tan top]

sad , remember seeing a hour long program on the Chrysler turbine cars & stuff years & years ago on discovery channel ,

[Aero426]

The destruction was due to the Government wanting to tax the Fu%& out of Chrysler for every turbine car left in one piece.

That is the widely circulated story.   But think of it for a moment.  The import duties on 50 cars is really a piddly amount of money.     I have to believe it was more like the GM EV and they were destroyed intentionally.  The program was over.   The company did not want to have to deal with the legacy issues of the cars running around in the free market.   They saved nine and kept three operational.   More have been made to run since then.   

[Daytona R/T SE]

The destruction was due to the Government wanting to tax the Fu%& out of Chrysler for every turbine car left in one piece.

That is the widely circulated story.   But think of it for a moment.  The import duties on 50 cars is really a piddly amount of money.     I have to believe it was more like the GM EV and they were destroyed intentionally.  The program was over.   The company did not want to have to deal with the legacy issues of the cars running around in the free market.   They saved nine and kept three operational.   More have been made to run since then.   

  Interesting.

[Indygenerallee]

There are more than 3 left, a collector in Terre Haute, Indiana has one I have seen it with my own two eyes he said Jay Leno called him and he sent Jay the part so they could custom make it off a original part (don't know what part it would have been he never specified) and I saw the one that was at the Walter P Chrysler museum back in 2000. Also my father said he saw one the year they came out at the dealers convention (since my grandfather was a Dodge Chrysler Plymouth dealer) and he said a Chrysler rep gave him a plastic model of the car and he still wishes he had it to this day.

[Ghoste]

And didn't the program run until the late 70's?  (or do you mean the program to let the public drive them?)

[Tilar]

and I saw the one that was at the Walter P Chrysler museum back in 2000.

That is probably the one that Jay Leno now owns. He mentions it in this video and talks about how he got the paper work and he is considered the original owner.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2A5ijU3Ivs

[Ghoste]

IIRC, they had two and one remains at the museum.

[rt green]

they could've thrown 383's in them and sold em    or donated them to vo techs

[69_500]

And didn't the program run until the late 70's?  (or do you mean the program to let the public drive them?)

The turbine program ran all of the way up to the K cars. As far as I know they did one turbine car each year all of the way up to that time.

[Ghoste]

That's what I though, it was a long term program and started before the well known Darts.