GM’s experiments with the gas turbine engine didn’t end with the Firebird concept cars. There was also a futuristic tractor-trailer rig called the Turbo Titan III.
All through the 1950s, General Motors held high hopes for the gas turbine engine, as exemplified by the automaker’s fabulous trio of Firebird dream cars. But by the mid-1960s the romance with passenger car applications had cooled off, and the company’s development focus for turbines shifted to large road trucks. Two prototypes based on production trucks, Turbo Titan I and II, led to the creation of a far-out dream truck known as the Chevrolet Turbo Titan III, a futuristic tractor-trailer rig.
The space-age bodywork for the Titan III semi tractor was constructed in steel and fiberglass with an electrically operated tilt cab. A pair of jet fighter-ish air intakes in the nose also housed hideaway headlamp assemblies, and full skirting that ran the length of the chassis kept the fuel tanks, batteries, and other hardware tucked away out of sight. A fully functional prototype, the Titan III was reportedly driven coast-to-coast several times.
(By the way, Ford also built a futuristic turbine-powered semi tractor-trailer rig, known as Big Red. You can read about it and see it in action on video here at Mac’s Motor City Garage. International Harvester, Chrysler, and others also experimented with big road turbines, and GM also built a turbine bus prototype.)
The Titan III was powered by GM’s GT-309 gas turbine engine (to give us an idea of the development progression, the powerplant in the original Firebird I dream car was designated GT-302). Rated at 280 shaft horsepower and 875 lb-ft of torque, the GT-309 operated at 35,000 rpm, stepped down via reduction gearing to 4,000 rpm at the output shaft. Of course, GM never quite licked the gas turbine’s major drawback for highway use: Poor efficiency and response over the wide operating range demanded of a road vehicle.
The cockpit featured full power accessories, a comprehensive array of instrumentation what GM called “astronaut seating” with full headrests and suspension. Note what appears to be a Chevrolet production-car console shifter to operate the Allison six-speed automatic transmission. One eye-catching item is the Twin Dial steering system developed by GM’s Saginaw division, which is remarkably similar to Ford Motor Company’s Wrist Twist system that was created at almost exactly the same time. (Video demonstration of the Ford Wrist Twist system here.)
A custom 40-ft. stainless steel box trailer was also created for Titan III, as shown in the photo below. Full gross vehicle weight was quoted at 78,000 lbs. Of course, the dream truck was not predictive of future technologies, and to this day there has never been a gas turbine production vehicle—though that possibly could change with the advent of hybrid powertrains and other innovations. The Titan III was reportedly destroyed at some point in the late ’60s.
I remember reading about this back in the 60s. There was a lot of talk about putting it into production but the General did admit that it was a thirsty beast. I find it interesting that so many companies experimented with turbine powered vehicles and all lost interest in a relatively short time. It makes one realize how great of an invention the piston engine really was…
Nothing is mentioned about the joint venture between Boeing and Kenworth in the early 50’s. I think the drivers liked the power, but excessive heat and exhaust, and dismal 1 mpg( in some cases gpm) couldn’t compete with the advancing diesel market. And as far as the steering controls, come on,, what no big steering wheel?
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2011/05/09/turbine-powered-oddities-no-466-the-see-through-kenworth-boeing/
One time during the testing phase of the Turbo Titan III, it was brought into the Chevrolet Engineering Center in Warren, MI for, I think, a photo session or Management viewing. There was an outdoor viewing deck on the third floor of the Engineering Center and a special hydraulically powered freight elevator to lift vehicles to the deck. On this particular occasion, the Titan was parked, turbine running, in the hallway waiting to be loaded on the elevator. Unbeknownst to the driver, the vertical exhaust stacks were aimed directly at the ceiling mounted fire suppression sprinkler heads. The heads were designed to work when they sensed a certain temperature – like from a hot fire. They worked! There was about two inches of water on the floor of this hallway before the water flow was stopped. I happened upon the scene during the mop-up. Needless to say, that was the last time the Turbo Titan got anywhere near a sprinkler head.
That incident was a memorable to me as well because I was the driver of the truck. The engineers of the GM Research Laboratories designed and built the engine and worked with Chevrolet evaluating it.
When the sprinkler went on and dirty water showered the cab, I thought the engine had failed so I immediately shut it down and sat there until someone was found who could turn the sprinkler off.
Bob,
Jim is my name and I was interested in the Chev Titan111 you drove, was it ever used the carry freight? I am an Australian truck historian and writer and am interested in writing about it. I would be grateful if you could please give me a person opinion of the truck as the driver.
Many thanks,
Jim Gibson
Interesting, legal weight limit back then was 73,280 lbs, so I guess it was ran on an overweight permit. Weight limit didn’t change until late 70’s or early 80’s to 80,000 lbs, where it remains today.
Also interesting was the use of side skirts down the truck sides. Truck makers started using those on a lot of trucks in the late 80’s for fuel economy reasons.
The windshield reminds me a lot of the GMC Astro and Chevrolet Titan cabovers. They had excellent frontal visibility with the glass extending below the dash. Twice as much glass as the Freightliner cabover in the same years.
Michigan has the highest legal truck weight limits in the country and are in the bottom 10% having the worst roads. Road maintenance funds have been diverted for years to schools and general fund expenditures.No one makes the connection.
Chrysler had been working on making actual turbine engines for cars real since the early ’50s. They also produced the ONLY production run of any such cars. They chose not to make flashy, eye candy, fantasy cars, like the Firebird concepts, that didn’t move the bar on anything real for production in materials or design.
I get really tired of articles that promote misinformation or exagerations of revisionist history. Sorry!