The 1977 LeBaron Turbine was the product of nearly 25 years of Chrysler research on gas turbine engines. But ultimately, the program reached a dead end.
As we’ve tried to show here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, Chrysler’s fabulous 1963 Turbine Ghia was no one-shot wonder. The corporation’s ambitious research program on gas turbines had begun nearly a decade earlier with the first-generation CR1 engine of 1954, which produced 100 shaft horsepower but unfortunately suffered some drivability issues, including significant turbine lag and no provision for engine braking. (See our feature on the 1955 Plymouth turbine car here.)
From there, steady improvements produced the fourth-generation A831 engine that was used in the now-famous Turbine Ghia (55 cars built, nine still in existence, three still running). The fourth-gen engine weighed just 401 lbs, produced 130 hp and 425 lb-ft of torque, and could run on virtually any liquid hydrocarbon fuel from kerosene to tequila.
When the Turbine Ghia’s public demonstration period ended, the development program continued as the engineering team worked through the classic issues with gas turbines in passenger cars, including high fuel consumption and excessive exhaust emissions, particularly oxides of nitrogen (NOx). In 1972, the U.S. Department of Energy, then actively looking for alternatives to gasoline and internal combustion engines, stepped up with funding and some technical participation to support the effort. The lucrative contract included the production of 14 test engines and a number of running prototype vehicles. Now in its seventh design generation, the turbine was capable of up to 123 hp in emissions-compliant tune.
To showcase the DoE program, Chrysler dropped the gen-7 turbine into the car shown here, an extensively restyled 1977 LeBaron coupe. Based on the company’s M-body platform, the LeBaron concept featured a 112.7-inch wheelbase, a curb weight of 3884 lbs, and coupled the gas turbine to a three-speed automatic Torqueflite transmission. It’s worth mentioning that elements of the LeBaron Turbine Concept’s front end styling would later be seen on the production 1981 Imperial.
There was even serious consideration at that point of putting the turbine into limited production, but the Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979, more famously known as the Chrysler bailout, put an end to those plans. The government bailout committee, led by the Secretary of the Treasury, determined that the turbine car was too risky and expensive for a company in Chrysler’s precarious economic condition.
While the LeBaron concept represents the swan song of the Chrysler turbine program, it’s fair to say, it wasn’t the very last turbine car produced by the automaker. Chrysler also built a turbine-powered 1981 Dodge Mirada, below. Years after the program ended, a Chrysler turbine enthusiast tracked down and located the LeBaron and Mirada prototypes parked at a DoE facility at a nuclear power plant in Ohio. Today both cars reside safe and sound in the extensive historic vehicle collection of Stellantis, the car company formerly known as Chrysler.
This is a real trip down memory lane Uncle Bill, good times- thank you. It is a fascinating and miraculous story how both these turbine cars were rescued and preserved.
President Jimmy Carter’s brand new Department of Energy (DOE) was hatched in 1977, and the Chrysler LeBaron Turbine Concept was unveiled as part of the big party. Chrysler Corporation served as the prime contractor for Carter’s DOE and President Nixon’s EPA antomotive turbine engine experiment contracts, collaborating with NASA Lewis Research Center and various federal contractors. But by 1977 it was no secret that Chrysler’s turbine program was functionally dead due to too many unsolvable engineering/emission/financial dilemmas. The Lebaron/Mirada turbines were not new fresh engineering pursuits by any measure IMHO; both were “parts-bin” cars loaded with gimmicks, crutches, patches and illusions to exhaust the funds of federal contracts and fulfill federal contractor’s minimum paperwork requirements until the end.
The absolute funniest part of the whole Nixon/Carter/EPA/DOE/Chrysler turbine contractor saga is that while Mopar turbine rear drive prototypos didn’t evolve into the K-Car, Chrysler did put a turbine inside the K-Car. Right before the bailout axe fell, the advanced powertrain team mocked up a simplified, 85-horsepower, single-shaft 8th-generation turbine engine slid perfectly sideways into a Lido Anthony Iacocca K-car.
If his name ever seems tricky to remember or spell, just use Chrysler’s own corporate internal mnemonic device to get it exactly right:
I
A m
C hairman
O f
C hrysler
C orporation
A lways…
You do have a lot of the details correct. However, I’ve always heard the K-car mock up was just a wooden model to solve packaging issues. Was there anything approaching a functional FWD mock up with actual machined, moving parts?
As you prolly already know, the single shaft 8th-generation Chrysler turbine for the Iacocca’s K-car was all illusion designed purely to siphon more free government cash. It was carved from foam and never meant to be a real, functional automobile engine at all…
Gas turbines propelling a ICE format car was problematic from the start. Turbines work best at steady speeds, as on an airliner, but cars start and stop and change speeds. The exhaust heat also would cook pedestrians, necessitating complex regen systems. Also materials needed are costly. There is one light in the darkness. A small turbine, running at constant speed, could be used as an efficient generator to charge an EV on the road. Are you listening, Stellantis?
Exhaust heat issues were solved with re-gen by the 4th generation.
Like a Jaguar CX- 75 then? I so wish JLR had pursued the concept
The 1979 R-body New Yorker was the car considered for Turbine power, not this styling one-off.