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I was searching the web and found your Barracuda Magazine site. I ordered issue #4 because it had an article about the Chrysler Turbine Car. I have a web site dedicated to that automobile http://www.turbinecar.com, as I am one of the few people who drove one of those cars over 5,000 miles. My father, Alden L. Olson was user number 160 of the 203, three-month program users. He and I put over 12,000 miles on car #991232 in the summer of 1965. The car was very smooth and comfortable to drive! The bad press about fuel economy and "turbine lag" were over emphasized. We could get 18 to 20 mile per gallon of #2 diesel fuel, if we drove a constant speed and did not stop too many places. The big problem was the starting and shutting down of the engine, because everyone wanted us to do that every time we stopped someplace. The delay in movement after stepping on the accelerator pedal was ONLY from a standing start. From a stop light if you just mashed down on the gas pedal, it was like a car with a bad choke in cool weather. There was a short pause and then movement began. We usually could overcome that by letting the car creep just as the light turned amber the other way. Once the mass of the turbine wheel was moving, even just a little bit, it took right off like any other car. Once up to highway speeds or even just normal city traffic speeds there was no real delay. You would never know it was a turbine once you were moving except for the smoothness and the unique sound. Anyway, Chrysler should have taken the chance in 1966 when they almost built 500 Dodge Chargers with turbine engines in them. They would have made fine automobiles! Mark Olson |
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