There was a photo posted some time ago but recently someone, I forget who, posted a link to this site: https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/...es-and-little-cars-lost-and-found/?refer=news The following a snippets from the article showing mostly the 1957 T-Bird. The T-Bird was a hit and Ford, like everybody, wanted to continue on the success and came up with a whole new concept "The Mystere" which would be turbine powered. Brilliant Pearlescent Magenta was ultimate 1950s pink. Nacelles in front bumper were claimed to be “oil coolers” for gas turbine. Shapes later ended up as parking light/turn signal housings for 1956 Fords. Note “floating” grille bars and slightly creased hood. Mystere was possibly first to pile one hood ornament into two and mount originals on fender tops as dual purpose driving aides. Side scoops were claimed to be gas turbine air intakes. Luggage would have stowed under hood. (Courtesy Ford Motor Company) But as always at big car companies someone suggested maybe a test mule would be in order. There is so much irony here because Ford had already installed a Boeing gas turbine engine in an early 1955 Thunderbird. Why? If one looks at the T-bird with two giant turbine exhausts dumping raw, un-regenerated hot gases through the front fenders, one thing is obvious: it was more test mule than a finished project. But test mule for what? And why use a T-bird? Certainly the Boeing 701-powered 1955 Thunderbird gas turbine (some articles say 1957 T-Bird but it looks like a 55 to me) was not merely a frivolous, futile exercise. Somebody at Ford had given the turbine some serious thought–and they had gone this far with it. It was real. 1955 Ford Thunderbird with gas turbine installed. Extra side grilles were for air intake. Parking lights a were moved to special housings on front bumper. Hood is raised with special large scoop with louvers at rear. Note special aft quarter scoops added. Huge pipes were on both front fenders. Dumped raw unregenerate exhaust impractical except for test mule. But given time could have been adapter to both FX-Atmos and Mystere. Turbine at least made it this far. Ford later shifted attention to gas turbine trucks. Gas turbine mounted in 1955 T-bird engine compartment. Note huge exhaust pipe routing, heat shielding on firewall. Master cylinder is enclosed in metal heat-shielding housing. Creative’s aircraft engineers wanted to do something similar for Ford FX-Atmos and Mystere concepts. And to add to this irony, Creative had always been working on numerous projects for Boeing and other aircraft companies. So Creative had engineers on staff (and some out on per diem) who surely knew their way around a gas turbine. Creative staffers had earlier suggested a way to put a turbine in the FX-Atmos. So they were more ready again to drop one in the Mystere! Dave Margolis told me, “Our aircraft engineer guys drew up a turbine application for the Mystere. If Ford had given us the time and the green light to do it, we could have had the engine in the car. A little more time and money and we could have had it running…” But as we know today, this never happened. Whatever the reason, Ford backed off and a real gas turbine engine never made it into the Mystere. Nevertheless, numerous people–among them, my friend Alex Tremulis (who was working at Ford Styling at the time) and Bill Schmidt (Ford and Packard) both insisted to me that a turbine was once seriously being considered… for the Mystere. But there was no budget and no staff at Ford to build both a dream car and turbine car all in one. So Ford had decided not to chase after GM. Meanwhile over at Chrysler, George Huebner was already doing press interviews with his fully operable 1954 Plymouth Turbine Special. Chrysler had taken a quantum leap ahead of everyone else, so at that point, the buzz about gas turbines in cars was at a fever pitch in Detroit–no matter who was doing them. So for the time being, Ford would pause and see where the other companies went with turbines–if this new turbine thing was really going to happen or not. It made better financial sense to err on the side of caution. Until everyone knew more, the company could merely talk about automotive gas turbines and suggest that one could power this dream car. And just to hedge their bets and cover all bases, Ford P.R. people continued to indicate that a conventional engine could also be installed.
Very interesting. Kind-of makes it look like an early Pro-Mod with those exhaust pipes sticking out behind the front wheels. The story of Ford's (and other manufacturers) turbine trucks is equally interesting. For many years in the 60's and 70's, that the truck manufacturers were not convinced that the future was in diesel power, and they were actively searching for alternatives. Probably more effort was put into turbine trucks than autos. Ford's Big Red turbine Truck in 1964. https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/video-big-red-fords-1964-turbine-truck/ Another Ford Attempt: Kenworth: GM: Mack:
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