Chevrolet Turbo Titan III: an unfulfilled dream of the future from 1966

It could easily be said that gas turbines as propulsion units have nothing to do on the roads: both because of the heat they produce and because of the extreme speeds. And it's true, turbines really don't belong on the road (perhaps with a few exceptions, such as the MTT Y2K - a motorcycle owned by Jay Leno). But there were times when, for example, the Chevrolet brand toyed with the idea of ​​a turbine-driven truck.

The year was 1966, when Chevrolet introduced a prototype Turbo Titan III truck, which was nicknamed The truck of the future. In addition to the extravagant design of the exterior and interior of the cabin, this model differed mainly in the engine: it was not powered by a classic piston engine, but by a gas turbine.

Gas turbine instead of engine

The Turbo Titan III truck was powered by a GT-308 gas turbine, which delivered 280 horsepower and 1 Nm at 186 rpm. The maximum speed of the machine was 35 km / h. However, the mass production of turbine-powered cars was opposed by the fact that their emissions contained too much nitrogen oxide, and the costs of such production would not be low either.

Futuristic design

Chevrolet worked on the Turbo Titan III concept for almost 15 years before showing it to the world in 1966. Even today, however, there would be something to admire. The exterior design is entirely subject to aerodynamics, including tilting headlights and tilting front turn signals.

The interior was not left behind either: the base was made of vinyl and leather seats with integrated headrests. There was a radio, two-way telephone and turbine status lights on the instrument panel. On the contrary, what was missing here was the steering wheel. At least the steering wheel as you know it. It was replaced by a control system with a pair of spherical "joysticks", similar to the control of some of today's tractors. The icing on the design cake was the appearance of the entire interior and exterior in metallic blue.

Although the prototype truck drove many kilometers on American highways, the Turbo Titan III never saw mass production. Today, you can only admire its design in photographs, as the prototype was destroyed after the end of the project.