Fiat's Amazing Turbine Car
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- During the early 1950s, the adoption of turbine engines revolutionized the aviation industry. Smooth and powerful, the gas turbine soon tempted many automobile manufacturers into investigating potential applications for road vehicles. It took Fiat about five years of studies to develop the technology for constructing a high-speed turbine capable of withstanding the rapid and violent variations in thermal regimes occurring in automotive use. Fiat's turbine car reached a top speed of 260 km/h during tests held on the runway of Turin's Caselle airport, where the prototype made its successful debut in front of the international press on April the 23rd, 1954.
#fiat #turbine #history #classiccars #mauto #turin
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One thing is for sure: the Italians were never scared of using beautiful curves in their designs. Absolutely magnificent.
It really is a looker, I’m glad it was preserved and donated to a public museum for everyone to see!
The design is so impressive that the car looks like it was developed for racing at Le Mans.
It really is a looker, and the graphics are very stylish too!
This is such a fascinating piece of history and very impressive how advanced Fiat was at the time. Thank you very much, Matteo. Ciao 🙋♂️
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! Fiat always had great engineers, but it too often failed to capitalize on that!
Again Dante Giacosa in the middle of something amazing. And, again, the Italian hand on the drawing.
Giacosa really is a giant of automobile engineering, his impact in the evolution of the automobile (not only italian, but in general) has been huge, a fact that’s perhaps less remembered than it should.
Dude! your videos are always amazing! thank you!
Glad you think so, thank you!!!
Certainly a striking design , slightly reminiscent of the BAT cars from Alfa Romeo. The turbine production car never got off the ground for Rover either which was under Spen King , but fortunately did eventually evolution into the excellent P6, production model at a later date.
I admit I have a soft spot for classic Rovers, especially the P6 with its unconventional design, but also the later SD1 because it looked so good. Rover became pretty successful on the Italian market with the Honda-based cars of the 1990s, but before that they were a rare sight on our roads. So much so, that an SD1 2000 I regularly spotted in my town when I was little is still etched in my memory!
That's a nice car and story, thanks for making these kind of video's. 👏
Thank you for watching!
Excellent engineering and beautiful design. I love the italic Fiat logo on the wing. This Fiat inspired Speed Racer looks years later.
I saw this car at MAuTo a couple of months ago. It's really curvy and elegant in real life. I had never heard of this car before either.
What a lovely car. Even with a piston engine this could have been a hit.
Agree!
I heard the 1st person story of when Gianni Agnelli tried the turbine bus. Here it is (in Italian, from the mourned and friend -due to our passions for motorcycling- Ing. Carlo Carughi, 12 years at the R&D center for FIAT):
"un pullman "strano"
Era un 314 modificato.
Nel senso che mancava totalmente dei sedili passeggeri. Il pianale era allestito con tutto il cablaggio della telemetria (la 626 era di la' da venire).
Il motore era posteriore.
La cosa piu' sconvolgente del motore era la sua dimensione.
Se togli i due rigeneratori, sembrava un motore della 130!
IL MOTORE:Progetto 6803.
Era un interessantissimo motore a turbina, nato tra il 1973 e il 1975.
Costruito come un motore d'aereo, la turbina ad alta velocita' serviva solo a far girare il compressore.
I gas caldi di scarico, azionavano una turbina di potenza a bassa velocita' che a sua volta azionava un cambio automatico a tre rapporti.
Poi, per aumentare il rendimento, gli stessi gas riscaldavano uno scambiatore di calore che cedeva il calore all'aria davanti al compressore.
Dati caratteristici: potenza alla ruota 380 cv. Potenza equivalente consumata in combustibile: 950cv.
Potenza riciclata attraverso gli scambiatori: 3600 cv!!!!!
Problemi. il costo dei materiali della turbine e degli scambiatori e il fatto che gli scambiatori andavano sostituiti ogni 1000 ore di funzionamento (lavoravano a 750°) l'hanno fatto finire in soffitta!
I rigeneratori erano due dischi rotanti di cercor (ceramico) che facevano tenuta su pattini di AISI 320 (inox ferritico) rivestiti di Ossido di Nichel- Fluoruro di Calcio al plasma spray.
Erano le tenute cha bisognava cambiare ogni 1000 km!
Il rendimento era era circa il 40 % togliendo i rigeneratori
I problemi erano due: non aveva un limitatore di giri, per cui continuava a prender giri senza che nessuno lo regolasse e costava a produrlo nel 1978 la bellezza di un centinaio di milioni di allora.
Cosi' il 6840 fini' in un cunicolo del LRCAA e li' giace (maled3tti, manco in un museo l'hanno messo)... ;=((((((((((
IL VIAGGIO:
Il viaggio.....
Se qualcuno e' pratico un po' di Torino, puo' gustarsi quanto segue: Arrivo del pullman equipaggiato al CRF dove piglia a bordo l'ing. Savonuzzi, Pignone, un Carlo (io, Carughi) con strumentazione per i test il Comandante della Stradale il Prefetto di Torino e l'Avvocato.
Uscita dai cancelli del CRF verso Orbassano con l'Avvocato che arriva alla curva sulla circonvallazione di Orbassano in piena accelerazione e la percorre attorno ai 130 km / h (se la fai in macchina a quella velocita' sei sc3mo!). Continua sulla circonvallazione sempre accelerando e arriva alla deviazione per Stupinigi dove tira una staccatona (cosi' ho pvovato i fveni, dira'
dopo) e curva rischiando di rovesciarsi.
Altra tirata tremenda fino a Torino (quindi si e' fatto la rotonda di Stupinigi a velocita' folle) e poi imbocco di Corso Settembrini (non c'era ancora quel pezzo di tangenziale) fino a Corso Orbassano passando con TUTTI i semafori rossi (tanto non e' ova di cambio tuvno e non c'e' tvaffico).
Imbocco del pezzo gia' costruito di tangenziale, dove il nostro da' sfogo alle sue manie velocistiche facendosi tutta la tengenziale fino a corso Francia sopra i 200 km / h e sorpassando a destra, sinistra, sopra, sotto, di fianco, dovunque capita, chiunque.
Immaginatevi noi a bordo come stavamo.
Io sono stato sulla Lancia LC2 con Alboreto, su una 125 rigorosamente stradale con Villeneuve che ha imboccato l'ingresso di Fiorano arrampicandosi su per il terrapieno, ho portato il mio AmmDel Gruf LupMann su una S4 a girare in pista alla Mandria, ma, giuro, QUELL' esperienza del pullamn ancora oggi mi sconvolge!
Lo dico sul serio. La telemetria mi ha detto che in fondo alla discesa del Sangone (quella che va da corso Allamano ad Orbassano) il nostro ha sfiorato i 223 km /h !
E' li' che mi e' apparsa S. Giovanna d'Arco che mi sorrideva e mi ha confortato. Allora ho promesso di smettere di fumare se ne uscivo vivo!
LA TELEMETRIA:
Ovvero come veniva campionato un prototipo come l'autobus di cui sopra:
Era monitorizzata: la portata d'aria in entrata con il metodo del filo caldo, la temperatura (ovviamente), da cui si calcolava la densita'.
Poi si misurava la temperatura in ingresso al compressore (dopo lo scambio di calore nel rigeneratore), in uscita dal compressore, il flusso di JP4, la temperatura dei gas di scarico dalla camera di combustione, dei gas in uscita dallo stadio della turbina ad alta velocita', dei gas in uscita dalla turbina di potenza, in uscita dal complesso rigeneratore.
E questo serviva a calcolare i consumi ed i rendimenti.
Poi si misurava il numero di giri delle due turbine, la velocita' del veicolo, con un accelerometro le eventuali vibrazioni, e con un circuito derivatore la variazione di velocita' istantanea.
In piu' c'era un primo esempio di piattaforma inerziale (tre giroscopi che trasmettevano le informazioni sull'imbardata, il beccheggio e l'accelerazione centripeta per le curve).
Il tutto veniva campionato quattro volte al secondo e i dati analizzati con un analizzatore 100 canali HP e riversati dentro un HP 1000 che li memorizzava su cassetta.
Poi una volta a "casa" si riversavano i dati grezzi su un VAX 9000 e li' sopra venivano elaborati con SW di varia provenienza, nel senso che si usava un programma scritto da noi (meglio, dai guru dell'ufficio calcoli).
E, finalmente, si sapeva come andava l'ambaradan.
Ovviamente, per una telemetria del genere occorreva praticamente il bagagliaio e i sedili posteriori di una 128 (come volume) e una valigia di biglietti da 100000.....
Solo l'analizzatore HP costava all'epoca la bellezza di 130 milioni, l'HP1000 una sessantina, il VAX oltre 500 milioni...
Tutto in lire dell'epoca.
___________________________
quando scese dal pullmann,
tutto puzzolente di Jp4,
disse di avere visto la madonna
... e smise di fumare...
Wow, che storia! Non la conoscevo, grazie!
@@Matteo_Licata grazie a te che ci educhi con tutti i modelli sconosciuti che porti sul canale :)
Interessante, anzi, estremamente 😊. Grazie
Amazing story.. must have been like something from Jules Verne novel!!
💚🤍❤️
HAHAHAHA!! HAHAHAHA!! This is absolutely my concept of driving an insanely powerful incredibly dangerous
vehicle!!
Thank you Matteo for this fantastic video! I learned something new today, as I did not know the existence of this car. A great piece of both art and engineering.
Glad you liked it, thank you very much!
It literally looks like a stunt car from a movie. The outside of its cockpit resembles a stunt driver's custom helmet, and its body resembles the stunt driver's flailing clothes.
Very true!
Now I know where Gerry Anderson got his design for "Supercar".
Another great video, thanks.
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it
Wow! Imagine that on the Apennine motorway Milano-Firenze !!
What a beautiful and high tech car. Thank you
You can see where the 60/70s Japanese anime got their inspiration from. .... here he comes here comes SpeedRacer !! 🙂
Never knew this.Thank you for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you for watching!
Thank you for the video. I have a dealership metal model of this prototype. Beautiful concept!
That model must be cool! Thank you for watching!
Lucky guy! Interesting
Can you show it?
@@studiocalder818 I don’t know how to post an image here. I can send it my email?
@@Thomas-vq5pb did you receive my mail?
No I have not received it!
Reminds me of Keatons Batmobile 👌🏻🇮🇹
Another great video, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you for watching!
It looks better than the dowdy old Rover for sure!
I got the opportunity to look at this car really close up, on the lawn at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 10 years ago in 2013. Iit was in the company of some gorgeous cars like a Bugatti type 57 and the first Veyron i ever saw and it still stood out as a striking looking car.
I remember I was stood at the back of it with my nephew and I was explaining to him this was a jet turbine car, and I pointed out the huge exhaust to which he said, oh, this is the back of the car? It made everyone laugh as he walked around and saw the front of it.
I'm not sure if it was this exact car? Did they make more than 1?
Paul
Thank you for sharing this memory with me, much appreciated! Yes, I can confirm you have seen the one and only Turbina ever made, the one that normally resides in Turin's Automobile Museum.
Reminds me of cars in my favorite show as a kid: Speed Racer!
It's definitely got a similar vibe to it, indeed!
Turbina? Those are the Campagnolo wheels on my GTV 🙂
Seriously, they wouldn't let an international RUclips star like yourself across the ropes? I wanted to see a back-end shot of the exhaust nozzle.
😊😂 Thank you for your appreciation, but really I’m not (yet?) that big of a deal to have a public museum bending to my requests. Everything I film is either at public places and events, or friends and acquietances gently letting me film their cars. I dream of one day being able of funding cool shoots but the channel currently doesn’t generate nearly enough of a return to pay for that. Still, I have fun creating these videos and many people like you appreciate them, and that’s what keeps me going. Thank you for watching!!!
Great and interesting video, Matteo. 👏🏻
Whats funny is that Ed’s Auto Reviews had a episode on the Chrysler turbinecars 2 days ago.
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you! I got a lovely book on my bookshelf about the Chrysler turbine cars… These engineering lost causes never cease to intrigue me!
@@Matteo_Licata
Your welcome, Matteo.
Look up Ed. He is from Holland, and mostly he like american cars.
A funny guy.
Nice nod to the Rover gas turbine there!
It was only right and proper to do, as Rover was first and no-one can take that away :)
I do like classic Rovers, by the way. I came close to buying a 1973 2000TC many years ago!
@@Matteo_Licata Invented a market segment. Never capitalised on it, so BMW moved in. The P6 Rovers were great cars. My mother drove a mustard coloured 2200SC for years
@@Matteo_Licata Also, the P6 was inspired by Bertoni's Citroen DS.
What a beautiful car. I want one so I can light my Toscano cigar and melt other cars behind me. Especially souless EVs. Great episode and alway leaning something new.
Exhaust gas temperatures were indeed an issue on these first turbine cars, a problem that Chrysler would tackle quite successfully years later. Thank you for your appreciation!
@@Matteo_Licata Then came the Lemans Chaparral. lol
Good video! But... Although I not a huge lover of much of the output of the UK auto industry in the last century, I have room in my head for only one Gas Turbine car. And you already know which it is. This FIAT is pretty; but it is not JET1. It has a gorgeous combination of colours in beautiful, swooping patterns; but it is not JET1. It is low and lean and looks so futuristic.... But it is not JET1. An uncle of mine drove a magnificent Rover 95.... It was like a big, lazy, lumbering palace. There is only one Gas Turbine prototype. Sorry. Great video. Wrong subject.
And I wrote that as someone who adores French and Italian cars and usually just tolerates British ones.
Peculiar how Fiat engineers reduced the amount of usually radially mounted 9 or more combustion chambers of a typical aviation jet to just three as an adaptation for car usage. The real mystery though is how they managed without a "conventional" clutch and gearbox .Sadly the alternative is not shown in the technical engine drawing . Company secret..until now? 🤔
There’s no secret, really. When starting up, the power turbine is at rest until it starts to turn under the impact of the hot exhaust from the gas generator. The relationship between gas generator and power turbine acts as a kind of torque converter, let’s say.
Cigarette lighter outside?? Nice research. Thanks Matteo.
Thank you 👍
But why was the project abandoned in 1956?
Volvo ECC in 1992 also abandoned
Possibly for the same reasons Chrysler did...fuel economy and cost of mass production.
Fiat realized, like most other manufacturers that dabbled in turbines, that they really weren’t practical for a production car.
If I'm not mistaken, first of all the problem was the delay in response to the commands, then there was the problem of the climbs.
It reminds me of the difference between a flight simulator and an F1 simulator.
So, when Dallara decided to create the most advanced driving simulator in the world, they first consulted the Dutch, specialists in flight simulators, that ruled that it was not possible, as the parameters were completely different, and it would have been impossible to work with such sudden variations.
So they organized a team of young engineers, who didn't know it was impossible, who made it happen!
And since then, to decide which tires to use in each grand prix, Pirelli has sent a driver to Dallara (Varano) with the USB stick to go around the virtual circuit of the next grand prix, with the expected weather conditions. With an approximation of half a second.
🤔 Thinking about it, it seems like a good theme for a future episode of Matteo!
Dallara is an incredible forge of experiences in current motoring: everything is based in a small town of 3000 inhabitants in the Emilian hills. (a second episode should be dedicated to when Bugatti solved the Veyron homologation problems, which VW was unable to bring into production!)
@@studiocalder818 summary of Veyron problem?
Can you make a video about the FIAT 140 Berlina 4200? Apperantly soviets bought it and turned it into the gaz-13 chaika together with the italian engine however there is only one source on the internet about this. I wonder if you have more information
I’ll see if I have something about that in my library, but I can’t promise you a video about it, as there may be too little info available for me to write anything about.
@@Matteo_Licata thanks. The only info i could find online about that car is from zuckerfabrik and its in german. The site also claims that FIAT made another v8 engine that is different from the one in 8V and was only put in this big sedan but dante giacosa didnt approve of it and then FIAT sold the whole design to the soviets
Hey, this is a very interesting topic, also because it represents the prodrome of subsequent agreements.
I admit: I didn't know anything about it. Certainly FIAT at the time was a forge of ideas
@@Matteo_Licata The 140 project is also mentioned in Dante Giacosa's book "40 years of design with Fiat" - but more as a side note. Certainly not enough to make a video from.