Turbine powered oddities: GM's Bison

[Stéphane Dumas]

A nice article about a truck with a turbine engine from Hemmings blog
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2...657-gms-bison/

It look a bit like some of the futuristic trucks we saw in vintage tv series like Captain Scarlet and Joe 90.

[Lowboy]

Wonder if that "truck" is still around?
My grandpa had a old history of GM book from the early '70s IIRC and that Bison was in it along with a bunch of other obscure products. Wish I could find that book now.

[paul8488]

Wow thanks for the link, what an interesting vehicle! Strikes me as very modern for 1964!!! That should be in a museum for sure!

Anyone know why turbine cars never came to be? What's the main problem with them?

[MCGARRETT]

I looks like something from a Syd Mead photo, I also like how all the containters are GM divisions, Frigidaire, AC, United-Delco and I cant see what the 4th one is.




What kept turbines from regular car use were several things, the tolerances that were needed to make a turbine passenger car engine were much closer than a piston engine, the materials were more exotic, and the very hot exhaust temperature resulted in the need for expensive and complex exhaust designed with materials that could take the heat.

Really, the other killer was that besides for the cool "woosh" of the turbine, they really didn't do anything better that a piston engine for the most part, very smooth, yes and its true that they could burn almost anything, but they were slow for the most part and not really that fuel efficient either.

[prowlerjc]

I heard they had a hard time passing emissions testing with them.

[61695]

I heard they had a hard time passing emissions testing with them.

The Bison would never have passed a fuel station either.

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

I heard they had a hard time passing emissions testing with them.

I would think that being a constant combustion process that a turbine would have no problem passing an emissions test... but the fuel consumption is for some reason really bad on these small turbines

For an aircraft of 1000 hp or more the turbine is very good compared to piston engines, but for a 100 or 200hp car...

[supermoto]

Around the same time Ford had a fairly conventional looking semi truck with a turbine engine. It didn't seem to get beyond the experimental stage either.