About six years after Jay Leno got his priceless Chrysler Turbine car, the engine melted down. You may not have heard it happened at the time because it didn't seem like the former Tonight Show host told anybody. That was perhaps because he didn't know if it could be fixed—a reasonable assumption, albeit one that turned out to be wrong.
Leno's copper-colored two-door Chrysler, powered by its rebuilt turbine engine, hit the streets in August of this year as a part of the Woodward Dream Cruise. The effort to get it working again was massive. You may think that much of the knowledge needed to rebuild such an engine is lost, but that's not true. Sam Barlow Williams, one of the engine's original designers, started his own turbine company called Williams International after Chrysler canceled the car. His son, Gregg, still runs that same company and used its resources and expertise to complete the project. Several original Chrysler engineers also volunteered to help, providing vital assistance.
The drive seen in the video on Jay Leno's Garage is brief, but that's because it's the first test ride after the engine was rebuilt. Still, it's interesting to hear about the technology that went into fixing the engine. It appears as if much of the external casing and other features have been maintained, but metal 3D printing was allegedly used extensively to recreate parts that otherwise would've been cost-prohibitive to make. Leno says that engineers still kept many original blueprints from the project which, no doubt, was combined with technology like 3D scanning to get the Chrysler engine running again.
Hagerty released a documentary some time ago detailing the history of the turbine car as well as the restoration effort surrounding Leno's vehicle. It's a good watch, although I think a longer piece is likely to appear on Leno's Garage detailing the rebuild, perhaps as a part of one of his occasional restoration blog videos.
In the meantime, though, enjoy the sound of a turbine-engined automobile whistling down the streets of America once more.
