1954 Firebird I

[DavidS]

I just bought a book on EBay called "GM's Motorama" and I had never seen a 1954 Firebird.

[black heartbeat]

Wow! Thats crazy!

[DavidS]

Jump to 10:00 if you want to see the 1958 Firebird III running.

[Formula413]

It had a jet engine and only made 370 hp? I am disappoint.

[DavidS]

I'm pretty sure they wanted lower power on purpose. To prove that a jet-engine could be used for everyday cars.

I left the book at work so I'll have to check it tomorrow but I think they did something intentionally to the blades to force it to have lower power.

[TrickrTreat]

Jet engines are all about the thrust . Not hp

Very cool find

[Formula413]

It depends on the application, they can be used to produce rotating force, in which case they would be rated in horsepower. I didn't watch the vid so I'm not sure if the engine in this car was used for thrust or rotating force.

[DavidS]

Here's the rest of the engine section:

The resulting blast of hot gas from the
gasifier turbine ran the second turbine-
the power section turbine- that was
connected to the car's rear wheels through
a two-speed planetary transmission.

The GT-302 idled at 8,000 rpm. The
horsepower rating of this engine was 370
at 26,000 revolutions per minute of the
gasifier turbine and 13,000 rpm of the power
turbine. Though the revolutions per minute
may seem high, they were in fact low for a
turbine engine. The lower rotational speed
put less stress on the moving parts,
thus increasing reliability. As it was, the
stresses applied were high enough; a
gasifier turbine blade tip speed could
be as high as 1,000 mph, thus creating
a 3,000-pound pull on each lightweight
blade. The GT-302's weight of 775 pounds
represented thirty-one percent of the
Firebird I's total weight of 2,500 pounds.
Top speed was expected to be beyond
200 miles per hour!

[DavidS]

Mauri Rose....the driver in the first pic drove the Camaro Pace Car in the 1967 Indianapolis 500.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauri_Rose