jet engine in a car?

[Founder]

Would it be more efficient to put a jet engine rather than a normal engine in a car?

[jammydonut]

Only if you want to break a land speed record :bored: :8

[green granite]

Rover dabled with turbine driven cars in the 60's, I think they entered 1 in Le Mans. they also had one installed in a rover 2000 but the main problem was
time the engine took to speed up which made the car very slugish. Maybe nowadays an engine could be designed to overcome the problem.

[chevvron]

The Lotus Turbine Indy car was 4wd, and was said to be able to spin all 4 if the throttle was floored at 150mph!
Seriously, I think the spin up problem was solved by using a single spool engine in conjunction with a torque convertor, keeping the engine at high rpm against the resistance of the torque convertor thereby keeping torque at maximum (or as near as possible)

[airborne_artist]

First done in the UK in 1950 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/8/newsid_2516000/2516271.stm)

Gas turbine car gets road test

Car manufacturers Rover have unveiled the first car powered with a gas turbine engine.

JET1, a two-seater model powered by the same kind of engine used in a jet, will have its first public test drive at the Silverstone racing circuit in Northamptonshire tomorrow.

The model being tested is still only experimental. But the company hopes production models which will be ready in another three or four years. Best we stop waiting now, one thinks :E

[chevvron]

Sorry got that wrong didn't I. I was describing the system used in the Howmet sports/racing car which had a 3-speed auto gearbox and an enormous pair - of ceramic heat exchangers. There were two types of turbine indycar I now recollect; at least one was Lotus designed. The first had the ubiquitous Allison 250 mounted alongside the driver; the compressor turbine was kept at max rpm whilst the power turbine had a powerful braking system, thus spool up time was virtually eliminated!
Rover teamed up with BRM to produce their Le Mans car, but I don't know any details of the system used on this apart from the fact it too had ceramic heat exchangers

[Founder]

What about the efficiency of a jet engine compared to a normal car engine of today? Lets say you wanted to build a car engine with about the same performance as todays engines. Lets say 200 Hp and a fuel consumption of 0,8 liters/10km (standard driving).

Would a jet engine perhaps something similar to an apu engine be suitable for this type of task?

Could it perhaps be a constant RPM engine driving a generation which in turn drives the car and charges batteries?

Also can you compare the propulsive efficiency of a jet engine to the efficiency of a normal engine?

[Zoom]

One of the problems with the jet racing cars was the lack of engine braking, meaning that the wheel brakes worked overtime - even more than normal.

[TruBlu351]

How about this piece of spam!! It is real, you can download the vids!! I was very disappointed, it seemed so slow.....more like running two APU's!

Just google search for "MR2 jet video"

ps: don't get too close at the traffic lights.

http://paultan.org/wp-content/b4_12_sb.JPG

http://paultan.org/wp-content/1d_12_sb.JPG

http://paultan.org/wp-content/32_12_sb.JPG

http://paultan.org/wp-content/7b_12_sb.JPG

[chevvron]

Founder; I've long been a proponent of the system you describe ie a small turbine driving an electrical generator which in turn drives an electric motor in each wheel hub. By wiring the motors carefully, you could use them as supplementary brakes by turning into generators when you release the 'go fast' pedal, and you'll get 4 wheel drive without the problems of a mechanical transmission.
As to fuel efficiency; the reason they were fitted with heat exchangers was to enhance this. I don't know exact figures, but I believe it could be made as efficient as a petrol reciprocating engine of the same power, the bonus being by operating at constant max rpm, you could adjust the fuelling to such fineness that emissions would be far less than the petrol engine.
Obviously a pure thrust engine would be a problem with a road car; the one illustrated by trublu 351 must be for either drag racing or LSR attempts by the look of its brake 'chute.

[rhovsquared]

some of our public busses here in NY have gas turbines powered by natural gas very efficient and have that distinct whine on "spool-up":8

[Mac the Knife]

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/jet_beetle/AB12_15_05copy.jpg

Read all about it at http://www.freewebs.com/jet_beetle/

[FakePilot]

Isn't FOD a big problem? However I think the M1 Abrams is a turbine engine so maybe that's been solved.

[broadreach]

TruBlu, wouldn't like to be in the front seat when the pedal was put to the metal! Intake's too close to the netherparts.

Do remember those Rover 4wd but not the results. Was it two seasons?

[Dan Winterland]

I saw a 'jet car' at an airshow in the Netherlands in the mid 80's. It was a Jap hatchback model with an APU mounted in the back. It made lots of noise and flame as it whizzed around allegedly under the power of it's jet engine, but I wasn't convinced the noise wasn't masking the sound of the petrol engine which I reckon was doing the work.

[Phil Squares]

Was already done by Chrysler in the 60's

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/turbine.html

[chevvron]

In England, Santa Pod Raceway once sponsored a couple of pure jet dragsters, (plus a track drying lorry with a Derwent!) which used to clear the 1/4 mile in about 8 sec/250 mph. These were TOTALLY eclipsed by Sammy Miller's rocket car which weighed a lot less, its peroxide mono-propellant motor pushing it to 2.5 sec/300+mph!!