AUTOS: Chrysler's New Engine

After nine years of experimenting, Chrysler Corp. last week demonstrated a gas-turbine engine for standard-model passenger cars, the first such engine in the U.S.* The engine, installed in a Plymouth coupe, is now being road-tested at Chrysler's 4,000-acre proving ground near Chelsea, Mich.

While gas turbines offer important advantages over piston engines (e.g., cheaper fuel, less vibration and fewer moving parts), they also gobble fuel greedily and generate terrific heat, notably from the exhaust. To solve both problems, Chrysler engineers devised a heat exchange that transfers heat from the exhaust gases to the incoming air. The system not only cools...