These Videos Will Make You Want a Turbine-Powered Car

We’ve been talking about gas turbine-powered cars quite a lot recently, including producing a film of our own, but this week’s Weekend Playlist features a number of clips from turbine-powered cars of years past—starting with the incredible Jet Age General Motors Firebird I.

General Motors’ Firebird line of cars were all powered by turbines, and all designed to prove to the world that General Motors made the world’s most stylish and technologically-advanced cars. Whether a “test tube” car as described in the first film or a continent-crushing coupe as the Firebird III was, we wish a bit more of 2015 borrowed from GM’s vision for the future.

The Howmet TX is an incredible sports racing car from 1968, and we recently took it to the track—not to mention had some helicopter support—to give a small taste of how mesmerising a gas turbine race car can be.

Jay Leno’s Garage is a show we always enjoy watching, for his incredible knowledge and contagious enthusiasm for vehicles of all sorts. And as the owner of more than two gas turbine-powered vehicles, he’s the ideal place to start if you want to learn more about these engineering marvels.

We’re not sure where this promotional video from 1965 came from, but it appears to be a Rover documentary detailing the Rover-BRM gas turbine Le Mans car. It’s also nearly seven minutes of exciting period race footage—just think of the field in the 1965 race!

Finally, a glimpse of a Jaguar that never was, the Williams F1-engineered C-X75. On the left is a video of the concept, a car that was envisioned initially as an XJ13 tribute redefined as a gas turbine-electric hybrid. On the right, a clip of Autocar hooning one of the prototypes built—but with a punchy turbocharged and supercharged 4-cylinder fitted instead of a futuristic turbine. Fast? Absolutely—but not a turbine in sight.