Time for Turbines

In 1954, Sam Williams, a taciturn, strong-minded research engineer, quit his job at Chrysler Corp. and set out to prove that the auto engine of the future would be a gas turbine. With $3,000, he founded Williams Research Corp. in Walled Lake, Mich. Though the company quickly grew (it has annual sales of about $10 million), customers wanted the small turbines for light airplanes, not cars. Detroit continued to favor the conventional internal combustion engine.

Williams is being vindicated. Last week his experimental car, a specially fitted American Motors Hornet, with a turbine engine tucked away under the hood, made its first appearance. Whining slightly, it was tested at the federal Environmental Protection Agency's lab at Ann Arbor, Mich. EPA officials were delighted with the engine, which works by using compressed air to drive its turbines. Compact, vibrationless and delivering 80 h.p., it runs on any hydrocarbon fuel from kerosene to coal oil. and gets about 15 miles per gallon in urban traffic. It is also 30% lighter (at 250 Ibs.), has 75% fewer moving parts, and is thus cheaper to build and maintain than the standard-size internal combustion engine. The gas turbine never needs a tune-up because it has no timing to adjust, no carburetor or complicated fuel injection. Because it is air-cooled, it also has no radiator.

The engine does have its disadvantages. It takes six or seven seconds to start up and, because of high combustion temperatures, needs parts made of metal alloys that are too hard for most existing machine tools to handle. But more important than any of those shortcomings, Williams' engine, unlike the internal combustion model, can meet right now the strict emission standards set by Congress for 1975 cars. Indeed, the engine was developed under a $240,000 contract with New York City for the express purpose of reducing auto-caused air pollution. Williams admits, however, that some modifications will be needed later for the turbine to meet even tougher antipollution laws set for 1976 cars. Considering that--and the fact that it takes much time for automakers to retool plants, realign suppliers and retrain personnel--he predicts that gas turbines will appear in passenger cars in 1978 at the earliest.

Still, the time of the turbines has already begun. General Motors and Volkswagen have both asked Williams to develop experimental turbine engines for their cars. Chrysler, which tested and gave up on a turbine engine in the mid-1960s, will send an improved version to the EPA for testing next month. Says John Brogan, chief of the EPA's division of advanced automotive power systems: "The turbine is the most realistic alternative to the internal combustion engine." Some Chrysler engineers are so enthusiastic that they say there is not even a close second.

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