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Car Forum / Chevrolet / Chevrolet Corvette / January 2006Ping Cool Jet
Your screen name makes me think of a friends Corvette, maybe you already know about it. It's a 1978 coupe with a Pratt & Whitney ST6-27 turbine producing 880 shaft HP. Built by Andy and Vince Granatelli using one of the turbines from the Indy racing effort of the late 60's. It was last run at Pratt & Whitney in Montreal at their 70 anniversary celebration. He's still picking remnants of ZR1's out of the intake the last I heard. Go get your November 1979 issue of Motor Trend to read the full story. It was also featured in the winter 1999 issue of Blue Bars.  SignatureDad 05 C6 Silver/Red 6spd Z51 72 Shark Black/Black/4spd > ... It's a 1978 coupe with a Pratt & Whitney ST6-27 > turbine producing 880 shaft HP. ... Good Lord. I'll take /two/ of 'em. -- V > Your screen name makes me think of a friends Corvette, maybe you > already know about it. It's a 1978 coupe with a Pratt & Whitney ST6-27 [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > anniversary celebration. He's still picking remnants of ZR1's out of > the intake the last I heard. LMAO! I'm still visualizing the ZR1's disappearing! It may be old age Dad, but I have no recollection of the Granatelli coupe. > Go get your November 1979 issue of Motor Trend to read the full story. > It was also featured in the winter 1999 issue of Blue Bars. I'm going surfing for more information as soon as I catch up on todays reading here in the news group. > -- > Dad > 05 C6 Silver/Red 6spd Z51 > 72 Shark Black/Black/4spd Thanks for the info. Dad. Really didn't expect anyone to remember the Jet Vette as Cliff bought it in the mid 80's soon after they put it together. It has been pretty much stored every since then. Only twice that I know of has it been fired up since then and once was at our club's autocross in the late 80's. Very common looking except for the longer hood, no headlight doors, and the tires and rims that were built to take the speed and not blow apart. It is a big novelty and could someday bring a premium price. If I get the ambition to do so I'll scan the article and post it. Filler up with Jet-A - ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz00000000oooooooooommmmmmmm > Really didn't expect anyone to remember the Jet Vette as Cliff bought > it in the mid 80's soon after they put it together. It has been pretty [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Filler up with Jet-A - > ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz00000000oooooooooommmmmmmm Dad, after reading your first post in this string, I Googled, I asked Jeeves, I Web Crawled, I Hot Bot'd, I Looked Smart, I Lycos'd and I Yahoo'd, but I couldn't find a single picture of the Granatelli Vette. Have I missed any search engines? *LOL* But I did find a recurring reference to the Vette, which reads as follows: "Vince Granatelli, Andy's son, built a turbine-powered Corvette in 1979. The engine for this conversion was originally designed to power an oil-field generator. It developed 880 bhp and delivered 1,160 lb./ft. of torque. Rpm was so high that at idle the Corvette was running 60 mph, and the only way it could be slowed in city traffic was with the brakes. Needless to say, performance was a little hairy". There is also reference, in what appears to be the original article, to an earlier Granatelli-built turbine racer, driven by Parnelli Jones, which apparently came within two laps of winning the 1967 Indy 500! The "Mopar" page seems to provide a bit of a history on some of the automotive turbines. You might find the site interesting, so I'll post a link. Both articles are about a third of the way down the page. Here's the link: http://www.moparstyle.net/history/turbine.htm > There is also reference, in what appears to be the original article, > to [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > http://www.moparstyle.net/history/turbine.htm There was a long caution near the end of the race and they run slow to long. Rules dictated the fuel they had to use. At the slow speed the fuel washed bearings lost their lubricant and disintegrated when power was re-applied. They had it in the bag until then, it was a ghostly sound and fast, plus untouchable. At that time in my life I was driving allot of miles and applied to Chrysler to drive one of their test turbines. The failure at Indy plus new government regulations hit their program hard and the test drivers never received their cars after the first 50. I wasn't chosen so I never did get to drive one. One of the cars looked allot like a cross between a '60 Thunderbird and a '50 Studebaker. I did attach a picture of the Jet Vette in this album. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cf1957/album?.dir=67de SignatureLife is a sexually transmitted condition that is always fatal. > There was a long caution near the end of the race and they run slow to > long. Rules dictated the fuel they had to use. At the slow speed the [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > Life is a sexually transmitted condition that is always fatal. Dad, thanks for some great history! I wondered what happened with the Indy car and now I know. I've seen pics of the one that you refer to as a "cross between a '60 Thunderbird and a '50 Studebaker." *LOL* That was a great description because I knew immediately which one you meant! By the way, contrary to what you say in your next post, your first link works fine for me. > There is also reference, in what appears to be the original article, to > an earlier Granatelli-built turbine racer, driven by Parnelli Jones, > which apparently came within two laps of winning the 1967 Indy 500! The Granatelli / STP turbine Indy car is a fond legend in my generation. It had a gas turbine engine mounted amidships alongside the driver - an asymmetrical car - with 4WD, new aerodynamics, very wide future-profile tires, and lots of other innovations. It absolutely ran away from the entire field for the entire race, a complete shutout both on the straights and in the corners, then fractured some minor bearing one or two laps from finishing and DNF'd. It set a record qualifying and then on race day it cruised the Indy oval at the same speeds it had qualified at, and if I recall on race day it was around 8 mph faster (lap average) than anything else on the track. Other drivers had a lot of unkind words for it. I think it was Parnelli Jones who complained 'that thang ain't even a car. It's a goddam airplane.' It was so successful that for the next year the league put very restrictive rules on turbine powerplants. There were two turbo racers in the next Indy race but they were barely competitive because of the unrealistic restrictions on engine configuration. -- V >> There is also reference, in what appears to be the original >> article, to [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > -- V The picture link I left in the last post didn't work, try this one-- http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cf1957/detail?.dir=67de&.dnm=7f42re2.jpg&.src=ph "Dad" <knockers@fisher.net> wrote in message news:iuudnTQZMdKB2CLeRVn->> > The picture link I left in the last post didn't work, try this one for the Jet Vette-- > http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cf1957/detail?.dir=67de&.dnm=7f42re2.jpg&.src=ph More Granatelli-built turbine racer-- http://rickking.com/IMAGES/1967_i4.jpg > More Granatelli-built turbine racer-- > http://rickking.com/IMAGES/1967_i4.jpg Thanks for that link too Dad! > The Granatelli / STP turbine Indy car is a fond legend in my generation. > It had a gas turbine engine mounted amidships alongside the driver - an [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > -- V That sounds like one crazy ride! I'm not sure that I'd want to be sitting beside a bomb! *lol* Unlike a piston engine, I'm not sure that a jet engine would be somewhat safe in a crash situation. The things man has done to go faster than the next guy! Thanks for some fascinating history V. Was in my generation also.... I also had the 1:12 scale model and it had a clear body to show off the turbine engine. >> There is also reference, in what appears to be the original article, to >> an earlier Granatelli-built turbine racer, driven by Parnelli Jones, >> which apparently came within two laps of winning the 1967 Indy 500! > > The Granatelli / STP turbine Indy car is a fond legend in my generation. SignatureRic Seyler Online Racing: RicSeyler GPL Handicap 6.35 ricseyler@SPAMgulf.net http://www.pcola.gulf.net/~ricseyler remove –SPAM- from email address -------------------------------------- "Homer no function beer well without." - H.J. Simpson Oh yea.... if I remember correctly it was 4 wheel drive also. >> There is also reference, in what appears to be the original article, to >> an earlier Granatelli-built turbine racer, driven by Parnelli Jones, >> which apparently came within two laps of winning the 1967 Indy 500! > > The Granatelli / STP turbine Indy car is a fond legend in my generation. SignatureRic Seyler Online Racing: RicSeyler GPL Handicap 6.35 ricseyler@SPAMgulf.net http://www.pcola.gulf.net/~ricseyler remove –SPAM- from email address -------------------------------------- "Homer no function beer well without." - H.J. Simpson |
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