ON THE FACE OF IT, the gas turbine engine should be ideal for use in a car. It is intrinsically smoother, with a high power-to-weight ratio, fewer moving parts and lighter, less complex transmission than a piston engine, so why not? At least, that’s what Rover’s experimental department thought in 1945 when its engineers were convinced turbines would become ‘the next big thing’ (see last issue). They believed they would be cheaper to make than a piston engine too.
Rover was well-placed to make that judgement because it had been commissioned to develop Frank Whittle’s gas turbine aero engine in 1940. Gas turbine engines vary a lot in their design but all share a similar concept in that a compressor at the front forces air into a combustion chamber under pressure…
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Octane (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 1, 2015