We should have stopped being surprised about what pops up on the internet about 25,000 blog items ago but we just cannot believe this keeps happening. What you are about see this a film about Big Red and this 1964 film tells the story of Ford’s futuristic, turbine powered big rig in a great way. We have only ever seen this truck in still photos and while we knew it had traveled many miles, we were not totally convinced that it drove ’em all itself. Well, color our opinion changed because the film proves that the thing did, in fact travel coast to coast multiple times in its travels.
Why a turbine engine? Well at this time in history everyone was looking for the next big thing. More power, smaller packages, innovation, experimentation. Kenworth had worked with Boeing and built a turbine big rig, there were a few turbine fire trucks built, hell, Chevrolet even built the Turbo Titan series of big rigs to compete with this thing for headlines. At the end of the turbine failed in big trucks and cars not because of power or size but because of economy. They just slaked fuel down as compared to a piston engine and because of that the turbine big rig truck experimentation era did not even make it to the 1970s.
Note how many things in this truck actually exist today in terms of safety features and amenities. The cab was like the Xanadu home of the future! All the comforts and luxuries one could dream about.
The truck was massive and it was a show stopper wherever it went. This video is truly, truly awesome.
I saw this truck in Atlanta. To bad they didn’t go ahead with the styling even though they dumped the Turbine for the same reason Chrysler did.