After taking my '07 Charger out on the strip--and finding out just how quiet that ride is at speed--it got me thinking about another four-door Dodge that I'd driven that was not much louder....but an ear-grabber nonetheless.

That was the Turbine-equipped '73 Coronet SE that i got the chance to drive in the fall of 1978 (Has it been THAT long?), when the folks in Highland Park's R&D lab brought it down to Purdue for a presentation at the monthly meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) chapter there.

From what I was told by the ChryCo folks who were there, a change in operating temperature would've given this car the acceleration of a Race Hemi-powered '68 Dart Super Stocker. The only limitations then would've been the 1973-vintage tires, wheels, brakes...and at least four north-central cop shops who woulnd't have liked something like that zooming up and down their roads.

By that time in '78, the Turbine program was living on Federal grant money, which ended less than three years later. More than likely, this Coronet & its Turbine engine were scrapped.

Still...if that car had survived, I'd likely add the '73-'78 B-Body cop car chassis hardware (including the 15 x 7-inch slotted wheels and big front/rear sway bars), a set of four-wheel disc brakes, and a sound system better than the "MusicMaster" Am radio that was in there.