1964 BIG RED

When people talk about gas turbine-powered vehicles, most will immediately think of the concepts Chrysler produced in the 1960s, but Ford played around with turbine engines too… And on a much larger scale. The resulting and aptly named Big Red was a concept truck from 1964, which utilised a 600bhp gas turbine engine that was actually built by Ford under a contract with the US Department of Defence.

Big Red was designed to carry enormous loads across the USA. It was huge: in comparison, you could park seven Cortinas alongside the length of Big Red. And by our reckoning, you could probably stack those Cortinas four-high and they still wouldn’t be as tall.

Despite having an incredibly powerful, militarydeigned gas turbine engine to push it along, Big Red was so huge that aerodynamics played a massive part not only in potential top-speed performance but in the fuel economy stakes too.

The external cabin area was designed to be as slippery as possible, and as a result, after several cross-country test runs Ford declared that Big Red was comparable to diesel trucks of the time when it came to running costs. The rig could carry enough fuel to run for as many as 600 miles, at 70mph, while fully loaded.

Because it was designed to haul enormous loads all over the US, Big Red’s cabin was pretty plush for a truck and was deliberately styled to keep the driver as comfortable as possible on those long trips.

The idea of gas turbine-powered vehicles was pretty sound. The same benefits that make turbines attractive for use in aircraft also make them attractive for automotive use – great powerto-weight ratio, ability to run on various types of fuel, low NVH, and long service life. But turbines do have their downsides when bolted to a car or truck. For starters, the fuel consumption when at idle is significantly greater than a piston engine.

Turbines also require very expensive raw materials such as titanium and stainless steel in order to cope with the stresses and strains, whereas piston engines can use much cheaper aluminium alloys and iron.

And, finally, the complexity of the fan blades and the incredibly tight tolerances required to make the turbine work meant that manufacturing turbine engines in automotive production quantities would be very expensive – especially compared to the relatively cheap production of piston engines. So, sadly, Big Red was never anything more than a working prototype.