Images courtesy of the GM Heritage Center

In 1966, Chevrolet announced a revolutionary concept in commercial vehicles, the Turbo-Titan III. This was an operational prototype vehicle that combined advanced styling with some interesting features. The truck was built on an existing production-truck chassis, and pulled a specially-built 40-foot stainless steel trailer. Altogether, the vehicle was 50-foot in length, and had a gross combination weight of 76,800 pounds.

The Turbo Titan III looked like nothing that anyone had ever seen. The futuristic cab incorporated a massive, panoramic windshield, while two gaping nacelles on each side of the cab helped feed air into the turbine engine. Adding to the futuristic look were gullwing-style windows, pop-out headlamps and turn signals, and a plush interior, sans a steering “wheel.” As strange as it looks, instead of a conventional wheel, the driver steered the Titan III with one of two large dials mounted in front of him.

The Turbo Titan’s chassis was rather conventional, except for its powertrain. GM employed their new-at-the-time GT-309 turbine engine, and connected it to a six-speed Allison automatic transmission. While GM touted the engine produced 280 horsepower, its true selling point was the unbelievable low-end, freight-moving torque. When the engine’s output shaft approached stall speed, (the point at whicha turbine engine produces the most torque), it could produce as much as 875 lb-ft of torque.

Although engineers actually drove the truck from coast to coast several times, the truck itself was little more than a promotional vehicle. Ultimately, it was scrapped when GM no longer felt that turbine power was feasible. At one time, they promised to offer a gas turbine engine in a few commercial vehicles between 1971 and 1973, but the turbine’s propensity to gulp fuel and rising oil prices, forced GM to scrap the idea altogether.

The Turbo Titan III utilized a fiberglass and steel combination for cab construction, and was painted in a Pearlescent White. The styling theme extended to cover the chassis, which was completely concealed by molded-fiberglass panels. There were doors mounted on both sides of the truck, just ahead of the rear wheels that allowed access to dual batteries and the turbine engine when the cab was electrically tilted. The headlight pods mounted on each side of the truck were retractable, and were mounted within functional air intakes.

Inside, space-age seats with full headrests were mounted on each side of a center console, and a production-line sourced automatic shifter handle was mounted in the console. Long trips can be boring without some music, so a four-speaker FM radio and a two-way telephone was installed.