In 1964, Chrysler gave the world a glimpse of the future. The automaker built a fleet of turbine cars-automobiles with jet engines- and lent them out to members of the public. The fleet logged over a million miles; the exercise was a raging success. If the cars had been mass produced, today we might have cars that run on any flammable liquid instead of petroleum-derived fuels. Yet Chrysler crushed and burned most of the cars two years later; the jet car's brief glory was over. Where did it all go wrong? Author Steve Lehto interviewed all the surviving members of the turbine car program, from the metallurgist who created the exotic metals for the interior of the engine to the test driver who drove it at Chrysler's proving grounds for days on end. Lehto takes these firsthand accounts and weaves them into a fascinating story about the coolest car Detroit has ever produced. In this expanded edition, Lehto describes witnessing the process Jay Leno went through to rebuild one of the last remaining turbine cars, a prize in Leno's famed collection, after its engine catastrophically failed.

Without available factory replacement parts, many damaged pieces in the turbine engine had to be re-created and assembled using modern imaging, manufacturing, and 3D printing technology-a complex process that took nearly four years.