Classic commercial vehicles
Flashback: Chevrolet Turbo-Titan III (1965)
The 1960s brought with it some remarkable concept cars, but also some wild trucks. Freddie Holmes digs into the story behind GM's little-known turbine-powered Big Rig
The World's Fair in New York was one of the most significant trade shows of its kind and hosted the launch of numerous industry icons. The Chevrolet Turbo-Titan III was not one of them. Carrying a largely unproven gas turbine engine, whale-like air intakes at either corner of the nose and a remarkable trailer, 'The Truck of the Future' somehow faded into obscurity.
"I'm not sure I have ever been asked about that," concedes Natalie Morath, lead archivist and curator at General Motors. By all accounts it is one of the forgotten concepts, an optimistic vision for the future of long-haul trucking and perhaps heralding broader ambitions for jet-powered cars. On the propulsion front neither of those ideals materialised but it remains a captivating piece of automotive design.
Work began in 1963 at the request of Chevrolet top brass who tasked the broader GM Design team with creating an existing standard Chevy tilt-cab cab-over-engine chassis — they could either design a completely new truck or simply update the front end of an existing model. "At this point, Design had no indication of what Chevy Trucks intended to do with the prototype, so it was not designed as part of any existing World’s Fair projects," notes Morath.
The project brought together something of an all-star team. Exterior work was led by Don Lasky with oversight from Chuck Jordan, head of vehicle exteriors at large, and carried out by the Truck studio when it was decided that an entirely new truck was in order (not just a refresh). By that metric the project was certainly a success — we haven't seen anything like it since.
Even for a division used to working with bigger vehicles, the Truck studio had a task on its hands. A Class 8 tractor is quite a step up from even the largest full-size passenger truck, and it is telling that, in marking out the vehicle's proportions on the wall, the team appeared to run out of space (hence the presence of a water fountain towards the tail of the 2D mock-up.)
An imposing clay model was soon put together and that is where the large sheets of uninterrupted bodywork were formed. The body was primarily stainless steel and fibreglass, and cutlines are few and far between save for the doors. The cab itself could tilt forward — hinged at the front — to reveal its innovative gas turbine engine, and the headlamps emerged from those gaping air intakes like pocket doors. "It was the early '60s… any time you could have a retractable headlamp, you would have a retractable headlamp," jokes Morath.
The expansive glasshouse and impressively thin A-pillars created an incredible platform from which to view the road ahead. The presence of two large glass panels in the cab wall is unexpected for a truck of this kind, but perhaps an inclusion to improve rear visibility while driving 'Bobtail' without a trailer. Fittingly for the time, the windows are framed with wonderful metal brightwork. Note also the top-mounted hazard lights, absent on images of the clay model but perhaps test-fitted later on in the project.
Indeed, things progressed exceptionally quickly, fast even by today's standards for a company of GM's size. Not to mention with the scope of tools available to the teams at the time. The formal design process ran from March to June 1964, when drawings and molds were released to Chevrolet, and the truck was presented in the summer of 1965. "To be clear, this is a very short timeline for a design," notes Morath, "even with an existing engine and chassis being provided."
Given the size of the prototype, final fabrication was outsourced to the Michigan-based bespoke engineering firm Wetlauffer Industries (credited with carrying out similar work for Chrysler, Ford, Packard, Nash, Willys-Overland and International Harvester among others).
Meanwhile, the interior was handled by Drew Hare's Advanced Interior studio. Images shared with CDN show how the team went through a series of iterations — eschewing a conventional steering column and wheel setup in favour of a slightly bizarre 'turntable' configuration. It was less imposing than what had been shown previously on the Bison, at least.
Thought also went into the rest of the instrumentation and switchgear, with individual dials stencilled onto the clay buck and intricate (and very realistic) paper mock-ups cut out and stuck on during the development phase. Working units were added later.
There was a stark contrast between the svelte form of the tractor compared to the corrugation of its trailer, no doubt a conscious decision by Lasky, Jordan and co. and reflective of broader Space Age trends of the moment. Details on the trailer are thin, but it is expected that this was brought in by an outside supplier and re-skinned.
The result is quite captivating, continuing the understated metal and navy blue CMF theme and showing clear consideration for the truck-trailer combination. It would have been so easy to chuck on an old trailer with some new graphics and be done with it.
The Turbo-Titan III is one of those concepts that showed daring intent and curated design in equal measure. Here was a team up against not only a tight timeline but also a challenging new powertrain format, but they delivered in spades. Not only did the project look the part, it worked too and photos depict it running along highways and even slicing through heavy rain. Whether that was on a controlled section of highway before being transported by an even larger truck is unclear. Let's assume the former in favour of optimism.
The muted response to the Turbo-Titan III in generations to come was in our opinion unjustified. We are pleased to shed some light on the project as part of our monthly focus on commercial vehicles, supported graciously by GM's Morath who appears to share a similar if not new-found fondness for the 'Titan: "Honestly, this was a fun one."
Chevrolet Turbo-Titan III
Powertrain: gas turbine
Wheelbase: 3,099 mm
Length: 6,350 mm
Width: 2,438 mm
Height: 2,540 mm
Public reveal: New York, 1965
