1968 McKee Howmet TX Gas Turbine

During the 1960s, at the height of the Jet Age, several sports and racing cars were developed using gas turbine engines like those in the aviation industry. Chrysler produced its first turbine passenger car in 1963; the British Rover company teamed up with BRM to produce a turbine car that ran in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours; and Andy Granatelli's STP-Paxton Turbocar almost won the Indianapolis 500 in 1967.

The Howmet project was conceived early in 1967 by Ray Heppenstall, a sports car racer from Philadelphia. Heppenstall reasoned that a suitable lightweight turbine mounted in the back of a conventional sports-racing chassis would be a competitive proposition. After studying the Rover-BRMW, he convinced Howmet, one of the leading US metallurgical companies and a major supplier of precision castings to the gas-turbine industry, that running a race car program would be an ideal promotion tool. The TX (Turbine eXperimental) chassis was built by McKee Engineering following the FIA's Group 6 sport car regulations. Power came from a Continental Aviation engine that produced 350 bhp and over 650 lb/ft of torque at an incredible 57,000 RPM.

The Howmet TX made its debut at the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona, and later that year, raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring. At the end of the 1968 season, Howmet discontinued its race program. The car was later rebuilt to tackle the gas turbine land speed record, and in 1970, the TX Mk II, driven by Ray Heppenstall, achieved six FIA world records.

This car was purchased by its current owner in May 2006 with a dummy engine. Since then, original engine parts have been located and assembled to bring the car back to running condition with the original Continental gas turbine engine, which weighs 170 pounds and produces 330 horsepower.