Big Red

[Stangman]

 So apparently back in 1964 Ford made a Semi truck that ran off of a turbine engine. The big three all made one and Fords was at the 64 worlds fair with the mustang. After that Ford did a country wide tour with it. When it proved that it wasnt practical three big three crushed there prototypes. But wait the website The Drive is looking for Big Red because they believe it wasnt crushed. Rumor has it that it was decommissioned in the end of 1971 and through talking to a bunch of Ford people around the country people were saying thatHolman and Moody got ahold of it and put it in a warehouse somewhere and forgotten about. It was engineered by Roy Lunn (mister GT 40). When John Holman took over he had a everything must go yard sale of the century. Big Red was sold to an anonymous buyer and disapeared. I know alot of the guys on the forum know alot about  H&M so I was just wondering if anybody has even seen it. The middle trailor was sold to a team called Bardahl autolite racing which was a hydroplane boat racing team.

[RustyCrankshaft]

I've seen a lot of pictures of it, never seen it in person. I know a few people in this part of the world that did see it.

There were a bunch of turbine powered semi's over the years. A friends Dad drove one of the KW turbine test trucks.

[thatdarncat]

There was an excellent & extensive article about Big Red in the Summer 1996 issue of Ford Truckin’ magazine, written by Kevin Boales. It covered pretty much all the details of the truck, and Fords turbine program, and some of what was known of its later history. It also included an interview with the original Ford Project Supervisor. You might be able to find the article online, or an issue of the magazine on eBay.

I remember someone talking about Big Red being restored at one time a few years ago, it might have been John Vermeersch?

[gt350hr]

   You need to reach out to Lee Holman. I guarantee that ONE didn't get crushed because I sat in the cab of one AT Holman Moody in '77 when I was there. It was out in the "hangar" along with GT40 body panels and crates full of casting patterns for engine parts. I crawled up (literally) , opened the door and sat in the driver's seat.IMHO it would have been difficult to drive because of the height ( judging spacing in front of you). I don't know what happened to it when Lee downsized , but I know he will.
    Randy

[cjshaker]

Clickbait!
I drink Big Red, so got a little excited when I saw the headline. 

[Stangman]

I didnt know you live in Texas. I assumed you lived in the Ohio area. I didnt know if that was a soft drink or some sort of weird beer and it says its only sold in Texas. Regardless cool collection.

[Barry_R]

A couple decades ago I had acquired some oddball dash gauges - Ford logo with a bazillion RPM tach and some sort of really high temperature gauge.

Sold them at a swap meet - never realized what they were from until many years later.

[TomP]

So Barry was pulling parts from "some old truck" at the wrecker.... probably Warhoops...

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15115687/their-ghosts-still-haunt-the-place-how-four-gm-motorama-show-cars-were-saved-from-the-scrap-heap-feature/

[RustyCrankshaft]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuGqP25jnQU

[turbohunter]

Really cool vid.
Love that old stuff.
Funny audio cuts. Listen for heating the ladder.

[427mach1]

Love that video!  We did a lot of 0.30-scale tractor-trailer wind tunnel testing for Ford back in the mid to late eighties and I see a lot of the same features on Big Red.  All the testing I recall used a conventional tractor rather than the cab-over design, however.  Side skirts, close coupling of the tractor and trailer, flush wheels, etc. were tested, funny it took 20 or 30 years after Big Red for those features to finally make it to the road.   Once they did make it to production trucks, they made it sound like it was some new earth shattering development.   It doesn't appear that Big Red has any boat tail treatments, however.  These can be very effective when they are deployed.  Seems like most truck drivers on the road keep them folded in....

[thatdarncat]

Jay Cushman, of Cushman Competition in Maine, has the original gas turbine engine ( or at least one of them ) from Big Red. He just posted pictures on Facebook last night.