During the height of the “Jet Age”, everybody thought that turbine cars were the inevitable future. Once Chrysler rolled out a line of turbine-powered cars, it felt as though the future had finally arrived. But then Chrysler, spurred by the availability of cheap oil and interest in big engines rather than the future, killed its turbine car program. To this day just a handful of the original 55 Chrysler Turbine cars are still around…and Jay Leno happens to own one.

That’s why we consider this to be a very special episode of Jay Leno’s garage. In this episode, Leno brings out his turbine car, and gives us a glimpse at what the future could have been.

While most of Leno’s Garage episodes are just ten minutes long, this special episode stretches for 25 minutes, and there’s a good reason for that. The turbine cars were such a special vehicle for American automakers, a car that many Americans (including Leno) lusted after but could never own.

Leno actually owns just one of two Chrysler turbine cars that are in private collector hands (the other being owned by Frank Kleptz). Leno explores the history of the turbine cars, and the fact that out of the original 55, 46 of them were destroyed per corporate policy. Leno says that what probably killed the turbine cars were awful around-town gas mileage coupled with so-so performance and an astronomical cost.

Could turbine cars rise once again? Probably not…but thanks to people like Leno, their legacy lives on. If you’ve got 25 minutes to spare, spend them watching this.