Inset of Savonuzzi courtesy Alberta Savonuzzi.
For 25 years Robert Pauley worked as a design engineer for Chrysler’s Research Department and spent many years on the gas turbine program. What follows are some remembrances of the time he spent on the Chrysler turbine program with the Italian engineer and designer Giovanni Savonuzzi.
Part 1 describes meeting Savonuzzi at Chrysler and the circumstances surrounding Savonuzzi’s position and his idea for a gas turbine-powered Indy car.
In
Part 2, Savonuzzi designs the Chrysler Indy car and talks about naming “Gilda”.
In the final episode below Savonuzzi engineers a safety car for Chrysler before returning to Italy and Fiat.
Savonuzzi Safety Car
Around 1963 or thereabouts the work load began to taper off at the Greenfield plant. All fifty of the Ghia cars had been assembled in that plant and were being prepared for the evaluation program and the short production line pit had been covered over. Many of the people who had been involved with that phase of the program had been transferred back to Highland Park and there was not much design work required except for some occasional changes.