One more turbine story....

Back in the 60s there was a turbine car entered in the Indy 500. It ran away from everyone and looked like the sure winner until it's transmission, which had been tossed together by a bunch of mechanics since one didn't exist, failed.

Afterwards the team was very upfront about the failure of the transmission and why. They just didn't have the time and money to test it like they should have.

But the turbine was banned at Indy after that. The reason given was because it was too reliable. Back then you could count on about 30% of the field losing an engine during the race.

I later heard from an Indy driver who was there the thing was banned because it was used to cheat. The exhaust was up high to keep from torching the race track. So the driver was putting the car into a position to burn the face shield of the other drivers during a pass. This was passed off as an 'accident' that happened a lot of times.

People had to pit to change their helmets.