[McQueen (OP)]

The Firebired was the first turbine car built in the U.S.A although the credit for the first turbine car ever built goes to  FIAT motors of Italy, this particular model was not a great success, since it emitted exhaust at abut 1000 degrees C. Its first on-road trial almost ended in disaster when the exhaust melted the tyres of a scooter that was traveling behind the car ! FIAT did not experiment further with turbines and destroyed its existing prototypes.
The Rover Company were the next to go in for this technology and as you can see succeeded so well as to race the car at Le Mans with Graham Hill at the wheel! The main drawback in the turbine was its excessively high fuel consumption using about 8 times the fuel as the IC piston engine or put another way if you have an IC piston car giving 12km per litre , the turbine would give you 2/3 of a kilometer per litre! So no deal.