"Huebner, who died in 1996 at age 86, believed that there was plenty to recommend the turbine. After all, as Mr. Lehto notes, "the cars ran on any flammable liquid. Not just gasoline but diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, peanut oil, alcohol, tequila, perfume, and many other substances fueled Huebner's turbine cars at one time or another." (The joke went that if a driver ever ran out of fuel he could always dash into a drugstore for a bottle of aftershave.) Turbines weighed less than piston engines, had fewer moving parts and were easy to work on. What's more, they never needed a tuneup or an oil change and could cruise all day at 100 miles per hour. ¶ Mr. Lehto describes how Huebner gathered a crack team of engineers in the early 1950s. Solving the too-big-for-cars problem by scaling down and reconfiguring existing technology, the developers had their first turbine-powered test vehicle ready in 1953. It showed encouraging signs, and several versions followed. By the fourth generation Huebner's engineers found that their turbine car engine could run an amazing 5,000 hours in tests, compared with 3,000 hours for a normal piston engine. The developers seemed to have tamed the beast. In fact, the engine now ran so smoothly that one retired turbine engineer tells the author that a nickel could be placed on its edge, standing on the engine, "and the nickel would stay there." The engine, he said, "was virtually vibration free."" - × × ×