This One-Of-A-Kind Ford Turbine Truck Was Found Decades After Being Lost

It’s hard to believe that something of this magnitude disappeared for more than 40 years, but here we are. The long-lost experimental turbine-powered Ford semi-truck has finally been tracked down after all these years.

The truck dubbed as “Big Red” made its debut at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York and was of many turbine-powered vehicles from that era that didn’t make it to production.

During its 15 minutes of fame, it was used as a promotional vehicle before ending up in the hands of the Holman-Moody NASCAR racing team in the ’70s.

When you take a look at the truck, you can’t help but feel like you’ve put yourself in a time capsule and transported back to the ’60s. Although it didn’t work out, it’s a pretty cool-looking truck. However, that still doesn’t account for its disappearance, which is incredible when you think about it.

The website The Drive has uncovered the whereabouts of the truck today – apparently, the story behind it is that it was on display at a car show in Atlanta where the fluids had been drained when a driver who was sent to pick it up tried to start it and destroyed the engine. It was then towed to Detroit, and the truck pulling it broke down near Charlotte. Ford asked Holman-Moody, the affiliated race team if they could store it there for a while.

Before Ford retrieved it, they canceled the contract with Holman-Moody and allowed the team to keep the Ford equipment it was in possession of – well, the team decided that Bed Red was included in this deal.

At that point, there wasn’t much anyone could do with this giant machine, so in the early ’80s, it sold the tractor to a fan who still owns it today. For obvious reasons, they prefer to remain anonymous.

The Drive found the individual and spoke to them. They discovered the truck was fully restored with a later turbine they received from an engineer who purchased the technology from Ford. However, it hasn’t been driven in about 20 years. It currently spends its days in a custom-built garage located somewhere only the individual and a few of their friends know about.

One interesting part of the discussion is that the owner revealed he plans to make it public one day. He suggested it could end up somewhere like The Henry Ford Museum, which would be an incredible addition.

Big Red’s twin trailers were sold and used by the other owners, but their location also remains a mystery.