The Chrysler Patriot was a turbine

Turbine

A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...

-electric hybrid sports-prototype racing car utilizing flywheel energy storage

Flywheel energy storage

Flywheel energy storage works by accelerating a rotor to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy...

, built by Chrysler

Chrysler

Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....

 in 1993 as a concept car

Concept car

A concept vehicle or show vehicle is a car made to showcase new styling and or new technology. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced....

 but with the express intent of winning the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

The traction engine

Traction engine

A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...

 was a four-pole, three-phase

Three-phase

In electrical engineering, three-phase electric power systems have at least three conductors carrying voltage waveforms that are radians offset in time...

, 525-volt AC induction motor

Induction motor

An induction or asynchronous motor is a type of AC motor where power is supplied to the rotor by means of electromagnetic induction. These motors are widely used in industrial drives, particularly polyphase induction motors, because they are robust and have no brushes...

, weighing 143 pounds (65 kg), with a maximum speed of 24,000 RPM; it had an aluminum housing, was lubricated by oil, and had an 8:1 motor to final drive ratio. Electrical power was supplied by a water-cooled, three-phase alternator

Alternator

An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...

 which was built into a two stage gas turbine

Gas turbine

A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....

, fueled with liquified natural gas, running at 50,000 RPM at low speed and 100,000 RPM at high speed, weighing 186 pounds. Additional energy for acceleration was provided by a 147 pound SatCon composite

Composite material

Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...

 flywheel

Flywheel

A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia, and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed...

 housed in a vacuum chamber

Vacuum chamber

A vacuum chamber is a rigid enclosure from which air and other gases are removed by a vacuum pump. The resulting low pressure, commonly referred to as a vacuum, allows researchers to conduct physical experiments or to test mechanical devices which must operate in outer space...

 running at 58,000 RPM, coupled to the drive train via three-phase permanent magnets in a Halbach array

Halbach array

A Halbach array is a special arrangement of permanent magnets that augments the magnetic field on one side of the array while cancelling the field to near zero on the other side...

.

The Patriot as first designed was different in many details from the final design, which had numerous compromises, according to its creator, Chrysler engineer Ian Sharp, who wrote that similar designs appear to be under consideration for Formula One

Formula One

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 racing in 2012.

Although introduced with much fanfare as a great leap forward in alternative energy storage and efficiency, press releases regarding the Patriot faded away. It was later revealed that serious problems with the mechanical integrity of the flywheel could not be overcome, and protection from a shattering flywheel would exact too much of a weight penalty.

It is not to be confused with the Jeep Patriot

Jeep Patriot

The Jeep Patriot is a compact crossover SUV introduced in early 2007 for the 2007 model year by the Jeep marque of Chrysler. It debuted publicly in April 2006 at the New York Auto Show and slots between the Compass and Liberty in the Jeep lineup...

, a 2007 SUV built by the same company.