While the M1 may have higher acceleration than the Challenger, the Challenger has a greater range. I've read many accounts of British tanks passing US tanks which have had to stop and refuel. In the sort of open, manoeuvre warfare like that experienced in the desert, its often more important to be able to reach your objective with the least logistical tail. The US Army can afford to use turbines, the British Army can't. The increased fuel and logistical requirements are such that it would be prohibitive for most armies, other than the US to be able to keep them running.
The S-Tank with its CODAG (Combined Diesel And Gas) engine system perhaps offered the best of both worlds, a diesel for cruising and a gas turbine for speed.
As Greg has noted, hooking a gas turbine up to an electrical system works well but no one has tried that in a tank yet. I suspect it's because the combination of gas turbine, generator and electrical motors plus fuel is fairly space consuming. Which may make it difficult to have a main gun of the 120+mm in size and it's ammunition and the crew and the electronics to sustain it a bit cramped in something the size of the present MBT volume.