By the time my kids are old enough to drive, I will be telling them stories about how there was once a time when turbochargers were for exotic cars only and not for every freaking car on the road. We are living in an ever more boosted world and the fact of the matter is that the turbocharger will be ever more common on models from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap in the coming years. Why? As a point of reference over the last two weeks I have driven one car that made about 300hp out of 2.0L and another that made about 280hp out of 1.7L. How? Advanced engine technology and construction were major factors but the turbos that were force feeding them air totally made the magic happen.
The investment and involvement of major industrial powers in turbocharger production has been an interesting topic to watch over the last few years. Borg-Warner, Garrett, Bosch, and Honeywell are huge named in the OEM world with Garrett and Borg-Warner working to be part of the high performance aftermarket and racing world. You guys and girls are likely far more familiar with names like Precision and Turbonetics on the high performance side of the universe but as this report explains, all of these companies are set to see significant growth and production volume increases over the next several years with little sign of that abating.
The first really measurable wave of turbocharging came in the 1980s and while most of the cars that had turbos were not great, some were and the some that were kept the fire burning for performance enthusiasts who have been eager to embrace the power making potential that these air pumps can make.
This is pretty interesting stuff, at least to us.
Click here for the story that tells the tail about exploding turbocharger sales
All this will do is put a bigger nail in the h.p. oem cars and end the might v8
That is all this will do,, nothing more..
As the EPA will have ammo, on why they can raise the c.a.f.e. ratings, if a 1.7 liter engine can make 300 hp and the vehicle can run at the speed of 65-80 with 100 hp.. well you can drop 0.8 liter engines in vehicles and get the mpg and c.a.f.e. ratings so we’ll (epa) be raising them even higher, and they’ll use the oem’s own R&D against why they say they can’t reach those higher reg’s..
It sounds good if you are one to think only short term, and if you think auto’s are a free market industry, but long term , and by the time the Authors kids are driving, the turbo’s will have killed the v8 and most likely any larger v6’s