Word is that American carmakers and -buyers are now “quietly turning” (whatever that means) toward using turbo-powered cars. Turbo-charging involves re-compressing exhaust gas back into the car’s cylinders, which gives an engine more power and efficiency, which lets you use a smaller, lighter engine, thereby increasing efficiency further.
Of course, turbo-charging has been around for almost a century, and according to the L.A. Times, the U.S. car market is only really coming around now because turbo was seen as a fiddly tweak for little, zippy Euro cars, not big, burly American models.
And Detroit wonders why they have to give cars away…
November 27th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Turbo’s have been on large American cars, mainly sport cars. The main problem with that is the lag time. When you stomp on the accelerator with a car that has a 350CID engine, about five seconds after doing so the car gains so much power many people lost control…crashing.
But the main reason turbos have not been used more is cost. They are high precision items, and when the bearing that holds it together starts wobbling, they have a bad habit of exploding like a turbo-fan jet engine. This dumps pieces of metal into the engine….
Due to this cars with turbos have to use really good oil in their engine, since that is where the oil to cool/lubricate the turbo comes from. Also added cost.
But I am not defending the American manufacturers. Imagine that they chose cost over efficiency……Even for their high end cars….