Repair 7

History of the Turbocharger

Engineers and designers who work with internal combustion engines have always sought new ways to produce more power and efficiency. This has driven a great deal of automotive engineering and was the driving force behind the development of the turbocharger. Since its initial application to aircraft engines, the turbocharger has been adapted to different uses and has become an important option for modern automakers.

Origins

The first turbocharger design earned a patent in 1905 by Swiss engineer Alfred Bchi. It was intended for use on aircraft engines at a time when aviation was a developing field. During World War I, the French military used turbochargers on many of its planes. Turbocharging solved many of the problems associated with high altitude flying by forcing air into the engine, thus negating the effects of the thinner atmosphere and lower oxygen content.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, aviation technology continued to grow and turbochargers became common equipment on most advanced planes. This made it possible to design planes that could fly higher and run more efficiently (theore making them able to stay airborne longer).

Operation

Turbochargers were developed to solve one of the primary needs of the internal combustion engine: that of feeding air, along with fuel, into the engines combustion chambers. While this air and fuel mixture is compressed during the engines compression cycle, feeding air that is more dense into the engine produces a boost in power. Turbochargers do precisely this, compressing the air in a process known as forced induction. In opposition to superchargers, which were developed later and compress air using energy from the engine itself, turbochargers are powered by the engines exhaust, thus making use of what would otherwise be lost energy.

Turbocharged Cars

Cars became a natural place for turbochargers to be used once they had been proven on aircraft. As early as 1938, some automakers experimented with turbocharging their diesel engines, to mixed results. Turbochargers remained a mainstay on aircraft engines while only being sporadically offered on cars through much of the 20th century. In the 1950s and 1960s, turbochargers became a popular item for various racing circuits in the United States. The power boost achieved by turbochargers led to regulations of the technology and, in some cases, bans on the use of turbochargers to ensure fair competition.
In 1962, General Motors became the first American automaker to offer turbochargers on its street cars, offering it on the Chevrolet Corvair and the related Oldsmobile Cutlass.

The Turbo Era

The late 1970s and early 1980s became known as the "Turbo Era" in Formula 1 racing. This was due to the explosion in the popularity of turbochargers, with many race teams investing a great deal of money into the development of turbochargers that would give them a competitive edge. Some F1 races during the Turbo Era saw an entire field of turbocharged cars in competition. Race officials were quick to regulate turbochargers, placing limits on how much power they could be engineered to provide. Safety became a key concern, and the interest in the technology dropped off sharply. By the mid-1980s, turbochargers were banned altogether and race teams were forced to look elsewhere for improvements to their cars.

Recent History

Turbochargers received some renewed interest during the Energy Crisis of the 1970s. Besides turning to smaller cars with more modest, fuel efficient engines, automakers began searching for ways to improve efficiency of their existing fleets. Turbocharged cars with four-cylinder engines were often sold alongside V-6 and V-8 models in the 1980s, often with the turbo versions sporting the highest performance ratings.
Turbochargers also began to appear in other vehicles, such as motorcycles. In the case of motorcycles and sports cars, the light weight of a turbocharger makes it an attractive option for adding power as opposed to the addition of a large, heavy, expensive engine with greater displacement.
The rise in energy prices in the 2000s only served to continue the advancing trend of turbochargers, seeing them appear in many cars, including small coupes and entry level models.