A turbo car or a naturally-aspirated engine-powered car?

**leopaul** · December 17th, 2009 12:47 AM

I have a question, ano ang mas bagay for us, car enthusiasts?

A typical car which is powered by a turbocharger (or superchargers if necessary), or a car powered by a naturally aspirated (NA) engine?

Take your time..

**noobskie** · December 17th, 2009 01:05 AM

Turbochargers and superchargers add to the maintenance of the car. It's typically a small engine equipped with one or a bigger one that is naturally aspirated.
It really depends, as for me I'd go for the smaller turbo charged ones (typically seen in EVOs and STIs) since all you really need are some other mods like a full exhaust upgrade, bigger intercooler, piggyback mod chip, suspension and brake upgrades and you're ready to go.

**niky** · December 17th, 2009 01:21 AM

A forced-induction engine will usually make more power and will have more performance from just off-idle to redline than a similar-sized naturally aspirated engine.

BUT: A good naturally aspirated engine sounds and feels wonderful. It takes work to "keep it on boil", and it's invigorating to plumb the depths of its powerband and to explore its character fully.

As such... a Nissan GT-R may be much faster than a BMW M3... but the M3 sounds like sin and the manic revving of that growling V8 just seems much more dramatic than the relentless locomotive thrust of the GT-R...

**alwayz_yummy** · December 17th, 2009 07:58 AM

force-induction-- may turbo lag and sudden kick pag sumipa ang turbo..most turbo nowadays, lesser lag na..ung tipong, magiisip pa muna...

supercharger has a more smoother power curve..

for NA, lesser maintenance and "shutting down" routine..

me i always fancied the i idea of owning a 230ps forrester xt...but bukod sa di ko afford, masmabusisi maintenance...so i chose a xtrail 250x.....that can still go 100kph in 10sec or slightly less (according to fifth gear.) and has a great offroad capability against most cSUV.

**ghosthunter** · December 17th, 2009 08:26 AM

Originally Posted by leopaul

I have a question, ano ang mas bagay for us, car enthusiasts?

A typical car which is powered by a turbocharger (or superchargers if necessary), or a car powered by a naturally aspirated (NA) engine?

Depends on the kind of driving you plan to do with the car.

A turbocharged car feels really powerful but it comes at the cost higher maintenance and higher stress to the motor itself. Power delivery is (generally) not as linear so you have to keep the revs higher to keep the power available, much like trying to keep the revs between 6000 to 8000 on a Honda B16 engine (but in a turbocharged engine, you have to keep it in the "boost" range).

A n/a car feels more smooth in it's power delivery. It feels wonderful to drive on roads that snake left/right. Power is generally available nearly anywhere along the RPM curve.

**emms1121** · December 17th, 2009 09:08 AM

Sir GH, for drag racing you would recommend turbocharged engine?

**uls** · December 17th, 2009 09:52 AM

racing?

definitely turbo

--

even just for fun

there's nothing like the sound of a turbo spooling up

and the feeling of boost

**Type 100** · December 17th, 2009 09:52 AM

Actually if you are up-to-date with European motoring news, the trend for small cars these days is forced induction.

VW in particular is gaining fame because of its "Twincharger" 1.4L TSI engine - supercharged at low RPM then boosted by a turbo at high RPM. It's not a new concept (Nissan made the twin-charged March Super Turbo 1.0L in 1982) but it's gaining popularity now.

BMW is also believed to switch over to turbo power for its M models which were originally all normally aspirated.

The draw of small-displacement turbo engines is fuel economy and added power and torque (the VW Twincharger 1.4L engine makes 170+ BHP in peak tune and there are lesser variants sold). Then again it still depends on how you drive it. If you activate the boost all the time, the fuel economy gains aren't going to come into fruition.

Car and Driver in the US also measured the fuel economy of these smaller boosted motors compared to their larger NA counterparts and found the fuel economy gains negligible at best.

**4agze** · December 17th, 2009 10:09 AM

Depends on what you want to achieve?

most tuner like NA due to instant engine response, less moving parts, in a environment like Philippines notorious heat and humidity NA engine is better.

Turbo may give you more HP/trq but lag, environmental heat is a big factor in Phil. heat and humidity generates a lot of "heat soak" it can be fix by a bigger intercooler but you loose boost by doing that.

Supercharger (root type) just like turbo can generate a lot of HP/trq best for engine below 2.0liter 4 cylinder, no lag, less parts than a turbo and don't need a intercooler.

Supercharger (twin screw) same as the root type but needs a intercooler

Supercharger (centrifugal) it may look like turbo but it don't need a intercooler

just like my screen name I prefer superchargers