Very interesting to think we might see some good things come out of EPA standards and higher gas prices.



Turbos gather momentum; automakers juggle performance, fuel economy.


Demand for turbochargers could spool up quickly in the next few years as manufacturers strive to meet their customers' thirst for higher performance and still satisfy the government's push for higher fuel economy.

Turbochargers enable an automaker to use smaller engines without sacrificing performance.

Officials from the two leading turbocharger manufacturers, Garrett Engine Boosting Systems and BorgWarner Turbo Systems, are gearing up for wider applications of turbochargers in North America.

But it is gasoline engines that could get a real boost from the turbocharger, thanks to improvements in technology and engineering.

"Turbochargers will make a big step in gasoline engines," says Fritz Indra, General Motors' executive director of advanced engineering. Indra predicts that the global volume of gasoline turbochargers could expand by as much as 50 percent by 2010.

Electronic engine controls and upgrades to the impeller have made turbos more efficient over a greater rpm range. Also, overheating no longer is an issue, thanks to better lubrication, improved bearings and more efficient heat management.

Some of the finicky turbos used in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, when the devices enjoyed a brief spurt of popularity, were notoriously unreliable. Automakers issued a list of dos and don'ts for drivers of turbocharged cars. The instructions often were ignored, leading to failures.

Both Garrett and BorgWarner are working on a number of improvements to the turbocharger that are expected to bring even greater performance from small-displacement engines.


Both companies are testing and readying for production:

Dual or two-stage turbo systems that enable a gasoline engine to deliver greater performance throughout the rpm range. One turbo works at low speeds while another kicks in at high engine rpms.

Variable vane turbochargers for gasoline engines that vary the amount of boost by regulating the amount of exhaust gases that drive the impeller.

Electronically driven turbochargers for gasoline engines that use a small electric motor to bring the turbo up to speed quickly, which eliminates the traditional pause or "turbo lag."


A turbocharger and its related equipment add between $600 and $900 to the cost of a car. But an automaker can recover that and more if a turbocharger is used on the right vehicle, says Lindsay Brooke, senior analyst with consulting firm CSM Worldwide Inc. in Northville, Mich.

"Having a turbo badge doesn't hurt in certain segments of the market," Brooke says. A turbocharger, he adds, has "street cred" or gets respect for drivers of sporty compact cars.

But, he says, a turbocharger might not improve fuel economy because the type of person who would buy a turbocharged car likely would drive it aggressively and cancel out the gains that come from downsizing the engine.

Even if turbochargers see limited use on gasoline-powered engines, both Garrett and BorgWarner say the future looks good for another reason: Turbochargers can help diesel engines meet tougher exhaust emissions standards.