Embracing the Move Toward Snail Power

In the early ’90s, I remember seeing an ad for the Honda Prelude VTEC, and, for some reason, it stuck with me. The strange two-page ad featured the car prominently and above the image was the phrase, “Turbocharger, Shmurbocharger”  (or some variant of the fake word “shmurbocharger”). The ad touted the output of its 2.2-liter 190-horsepower non-turbocharged engine. That’s a lot of power for a normally-aspirated engine, even by today’s standards, but I thought it was strange for the company to take a stab at the turbo, as only a handful of mainstream cars were fitted with them waaaay back in the '90s.  

Man, things have changed.

In the ongoing quest for more power and better fuel economy, turbos, and the generally smaller engines to which they’re attached, are popping up everywhere. Look around. The forced-induction devices have recently made their way onto everything from the subcompact Chevrolet Sonic to German über sedans. They have also been prevalent in the hot-hatch segment for quite awhile (the Mini Cooper S, GTI, Mazdaspeed3, and now the Focus ST all feature turbos) and now entry-level luxury cars like the BMW 320i and the Mercedes-Benz C250 are getting the boosted treatment. 

And in most instances, turbochargers are supplanting normally-aspirated engines on six-figure cars.  

There’s no denying the power of the snail. Take, for instance, two “old” but crazy-powerful sedans: the E60 BMW M5 and the W211 Mercedes-Benz E63. The M5 had a high-revving 5.0-liter V-10 good for 500 horsepower, and the Benz had a 6.2-liter V-8 with about the same power. Of course, 500 horsepower just doesn’t cut it anymore, so the current versions of those cars (the Benz will be released this summer) both come with physically downsized twin-turbo engines — if you can use the word downsized. The Bimmer now has a 4.4-liter V-8 pumping out 127 horsepower per liter and the Benz’s 5.5-liter V-8 now pushes 105 horsepower per liter. And each gets better fuel economy than its respective predecessor. 

Eric Savage, owner of Helix Motorsports in Manayunk, which focuses on MINIs and turbocharged BMWs, said in a recent interview that he expects almost all cars to be turbocharged in the future.

“The reason that it’s popular is because all automobile manufacturers are under great pressure to increase mileage and decrease emissions, and the best way to do that is through small motors,” Savage said. “And because of the increased weight of cars, we have to make small motors have greater output and turbocharging is really the number-one way. There’s going come a point where almost all internal combustion engines are turbocharged.”

What’s not to like?

Some people lament the fact that high-revving, normally aspirated engines are on their way out (like the previous engines in the Audi S4 and BMW M3); they see turbocharging as something of a “cheap” way to find copious amounts of power. I’m not one of them. I’ve owned a turbocharged car — an Audi TT with a K03. Though it was pretty slow, it had torque down low and got reasonably-OK fuel economy … and that was almost 10 years ago. I can only imagine what the manufacturers will do with turbos in the future.

Savage said due to increased machining technology over the years, and things like coated pistons, these high-stress motors are more reliable than ever, read: probably won’t blow up. And if that’s the case, the turbo is here to stay.