Naturally Aspirated Engines Are A Thing Of The Past

For some time now, the once emerging, and now growing trends of turbocharged engines and dual clutch transmissions have dominated most of the modern car world. There is little surprise that these two technologies are increasingly used hand in hand, in the same car, across various platforms, by numerous automakers. While drivers have subconsciously bought into these technologies, the end of an era is just beyond the horizon, and that is the end of the naturally aspirated engine. As a car writer, it’s supposed to pain me to say this, but surprisingly, it doesn’t. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to the modern turbocharged set ups, or perhaps they are just so much better that I don’t miss the engines of old. With increasing demands for more power, more economy, and lower CO2 emissions, could the naturally aspirated engine be a thing of the past?

For those old enough to remember, when BMW reintroduced turbocharged engines to production cars in 2009 through the N55, the purists were crying out and screaming bloody murder. What they didn’t realise was that this wasn’t BMW’s very first turbocharged engine. BMW had been developing the turbocharged engine since the 60’s and had operationalised in the 80’s, making BMW the very first European automaker to develop a turbocharged engine. Along the way, it’s hard to pin down if automakers decided to go down the route of turbocharged engines because they truly felt it was better, or because the need for more power, more efficiency, and lowering of CO2 emissions meant that the turbocharged engine was the more realistic and viable way forward. While their respective intentions are unclear, there is no disputing that the turbocharged engine is better equipped in dealing with our modern demands in a more efficient manner (pun intended).

Automakers have embraced this technology at different speeds, but you can sense that the change is inevitable. Even the stalwarts of large, naturally aspirated engines like Lexus, have in recent years, joined the fray, with their 2.0 turbocharged unit currently found on the Lexus IS. But Lexus has demonstrated that you can modernise the platform, but still retain much of the brand’s key traits. On the IS, Lexus has done just this, by incorporating a lower pressure turbocharger, paired with a traditional torque converter, which replicates that big engine feel when you put your foot down, and helps produce that luxurious pull and unhurried glide that Lexus drivers will be all too familiar with. So perhaps, not all is lost, and the purists still have something viable to purchase in the market after all.

It's true that turbochargers were first developed for use on performance and race cars, but ironically, that isn’t really the case today. One can be forgiven for thinking that turbocharged cars are powerful, petrol guzzling abominations that belong only on performance cars, but take a quick look at the latest car specifications on the market, and you’ll find that most turbocharged production cars today post comparable, if not better fuel economy figures than their naturally aspirated counterparts in the same class, and in some cases, even in the class below.

How is that even possible? - Well, simply put, the employment of turbochargers have evolved, and are now plugged into smaller capacity engines, and tuned to assist with low rev acceleration, producing better torque figures, rather than outright power. Today’s torque biased configurations see turbochargers kick in from as low as 1,250 rpm, while the traditional power biased configurations saw turbochargers kick in above 3,000 rpm. Much like the newest mild hybrids in the market, modern turbochargers aid in acceleration, so that the driver does not need to over rev the engine, resulting in much better fuel economy. In that sense, mild hybrids and turbochargers are essentially two different means to the same end. If you can wrap your head around buying a mild hybrid, then you can definitely wrap your head around buying a turbocharged engine too. Perhaps the turbocharged moniker does not pander to your inner tree hugger, but make no mistake. Turbocharged engines can be as economical as they are powerful, especially when paired with a fast box like a dual clutch.

#Cars #Autos #Engines #Naturally #Aspirated #SG #Singapore

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