TURBOCHARGERS
Basically, these turbochargers are the afterthought for creating power out of thin air literally. Nowadays popular and big manufacturers prefer turbocharging their cars. Even the government has pushed their regulation to meet these standards.
A turbocharged engine is smaller and lighter and is able to produce a lot of power while being cleaner for the environment as well.
So you might think why not turbocharger every car on the market right now but this is not that simple. Many manufacturers shy away from this because of traditions, big engine numbers, and the fact that turbochargers result in latency in response in the form of turbo lag.
Turbocharging is nothing but special hardware that can produce more power by forcing more air into the engine. Basically, it is reusing unused “power” from the engine. The exhaust gases that were simply thrown away, are now being used for producing more power by rotating a turbo mounted near the engine which in turn forces more air back in the engine producing more power. This is producing more power from the nothingness of air, giving you the feeling of producing more power from the air. Amazing isn't it?
How turbochargers are good for your engine?
- Able to produce more power from an otherwise small capacity engine.
- Reuse unused exhaust gases to produce more power.
- Good for the environment.
How turbocharges are bad for your engine?
- Adding more turbos results in bad quality of sound coming out of the exhaust pipe. This is the case in Bugatti cars as the 8L engine is a quad-turbocharged that has a bad engine sound.
- Expensive than Naturally Aspirated Engines.
- Has turbo lag.
SUPERCHARGERS
Basically, these superchargers are the afterthought for creating power out of thin air literally. American manufacturers mostly prefer supercharging their cars. But it a mere decision of the manufacturer to use either of the two.
It seems like an evolution of the former as it eliminates turbo lag, but in reality, it is not. If it were a replacement every manufacturer would be using but it is not the case.
Supercharging is nothing but attaching a giant powerful turbo in order to force even more air than a turbocharger. The upside is that it helps produce a lot of extra horsepowers. The downside is that it needs the help of the engine to run as it is directly attached to the engine. It takes a bit of horsepower from the engine to run and in return returns more horsepower than it takes, which is a good trade-off.
It eliminates turbo lag in the way that it is directly attached to the engine and doesn’t need the exhaust gases to get going. As soon as the accelerator padel is pressed it starts spinning and forces more air into the engine.
How superchargers are good for your engine?
- It produces more power outside of the engine.
- The size and power of the supercharger can vary drastically as per the requirement of the manufacturer.
- It is using the wasted energy in the form of passing air.
How superchargers are good for your engine?
- It consumes some considerable power from the engine to run it in the first place.
- It takes a separate place that is sometimes becoming very massive for a huge supercharger and it comes out of the engine, and people try to show it as a pride symbol of a powerful car.
- It makes an unwanted sound which comes from the massive turbine
Which charger is better?
Both of them are good as well as bad, like everything in life, ;) Each one comes with its own pro & cons.
Turbocharged engines are way smaller and lighter but these engines have turbo lag.
Supercharged engines on the other hand are more powerful and eliminate turbo lab but require a lot of space in the engine bay.
OTHER IMPORTANT ENGINEERING TERMS
1.Torque Vectoring
It is a technique that is used to improve the capability of the vehicle. Torque vectoring is a technology that is built on top of the working of the differential. A differential is used to transfer the direct torque of the engine to the wheels without any electronics stuff. But the torque vectoring is able to give extra torque to each individual wheel at any time.
In short, the torque is split into individual wheels of each differential. This technology is generally found in performance cars usually applied by an electronic system.
2.Torque Steer
Torque steer is an unwanted thing that happens with vehicles. This phenomenon essentially happens with FWD, when the car is subjected to heavy acceleration the excess torque that is not properly converted into acceleration tries to steer the car in either the left or right direction.
The excess wheel spin results in torque steer.
3.Wheel Braking
It is a technique used by some high-end car manufacturers as a way to increase the performance of the car during cornering. It is usually present in cars that do not have a torque vectoring system.
In the system, the inner wheels during a corner are braked by the computer of the car as per the requirement resulting in better cornering performance. The inner wheel under braking pulls the car inwards and makes the car go even faster.
4. Torque Converter
Torque Converters are usually there in automatic transmission. The system does the same work that a clutch does in manual transmission. However, unlike a manual transmission vehicle, it uses fluid to transmit power to the transmission preventing your engine from stalling and allowing the transmission to change.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TURBOCHARGERS & SUPERCHARGERS
- Manufacturers usually shy away from using turbochargers in their cars due to turbo lag but the government is pushing regulations that require the use of turbos in cars instead of engines being naturally aspirated.
- Bugatti has used quad-turbos in their cars which produce a massive 1,001 and 1479 hp for Veyron and Chiron respectively. These outputs are produced by the same engine with the same number of turbos for each. The work done by the turbos is so massive that in reality, the sound of the engine is eaten by the turbos.
