hay guys i was looking for the 1st car that used a turbo i thought Audi had calmed it was them in an TV
add...
eny way i enjoyed reading this.

Apparently, the question of which came first, the chicken (turbo) or the egg (supercharger) was that the egg
indeed came first; by about nine years. Rudolph Diesel is credited with introducing his design for the
mechanical supercharger all the way back in 1896! It wasn't until nine years later, that Dr. Alfred Buchi, a
Swiss engineer with Sulzer Brothers Research Department in Siwtzerland, was granted the patent for his
supercharger designed to work off exhaust gases. The actual prototype of a "turbocharger" was not
completed until sometime between 1909 to 1912.

The turbos practicality was not seen first in small car engines. Instead, the focus for the development and
the refinement of the technology was limited to aircraft. In the years of World War I (1914-1918), a limited
number of turbochargers were designed by Frenchman Auguste Rateau to be retrofitted onto existing piston
engines in warplanes. The venture was largely experimental, and no benefit was truly gained from the trials.

It wasn't until 1918 when General Electric successfully demonstrated that a Liberty aircraft engine which
produced 346 horsepower at sea level would deliver only 222 horsepower atop Pikes Peak (14,109 foot
altitude). But with turbocharging, the same engine's high-altitude output rose to 356 horsepower, a 10-
horsepower gain over the sea-level rating. One month after this hugely successful venture, the Armistice
was signed, and production was cancelled.

The European theater saw no such interruption. In 1921, Paul Daimler, son of Gottlieb Daimler unveiled two
supercharged four-cylinder Mercedes models at the Berlin Auto Show. In 1923, the first ever production car
to use forced induction was the 1923 Mercedes 6/25/40 PS. The supercharger had been in use since 1907 in
racing engines, but this was the first ever application that was available to the public at the time.

During World War II, the turbocharger began to come into its own. GE had been able to work out the kinks
in the system and with the help of J.C. "Cliff" Garrett's "aftercooler" (located between the General Electric
turbocharger and the Pratt and Whitney engine); thousands of planes such as the B-17 Flying Fortress and
the P-38 were equipped with turbos.

In 1953, a prototype designated the T02 was developed by Garrett Corporation with huge success (a year
previous, the application of turbochargers in race engines beat out the production models, as the first
racecars to use turbos debuted in the Indianapolis 500). Caterpillar Inc. placed an order for 5,000 of the
production models known as the T15 to be used in their D9 tractors. It was this contract that led Garrett to
divide their turbocharger group from their Gas Turbine department. Thus, AiResearch Industrial Division of
Garrett, commonly referred to as Garrett-AiResearch was formed. It was the first corporation ever that was
solely dedicated to the design and manufacture of turbochargers.


While 1957 saw the development of the first Heavy Truck using a turbo diesel (nearly all large trucks today
have turbo diesel engines!), it wasn't until 1962 that we saw a production passenger vehicle with a turbo;
the 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire Turbo Rocket. This pioneer churned out 215hp @ 4800rpms. The 215 CID
aluminum V-8 engine was equipped with Garrett-AiResearch's T5 turbo and used a complex system that
actually mixed 50% water with 50% alcohol in a water-injection system to prevent detonation. The
Oldsmobile dealer network was so unprepared for the technology, that they offered a service for 50 dollars
to replace the turbo with a conventional carburetor!

During the next 30 years, huge advancements in turbos were made. 1976 saw Saab Automotive achieve 3-
litre performance in a 2-litre engine; thereby disproving the "no replacement for displacement" argument.
However, the gas crisis effectively curbed more rapid development as emissions laws were passed during
this time that turboed cars had trouble passing. With the advent of electronically controlled engine
management systems, the Japanese and Europeans embraced turbonetics and began churning out higher
performance cars at lower costs than their American predecessors, who spurned the technology.

During the 90's, some of the most widely produced cars were outfitted with turbos. While the demand for
turbos on production lines was enough to tax the manufacturing plants that built turbos, an aftermarket
community was born that involved "tuners" installing turbocharging systems on cars not originally designed
for the induction system While this demand was initially ignored by the companies in the early 90's, they
took heed at this surging market, and have embraced it since.

According to Competitionplus, the auto industry is calling for nearly triple the amount of turbo vehicles on
their production lines in the next 4-5 years. This will translate into an even greater market for products and
add-ons, which could only mean that the technology will only continue to improve. Perhaps the history of
turbos is only beginning...










Sites used for researching this article:

Competitionplus.com - http://www.competitionplus.com/07_31...urbo_tech.html
Renault GT5Turbo - http://freespace.virgin.net/c.coleman/turbhist.htm#top
Auto Japanese Spares - http://www.autojapspares.co.uk/Homep...rgeHistory.htm
About.com "The History of Turbochargers" - http://vintagecars.about.com/library.../aa011500a.htm

Loves it !

Nicely Put

good read, nice work

Excellent read.