In the 21st century, the car is, no doubts, the most common and the most frequently-used vehicle in the world. As the invention of the car by Carl Benz in 1885, it opened up a brand new chapter for human’s vehicles, had profound meanings for human’s lifestyles and changed the future. At the time we, college students, are becoming adults and living far away from the families. The car is really a issue for us, and how to choose a car wisely is quite necessary and related to us. As I go over the models online, I surprisingly found that the movement of replacing the natural aspiration chargers by Turbochargers in all auto brands. The natural aspiration has been developed as a proven technique with stabilization in the autos over the past decades. The giving up of natural aspiration will lead to a revolution of auto’s engine and the abandon of the achievements in Natural aspiration chargers. Why do the brands are willing to make the change?
The one and the most direct reason of the changes is that the fuel-efficiency concerns. In other words, the environmental issues are the barriers of the future of the natural aspiration engines. The governments and legislation of all nations force the vehicles to reduce their emissions, and the turbocharger is their best solution to meet the requirements of the government, as well as produce high performance car to satisfy the consumers. Indeed, the technologies of turbocharger are not as developed as natural aspiration, and their are a lot of advantages from previous cars need to be abandoned. Comparing the best performing vehicles to the future of our environment, no one would ever have doubt to choose the second one, and the question is, is it possible to achieve both?
The BMW, the leader of the natural aspiration engines in the past, is the first one to make the change. They were had tons of V8 or V10 models in the past, and those models had modified by reduced two cylinders in common, and changed the forms into turbo or twin-turbo. And, Audi is an another responder of the revolution. They only keep the natural aspiration on their flagship model (R8), and have modified the rest of the models, pretty much as the same way as BMW does. However, the responds of the consumers are so polarized. The car enthusiasts are so furious and regret about the natural aspiration engines. In their mind, it is the classic engine that what a car should obtain. The exhaust sounds and the acceleration are the two main advantages that the turbochargers can never catch up with, and that’s why the turbochargers is hard to be favored by these enthusiasts.
In the opposite voice of consumers, the turbochargers can provide more powers in the same time to be more fuel efficient. Based on the research of pickuptrucks.com, they compare two identical vehicles but in different types of engines on the road. They are Ford F-150s. The one is obtaining the V6 twin-turbo charger, and the other one is with a V8, natural aspiration engine. And, “the turbo one got better fuel economy with the larger engine, 9.4 mpg for the V8, compared with 7.2 for the V6 turbo.” In its later research, it shows that the longer time they travel, the better advantages of the fuel-efficient will occur, and the better torque and power will also be delivered. It’s absolutely right to switch to the turbocharge in the view of the long time development. In the daily life, 1 Liter of gas saving per week in every city car, can make significant changes for our climate. And, to be honest, the faster acceleration of natural aspiration engine does not have so many places to drive it. A well performance Ferrari on the highway, is really likely to be pulled of by police.
However, there are some exceptions. The Ferrari was not willing to replace their natural aspiration. In the article of the Ferrari’s opinions of the car engine revolution, “We don’t like the turbo, said the man with the Italian accent. Before I could stand up and cheer, he continued, but it’s the right way to reduce emissions without sacrificing performance.” Due to the forced of the government, they replaced their legendary model 458 by 488 GTB, which is the one in turbochargers. They are tring so hard to make the new turbo into “non-turbo” feeling. It’s so absurd. What also interesting is that the price of the new model is lower than before, due to the fuel tax; even though its power and torque have gotten straighten. However, it lost its significant “Ferrari Sound”. In my view, the turbocharger is more like a strong gentleman who acts very gentle but delivers a lot of power later on. The natural aspiration engine is more like a beast, who starts in aggressive condition and shout so loud all along. Therefore, as a controversial model, 488, will be tested by market to see if people can accept a traditional super car to be in the shape of fuel-efficient form.
In long term views, there will be a balance between the emission issues and the driving experience. I really appreciate and surprised by the solution of the Porsche. They produced 918, in half electric engine and in half turbo engine. It brings the fast acceleration at the start off, because the electric power can be delivered much faster than any of engines. Then, the turbocharger can keep delivering horsepower as a normal car. It’s probably a example of the balance and creativity that I mentioned at the beginning. The electric car is the mainstream in the future, and most of the brands have its “hybrid” model already. I believe, as the development of the technology and the raising of our environmental awareness, the car can be in a better performance engine and be in less emission.
Citation:
http://blog.caranddriver.com/the-grim-future-of-the-naturally-aspirated-engine-or-the-turbos-are-winning/
http://my.teslamotors.com/roadster/technology/motor
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/news/a24691/ferrari-engineers-dont-like-turbocharging/
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a24915/ferrari-488-gtb-first-look-and-details/