With advancing technical insight, we have become increasingly better able to control complex systems over the years. Nevertheless, a lot of modern technology has its roots in the past, including the turbo engine.
Turbo! In the meantime, there is almost no house, garden and kitchen car available that does not have one, usually quite anonymous as well. It is almost unimaginable that the five-letter word had an almost magical sound in the last decades of the last century and stood for pure performance. Porsche and Renault, among others, perform well in racing with turbo engines – Porsche in long-distance racing, Renault in Formula 1. It is also these two brands that make the transition in the 1970s to bring the turbo from the circuit to the street. . The 911 Turbo is still a household name and the R5 Turbo has now a legendary status. Yet the turbo is not a 1970s invention.
First in trucks
Already in the early days of the car, people have been working on improving the performance of the engine, better breathing is seen as a possible solution. As a result, Gottlieb Daimler patented a mechanically driven pump as early as 1885 to force air into a combustion engine. A patent for an exhaust-gas-powered turbo was not issued until 1905 to the Swiss engineer Alfred Büchi, who in those days headed the development department of the Sulzer brothers’ engine factory. Büchi mainly deals with diesel engines there.
Alpha 24 HP
Over the years, the turbo has been used in planes, ships and trains, in the car the turbo is not really necessary in those days. Turbo technology is still quite vulnerable and there is still much to be gained in other areas, not least by building larger engines. Nevertheless, according to some sources, Alfa Romeo (then ALFA) is already experimenting with turbos for the 24 HP in 1910. However, we find nothing of this in official documents. Only when the Swiss truck manufacturer Saurer starts building trucks with turbo diesel engines in 1938 do we encounter the first turbochargers on the street. Although it will take almost a quarter of a century before we will also see it in passenger cars.
Oldsmobile Jetfire
In passenger cars
It was not until model year 1962 that the GM daughters Oldsmobile and Chevrolet each come up with a turbo engine. Chevrolet is just two weeks earlier with the Corvair Spyder Turbo than Oldsmobile with the F-85 Jetfire Turbo. In the Corvair, a Thompson-derived turbo boosts the power of the 2.4 liter six-cylinder boxer engine in the rear from 102 to 150 hp, while the power of the 3.5 liter V8 in the F-85 is boosted by a Garrett turbo. 185 to 215 hp. The turbo technology is not a great success, most of the 9,607 F-85’s Jetfire Turbo sold are subsequently stripped of their turbo and fitted with larger carburettors. Only with the first oil crisis in 1973 does the development of cars with turbo engines gain momentum, when it turns out to be a substitute for cubic inches.
In 1977, the Mercedes-Benz S-class (W116) became the first passenger car with a turbo diesel engine, the 300 SD.
This article previously appeared in Techzle Classics # 2 from 2014.