Turbo Stuff
TL;DR Turbo-curious The previous 150 or so posts probably left little doubt about the fact that I'm no mechanic. With that came basically no prior knowledge about the ins and outs of a turbocharged engine. In a nutshell, both turbochargers and superchargers push more air in the combustion chamber than atmospheric pressure alone would allow. A turbo is driven by the exhaust gases, while a supercharger is powered by an accessory belt, stealing engine power from crankshaft (in basic terms : just like the alternator, or better yet, like an AC compressor) . With a boost pressure of 1.3 bar (measured through the OBD port) , the Caterham 170 sees an absolute pressure of 2.3 bars in the intake manifold when full boost is achieved. That forced induction basically turns the puny 658cc block into a 1513cc one. Who's laughing now? Compared to the 0.3 bar boost pressure on supercharged Lotus es , that's quite something. Pushing air then... yes. Like a Nitrous oxide (NOS) ...