So do you know how to drive a turbo?

[shah269]

So do you know how to drive a turbo?
Was the discussion question I had with a friend today over lunch. Back in the day you had to really know how to drive a turbo charged car and make it sing.
Case in point you would come into a corner under engine breaking so that you had boost to be able to punch out.
And when you were on the highway you would find that sweet spot and let her just cruse for hours sipping on gas.
And when you got home you use to have to let her sit for a solid min or two to help cool the turbo. And the same for turning them on. You had to wait a min or two for things to get lubed up and sexy!
But all that is a non issue.

Turn it on, press play on the Ipod and drive hard.
Any gear any turn no problems the computer will adjust the boost for you!

You know in a way being able to drive a turbo well was a badge of honor....now it's just....so what.

[ejm3]

Not sure I necessarily agree with this. Power delivery in my 135 is different than in a NA engine. Not tremendously different but different. It helps if you know where to keep the RPM's to keep the boost going.

[08LMB135i]

Sounds like a buncha complainin' to me!

[shah269]

It's gotten to easy to be cool!
What next automatic transmission on motorcycles.....oh wait!

[Experimental]

Originally Posted by shah269

Turn it on, press play on the Ipod and drive hard.
Any gear any turn no problems the computer will adjust the boost for you!

You know in a way being able to drive a turbo well was a badge of honor....now it's just....so what.

I don't really see it as being a "so what." Throttle control is a big deal coming out of corners, unless, you know, you like the back end of your car ahead of the front. This goes double for tuned cars.

Knowledge of where the RPM sweet spot is, gear selections, etc. all affect performance if you are trying to get every ounce of power out of the car.

I also see it as a reliability issue with turbo vehicles. Much less chance of damaging the turbos or engine.

This is the world we live in...

Oh, and on more than a couple of occasions after leaving a stop light and the turbos spool, I've had other drivers catch up to me at the next stop light and ask if my car had turbos. It goes a little something like this:

"Is that car turbocharged?!?!"
"Yes. In fact, twin turbos."
"Damn! "

[ChristianReyess]

I used to have to do all that with my 95' twin turbo'd eclipse gsx

Now that I have an automatic (not really by choice, I got a fully loaded white 135; m package, every package for 24,500 with 30k miles) I feel that I don’t have to do any of that for my car. Except for knowing where my rpms are, and make sure I’m at my sweet spot

I might feel like that because it’s an auto now though.... probably, it’s my first auto.

[CGMike]

Originally Posted by ChristianReyess

I used to have to do all that with my 95' twin turbo'd eclipse gsx

Now that I have an automatic (not really by choice, I got a fully loaded white 135; m package, every package for 24,500 with 30k miles) I feel that I don’t have to do any of that for my car. Except for knowing where my rpms are, and make sure I’m at my sweet spot

I might feel like that because it’s an auto now though.... probably, it’s my first auto.

What? You had a twin turbo Eclipse? What turbos did you have on it?

[wsquared]

Before I bought my 135, I drove a Mitsubishi Evo. That thing was an absolute beast - whiplash-inducing acceleration straight through corners. Absolutely gut wrenching.

But....it has bigger turbos strapped onto a high-revving 4 banger to make HP number just a little lower than a 135. Which means that you did indeed need to be conscious of whether the turbo was spooled enough to provide boost when you wanted acceleration. It was easy to do with a DCT....but I prefer the easy availability of bottom end grunt that the N55 provides.

You still need to know "how to drive a turbo"....but turbocharging technology has come a long way from the bad old days. Powerbands are wider, and turbo lag is less of an issue than it used to be.

[Zombie1]

Originally Posted by wsquared

Before I bought my 135, I drove a Mitsubishi Evo. That thing was an absolute beast - whiplash-inducing acceleration straight through corners. Absolutely gut wrenching.

But....it has bigger turbos strapped onto a high-revving 4 banger to make HP number just a little lower than a 135. Which means that you did indeed need to be conscious of whether the turbo was spooled enough to provide boost when you wanted acceleration. It was easy to do with a DCT....but I prefer the easy availability of bottom end grunt that the N55 provides.

You still need to know "how to drive a turbo"....but turbocharging technology has come a long way from the bad old days. Powerbands are wider, and turbo lag is less of an issue than it used to be.

[Dackelone]

Can we skip to part two... How to turn off a turbocharged engine!

[Diver]

The only thing you have to watch out for is when driving a DCT equipped car in the automatic mode the transmission is a bit slow to downshift which can leave you in too high a gear to smartly accelerate when slowing down. The solution is to use the manual mode or temporary manual mode with the paddels.

[1911A145]

Originally Posted by shah269

So do you know how to drive a turbo?
Was the discussion question I had with a friend today over lunch. Back in the day you had to really know how to drive a turbo charged car and make it sing.
Case in point you would come into a corner under engine breaking so that you had boost to be able to punch out.
And when you were on the highway you would find that sweet spot and let her just cruse for hours sipping on gas.
And when you got home you use to have to let her sit for a solid min or two to help cool the turbo. And the same for turning them on. You had to wait a min or two for things to get lubed up and sexy!
But all that is a non issue.

Turn it on, press play on the Ipod and drive hard.
Any gear any turn no problems the computer will adjust the boost for you!

You know in a way being able to drive a turbo well was a badge of honor....now it's just....so what.

Not really unless you were the person to cheap out on everything. Its all the same to me.

Car companys are doing it right, the first time, at the factory when adding a turbo charger system to a vehicle. They do things like add water and oil lines, adjust for boost through the ECU, etc.

"back in the day" many people bought (and still do) crappy turbo chargers or did things half-ass when it came to hooking everything up that they made short cuts. If you "payed to play" then you would know to buy a quality turbo charger like precision, garret, turbonetics, etc. You would actually hook up the coolant and oil lines on the turbo. You would purchase a turbo timer and set it for the proper shut down time if you shut down right after WOT boost. You would get the car professionally tuned with a complete stand alone ECU unit and not half-ass a piggy back system. You would use something a little more advanced than a manual, ebay boost controller in-line one of the hoses.

I could go on forever but if you were "that guy" that was always under his hood because he was a cheap ass and did everything the cheap way then yes, you would have a hard time keeping your car reliable and fast. IDK, could just be me and the way I was raised around cars... you get what you pay for.

My point is... that no, I dont remember the way things use to be because nothing has changed much in terms of turbo charging a car. Its all relative to me.

[ErvGotti]

This is a dumb question. Every engine be it turbo'd or N/A or supercharged will have a different power curve. It's like saying do you know how to drive an N/A engine? The power curve in an M3 V8 S65 will be different than a Corvette V8 LS3 just like the power curve in an N54 I6TT will be different than a 4G63 I4T. And of course all of this changes as soon as you start modding the car.

Then you have to consider the gearing in each vehicle which will affect how the power is put to the ground. The real question you should have asked, is do you know how to drive your car properly.

[1911A145]

Originally Posted by ErvGotti

This is a dumb question. Every engine be it turbo'd or N/A or supercharged will have a different power curve. It's like saying do you know how to drive an N/A engine? The power curve in an M3 V8 S65 will be different than a Corvette V8 LS3 just like the power curve in an N54 I6TT will be different than a 4G63 I4T. And of course all of this changes as soon as you start modding the car.

Then you have to consider the gearing in each vehicle which will affect how the power is put to the ground. The real question you should have asked, is do you know how to drive your car properly.

[vanbmw]

I say total moot point with our engine. I had a porsche 944 turbo S cup car I used to race. That thing had HUGE turbo lag. You had to be always aware of revs and boost or you could get left in the dust by a Honda civic. You had to get onto the power too early in a corner in anticipation of the boost building so you would be just getting onto the boost at the exit of the corner. Too late getting on the power and the car had nothing out of the corner. Too early onto the throttle and you could spin. Once it got on the boost it hit hard!
Having said that...it was one seriously fun track car. I found the mental game of the turbo lag fun and it had serious power high in the rev range. I did a season in a Audi A4. A very competent track car but BORING!
I find the 135 motor very easy to drive but it still has good power. No thinking involved about boost!

[eazyefromli]

My experience in older turbo cars: Just keep it a gear lower than you normally would when driving quickly. As long as your revs are high and you are in boost, you have the fun power that you bought a turbo car for. With the 1 on the other hand, it's stupid easy and you can drive it pretty much like any N/A car thanks to the massive torque at such low RPM's.

This is coming from owning a few older Saab turbos, including the incredibly fun 9000 Aero, which had some of the worst turbo lag you can imagine (and the absolute worst torque steer I've ever experienced), but pulled like you wouldn't believe in boost, and an Audi UR-S6 which had a very similar power band. With the less torquey turbo VW's I've owned the turbo is small enough that the lag is minimal, you just need to remember to downshift before a turn or you'll have to fight your way out of it.

[Ash83]

it is always a good practice to drive your Turbo car slow the last mile or two before you get home..