Latest news with #turbo
Car and Driver
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
View Photos of the 2026 Audi Q3
We are still waiting for official powertrain details for the U.S. market, but Audi confirmed that the Q3 we're getting will come exclusively with a 2.0-liter turbo four.
Car and Driver
07-06-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
View Exterior Photos of the 2025 Toyota 4Runner Limited
Although more powerful hybrid models are available, our 4Runner had the base turbo 2.4-liter four, making 278 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque.
Top Gear
04-06-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Meet the Mannic Beattie: a 600bhp jet-engined hillclimb hero built in a shed
Interview This hillclimb specialist is a record-breaker with a unique turbo. Here's how owner Nic Mann built it in his garage Skip 8 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Nic Mann hands me a turbine blade. This, he says with a gleam in his eye, was originally part of the Rolls-Royce Olympus 593 turbojet that powered Concorde. Nic worked on that fearsome engine during his time at the aerospace giant in the 1970s, and remains transfixed by turbines. So much so that he's used one to circumvent the lag in his hillclimb special, the Mannic Beattie. Except that 'special' doesn't even get close to describing this thing. Nic is supremely modest but his creation is close in spirit and execution to an F1 car. The kicker is, he designed, engineered and built it in his Berkshire garage for about £20k. Advertisement - Page continues below A beloved statesman of the hillclimb scene, Nic transformed his mother's Morris Minor in phases until it was running a turbocharged V8 with throttle modulated nitrous injection to the tune of about 550bhp. It was hooked up to a Jaguar XJ6 driveline and its torque outputs would regularly overwhelm the gearbox. Nic ran a 30.07s up Shelsley Walsh in the Moggie in 1986, only half a second slower than World Rally champion Hannu Mikkola in a works Audi Sport Quattro. Photography: Huckleberry Mountain You might like He sold the Morris in 1990 and used the funds to start the next project. Nic wanted to create a record breaker, and inspired by the Mallock U2 single seater, all the usual parameters came into play – go big on the mechanical grip while reducing the centre of gravity, optimise the weight distribution, minimise the effects of lateral weight transfer. It would be all-wheel drive, have a flat floor and huge wings. After which, Nic headed down a more idiosyncratic path. The engine is a four pot 1.7-litre Cosworth BDT (a staple of many a fast Ford, including the Group B RS200), canted over at 25° on the intake side to help the centre of gravity. That was good for about 400bhp, which meant Nic needed forced induction to make the numbers he wanted. And that meant lag, which he didn't want. Enter a compact gas turbine, originally used as an auxiliary power unit in helicopters. Advertisement - Page continues below Watch the car in action and you'll detect a distinctive whooshing sound as Nic prepares to launch himself up a hill. That's the turbine, spinning at 90,000rpm. It's started by compressed air using an external starter but only after the main engine has been fired up. An ingenious but complex solution, my head spins almost as fast as the turbine as Nic explains how it works. Basically, it runs separately from the ICE and delivers air to it at a constant pressure independent of the main engine speed. Ergo, zero lag, and an overall power output of 600bhp (give or take). The transmission is from the Ford Sierra XR4x4, a tidy setup that features epicyclic transfer gear and a viscous coupling. The front and rear diffs are from a Lotus Elan, the front suspension uprights a MkII VW Golf GTI, the rears from a Ralt single seater. Nic fabricated the chassis from CDS steel tubing, and laid up the composite panels on the front wings himself. Yep, that's homemade carbon fibre. The big aero parts are made of sheet aluminium, the sidepods of birch plywood. You'll detect a whooshing sound, that's the turbine spinning at 90,000rpm When Nic became acquainted with former BAR and Ferrari F1 aerodynamicist Willem Toet, himself a successful hillclimber, it helped finesse his instincts on downforce. He also verified his thinking using F1 grade computational fluid dynamics tools (thanks to Miqdad Ali). Which is how Nic's home brew racer ended up with a blown rear diffuser that helps drop the ride height by 40mm at 140mph, a high rake stance not dissimilar to the 2021 Red Bull RB16, and an aerodynamic centre of pressure that would get Adrian Newey's attention. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. At 100mph, it produces well over its own weight in downforce, Nic says, so somewhere in the region of 750kg. The car has also set and broken all sorts of records, and holds the Shelsley specials record with a time of 25.47 seconds. That the man is still chasing tenths at the age of 73 is just as impressive. 'But it's time to hand it over to someone else, which is one of the reasons I'm talking to you,' he says a little ruefully. 'If anyone gets in touch, let me know.' Top Gear is happy to help...
Top Gear
30-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 review: America's most powerful V8 production car ever Reviews 2025
Yep. Next question. I'm going to need more than that. Let's start with the engine, because it's ridiculous isn't it? Where Aston Martin, McLaren and Ferrari have had to hybridise to cross the mythical barrier into four figure power outputs, Corvette just took the Z06's 5.5-litre V8 and bolted on a pair of turbos. And yee-hah there you have it – 670bhp becomes 1,064bhp. 200bhp extra from each turbo. Mad world. Of course not. The engine is so different it now has an entirely new designation: LT7 rather than LT6. The compression ratio and rev limit has been dropped to aid torque, the conrod fractionally shorter to leave a bigger combustion chamber, the piston head dished out more. The crankshaft has been rebalanced, the heads are new, as is the entire intake and exhaust system. It is – and this is the easy thing to overlook when talking about American V8s – a genuinely exotic powerplant. That also happens to sport a pair of the largest turbos ever fitted to a production car. The 76mm monoscroll blowers are better for peak power and Corvette claims to have largely eliminated lag with valve timing to keep engine cylinder pressure high when you lift off. Another claim to fame: the most powerful production V8 ever made in America. God bless the US of A. Give me more engine facts! The turbos spin at up to 137,000rpm (that's 2,283 rotations per second ) and at that speed the turbo tips are travelling at 1.7 times the speed of sound. The impellers get to two-thirds of the belly temperature of the Space Shuttle on re-entry and so close are the turbos mounted to the exhaust manifold that the air going into them is still on fire. Flat out, the engine demands two gallons of fuel per minute. Expressed another way it downs a pint every 4.5 seconds. Cheers. Maximum torque stands at 828lb ft available anywhere from 3,000-6,000rpm. 0-60mph takes 2.3s, it's through the quarter mile in 9.6s at 150mph and maximum speed – as the boss himself discovered late last year – is 233mph. Correct, all that power and fury is fed through a pair of 345-width Michelin PS4S rear tyres. Or Cup 2Rs, if you spec the ZTK package. This brings grip: both mechanical (the almost-slick, yet still somehow road legal, tyres, plus stiffer springs and bespoke magnetic ride control) and aerodynamic (the whacking great rear wing is balanced with extra aero work at the front). Actual maximum downforce isn't particularly impressive given how massive that rear wing is – just 444kg at 186mph. A GT3 RS produces close to double that number. Look underneath, there's not much of a rear diffuser to pull the back end down. You have to choose your weapon. Want a fast lap and the most fearsome acceleration? Have the ZTK package. Want the 233mph max? You'll need the regular car without the draggy tail. You can also choose between hard top and convertible. The latter adds 45kg, but the former still has a lift-out roof panel. Every ZR1 can be open air, it's just a question of whether you're up for a bit of manual labour. You'd have thought so, but the all-aluminium ZR1 is commendably stiff. Corvette positions the ZR1 as being a little softer than the naturally aspirated Z06, less snatchy at the limit which, let's face it, is just as well when you've got this much power on tap.
Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Our car's turbo failed after only a year. Should we be liable for the bill?
Dear Alex, When the turbo failed on our second-hand Nissan X-Trail, an approved dealer repaired it at a cost of £3,319.36. One year and only 8,000 miles later, the turbo has failed again. The dealer originally quoted £4,320 to repair it, and then reduced this to £2,956.63. Citizens Advice suggested we are entitled to a free repair, but the dealer refuted this, claiming that since the first turbo failed after we had used the car for six months, it's not its responsibility. It has also taken back its courtesy car, leaving us carless with young children, and demanded that we remove the car from its premises, forcing us to hire a tow-truck. Is this fair? –JB Dear JB, I think this is an example of deplorably poor customer service from the dealer. Like most manufacturers, Nissan offers a parts warranty of a year; to my mind, the turbo failure should have been covered under this guarantee – meaning it should have been sorted without any further quibbling. How long you owned the car before it was first replaced should have no bearing on that, so I don't quite understand the dealer's reasoning, unless it was implying that there was another, pre-existing issue that was causing the turbo to fail – though there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that. While you were negotiating with the service department, it asked you to return its courtesy car, with no offer of a longer-term replacement, and then demanded that you fork out for a tow-truck to have your own car removed. Not only a deeply unsympathetic move, in my opinion, but a borderline malicious one, as it piled pressure on to you to make a decision. You did the right thing by holding out and seeking professional advice; for other readers stuck in a standoff such as this, Citizens Advice and the Motor Ombudsman are great resources that can offer free advice with a sound basis in consumer law, assisting to resolve such situations. Unfortunately, the dealer still wasn't swayed. So when you contacted me, I took up your case with Nissan, asking whether it stood by its dealer's customer service. While Nissan didn't comment on that per se, it did promise to investigate. After some time, Nissan told me that the company's own customer service team had stepped in to help resolve the case. You then told me you had received a phone call with an offer to get the car towed to the dealer and repaired free of charge, which was the outcome you desired. 'We always place a priority on the satisfaction of our customers and aim to help where we can,' said Nissan's spokesman. 'When we became aware of this issue on an eight-year-old vehicle, although it was well outside of its original warranty period, we were happy to support the customer and resolve the problem to their satisfaction.' You have since confirmed that the work has been completed and that the dealer has carried out additional, unrelated repairs at no cost to you, as a gesture of goodwill. As a result, you're satisfied with the resolution.
