The Spaceman_imp said:
The ferret_imp said:
Spaceman..factory turbos from the big 4 never delivered like people imagine ( I think it was blamed on low boost pressure if memory serves me) they were uglier, heavier, more complicated and more expensive than their normally aspirated counterparts and were not that much faster.
Yes, that was true three decades ago, but turbo and controller technology has changed dramatically in the meantime. Car tech has driven it, but it's trickling down to bikes. I'm expecting to see lightweight, powerful 2 and 3 cylinder turbo bike engines that put out power comparable to displacements twice their size.
Here's an excerpt from an interesting article on the Recursion:
At the heart of this prototype is a newly developed, 588cc, water-cooled, parallel twin with a turbocharger and intercooler tucked beneath the shapely fuel tank. Turbocharging is a simple concept. A small turbine, driven by exhaust gases, force-feeds pressurized air into the combustion chamber to boost power. Forced induction hugely increases the power-per-liter equation. Here Suzuki claims 100 hp at 8,000 rpm and a remarkable peak-torque figure of 74 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm. These numbers suggest ample power spread across a broad rev range, which would make this a fast and easy-to-ride machine.
Read more:
Suzuki Recursion Concept | UP TO SPEED
Yes, that was true three decades ago, but turbo and controller technology has changed dramatically in the meantime. Car tech has driven it, but it's trickling down to bikes. I'm expecting to see lightweight, powerful 2 and 3 cylinder turbo bike engines that put out power comparable to displacements twice their size.
Here's an excerpt from an interesting article on the Recursion:
At the heart of this prototype is a newly developed, 588cc, water-cooled, parallel twin with a turbocharger and intercooler tucked beneath the shapely fuel tank. Turbocharging is a simple concept. A small turbine, driven by exhaust gases, force-feeds pressurized air into the combustion chamber to boost power. Forced induction hugely increases the power-per-liter equation. Here Suzuki claims 100 hp at 8,000 rpm and a remarkable peak-torque figure of 74 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm. These numbers suggest ample power spread across a broad rev range, which would make this a fast and easy-to-ride machine.
Read more:
Suzuki Recursion Concept | UP TO SPEED
I thought that the crux of VTR1000F's initial post was that this would be a private, or hobbyist, project. If factory R and D is involved then, dollars aside, easy peasy! Just throw money into developing new materials and technologies and finally, but not certainly, a result will be had. If there is a " green" consequence involved then, in all likelihood, turbos will be developed for motorcycles. But first a lot of difficulties need to be overcome.
Supercharger technology is something I've experienced first hand. Supercharged aero engines were developed to a high degree of sophistication. For very obvious atmospheric reasons they had to be. Aircrew operating large supercharged compound radial engines would have more engine failures in five years than five, or even fifty, modern era pilots, operating modern turbine engines, would have in five lifetimes! Problem? Well, with the materials available, to achieve lightweight devices meant a certain "fragility".
Turbo charging Diesel engines is a practical proposition especially large truck type engines (trains were amongst the first successful candidates for turbos in the '50/60s). Stationary engines, of all sizes, are great examples of successful turbocharging. But even now, as Cormanus and others have experienced, existing turbo diesel technologies for light private vehicles have been less than ideal. Power for weight, disregarding other efficiencies, is still disappointing and good old turbo lag, even when badged KOMPRESSOR, still laughs at us.
Solution? Well as Spaceman suggests, new technologies may be just around the corner. If you don't believe that is possible then you'd still be standing on the sands of Kittyhawk mumbling "I told Wilbur, and I told Orville, it will never fly." Meanwhile an F16 and an A380 fill the sky with sound, drowned out by all that thunder from Canaveral.
Cheers.
