<VV> My Christmas present ( very little vair)

[FrankCB at aol.com]

Perhaps if GM had spent more time developing the  turbo Corvair instead of 
dropping it after 1966 we could have seen many of these  advancements a lot 
sooner.  The developers of the GXP obviously spent  considerable time and effort 
to achieve minimal turbo lag, using a dual  scroll turbo mounted right on the 
end of the exhaust manifold, direct gasoline  injection into the combustion 
chambers as well as variable camshaft  phasing.  Even BMW and Honda are now 
producing advanced  turbo vehicles.  BMW uses 2 small turbos, each one handling 
exhaust  from 3 cylinders of a 6 cylinder inline engine.  Mounting the turbos on 
the  ends of the exhaust manifolds makes a BIG improvement in throttle  
response.  When I insulated the stock pipes from the manifolds to the turbo  on my 
otherwise stock 180, it made a significant reduction in turbo lag as well  as 
raising the boost pressure from 8 to 10 psig on the same long hill I took on  
the way to work every day.  Mounting the turbos so as to completely  ELIMINATE 
the piping from the manifold to the turbo makes a major  improvement in 
reducing turbo lag.
    Many (if not most) of the car mfrs. are beginning  to realize that 
turbocharging their engines can let their customers "have their  cake and eat it 
too" with a small engine getting good mileage that can also  produce major power 
when needed.
    A spinoff company from MIT (_www.ethanolboost.com_ 
(http://www.ethanolboost.com) ) is now promoting  using small engines with turbos that utilize 
direct injection of ethanol as an  anti-detonant so they can run with both high 
boost and high compression ratio as  well as getting high mileage for normal 
driving.  Maybe I should tell them  that WATER has over 3 times the cooling effect 
of ethanol and is a LOT  cheaper and MUCH more readily available.<GGGGGG>  
    Frank "inject water, drink ethanol"  Burkhard 
 
In a message dated 12/20/2006 3:52:16 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
fparker at umich.edu writes:

Well,  you are not the only one. My shiny red Solstice GXP sits in my 
garage. I  now have 532 miles and the diff has broken in enough to have 
some fun. It  handles great and virtually no turbo lag. Amazing how strong 
it is off the  line with a stick and only 2L pulling a 2950 # car.

I only hope the  fuel inj turbo vair motor I am building is 1/2 as  
responsive.

regards,

frank parker

PS: I knoe a number  of engineers who worked on GXP. The motor needs very
little if any break-in  BUT the diff is different. I was told NO WOT for
about 500 mi to allow diff  to break-in. Not a strength issue but if not 
done correctly, you can cause  whine.