Who invented the Turbo and what was the first car that applied it

Car fans have surely wondered who invented the turbo and what was the first car to apply it. Perhaps not everyone knows that this component, which made it possible to increase the specific power of today’s engines, was invented more than a century ago by a Swiss engineer named Alfred Buchi. The brilliant idea occurred to the technician just as he was studying steam turbines. The possibility of using wasted energy, such as that contained in the exhaust gases coming out of the engine, was tempting and this found almost immediate application in the aircraft engines of the time. In this regard, we recall that Buchi filed his own patent on November 16, 1905, but that only at the end of the First World War was a practical application of the turbocharger concept seen. In fact, General Electric equipped a Liberty V-12 engine with a supercharger unit.

WHAT DID THE OTHER BRANDS DO?

Beginning in the 1950s, major engine manufacturers such as Volvo, Scania, and Cummins began experimenting with turbocharged truck engines, using turbochargers supplied by Elliot and Eberspächer. However, these early projects were unsuccessful due to the large size of these units. The German engineer, Kurt Beirer, developed a new, more compact design which was later taken over by the Schwitzer Corporation. Thus, in 1954, both Cummins and Volvo were able to offer a wide range of turbodiesel engines.

TURBO IN EUROPE

The turbocharger was also established in Europe, where some famous manufacturers adopted it for cars whose mark remains indelible in world motor history. Take, for example, the 1974 Porsche 911 Turbo, or the 1973 BMW 2002, or even Saab’s long tradition in these types of engine applications.

There are several doubts as to which was the first car that had a turbocharger, some say that the BMW 2002, others that the Saab 99, others that the Chevrolet Corvair…

It should be remembered that the turbocharger is a machine that was invented in the twenties of the last century, by Sanford Moss, due to the fact that airplanes increasingly reached higher altitudes and engines lost a lot of performance when the density of the intake air decreased.

THE FIRST OF THE FIRST

The first to make a turbo effective in a road car was Oldsmobile in 1962. This system, used until then exclusively in large diesel engines, was created by the specialist Garrett.

Oldsmobile Jetfire Rocket (1962) – the first turbocharged car