What is a turbo

A turbo is a turbine driven by exhaust gasses that forces fresh air into the engine at a faster rate and substantially increases the efficiency of the engine.

As you need fuel, heat and oxygen to cause combustion you will get more combustions if you can supply more fuel and oxygen, the turbo is a great provider of more oxygen rich air.

How do they work?

The exhaust gases force a turbine to turn which is connected to another turbine which sucks air into the engine.

The air is forced in to the engine at a higher pressure and as more air carries more oxygen it is possible to make large power gains.

This site offers an indepth look at turbos and shows the best way of tuning them and getting more power from them.

The official definition of a turbo is :-
A turbocharger is an exhaust-gas driven forced induction device used in internal combustion engines to improve engine performance by forcing compressed air into the combustion chambers, allowing more fuel to be burned, resulting in a larger power output.

The only definition you really need is "a turbo is a chunk of metal pipes that makes your car significantly faster."

This site will show you how the turbo works, what the main components are and how to tune them and improve your turbo.

With so many new cars being produced with turbos we now have fantastic scope to increase the power of our cars.

Early F1 cars managed to extract 1500bhp from 1600cc engines thanks to clever turbocharging. In the real world you need a car to be reliable and for the power delivery to be linear and smooth.

Turbos have also helped many manufacturers meet modern emissions regulations and standards.

Turbo technology has moved at quite a pace with twincharging, twin turbos, big turbo conversions, ceramic and cryo treated components and hybridisation. All have their advantages and disadvantages so we will discuss these in detail helping you to decide which forced induction solution works best for you.