Celebrate the rebirth of the worlds most stunning high-performance automobile.Porsche made history when it brought turbocharging to the racing world in the form of the 917. When strict regulations regarding engine displacement took away the option of bigger engines, manufacturers turned to forced induction. In its wildest trim, the original 12-cylinder turbocharged Porsche racing engine yielded as much as 1,400 horsepower! Porsches official philosophy was that racing cars must have a connection to street cars, so it was preordained that Porsche would eventually produce a turbocharged version of its air-cooled flat-six cylinder engine.The resulting 930 Turbo appeared in the spring of 1975 in Europe. Acceleration from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour took a scant 5.5 seconds, and its top speed was 155 miles per hour. The Turbos distinctive rear wing let the world know that this was something very special. It was nothing less than the rebirth of the high-performance automobile. At a time when the big-block engines in Americas so-called «muscle cars» were putting out 180 horsepower and the engines in exotic supercars werent much more ambitious, the lightweight Porsche was a genuine rocket.Porsche Turbo: The Inside Story of Stuttgarts Turbocharged Road and Race Cars celebrates Porsches five decades of turbocharged supercar performance, both on the track and on the street. It covers all of the major racing cars as well as the turbocharged street cars, including the 930, 935, 924, 944, 968, 911, and Cayenne Panamera.
Author(s): Randy Leffingwell
Publisher: Motorbooks
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 259
City: Minneapolis
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 6
Chapter One: THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE, 8
Chapter Two: WHAT IS TURBOCHARGING AND HOW DOES IT WORK?, 28
Chapter Three: FROM HOMOLOGATION SPECIAL TO KEY COMPONENT, 32
Chapter Four: FROM HOMOLOGATION SPECIAL TO FLEET FLAGSHIP, 46
Chapter Five: PARALLEL UNIVERSES: RACING TURBOS IN 1975 AND 1976, 60
Chapter Six: BODIES IN ORBIT: AROUND RACING CIRCUITS, 1977 TO 1981, 76
Chapter Seven: INNOVATION AND EVOLUTION: LATE 1970s TO MID-1980s, 92
Chapter Eight: NEW REGULATIONS, MORE OPPORTUNITIES, 106
Chapter Nine: OTHER OPTIONS, OPEN WHEELS, 122
Chapter Ten: ROAD-GOING INNOVATION: THE LATE 1970s TO LATE 1980s, 132
Chapter Eleven: TAKING THE LONG LINE TO SOME INTERESTING CONCLUSIONS, 146
Chapter Twelve: TURBOS FOR EVERYONE: THE 1990s, 156
Chapter Thirteen: RACING IN THE 1990s, 170
Chapter Fourteen: PORSCHES BY ANOTHER NAME, 182
Chapter Fifteen: TURBOS ON AND OFF-ROAD: THE 2000s, 188
Chapter Sixteen: INCREASING COMPLEXITY, IMPROVING PERFORMANCE, 202
Chapter Seventeen: WHEN ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY BECOMES A PRODUCT NAME, 218
Chapter Eighteen: SPINNING OFF BOOST FOR VOLTAGE, 230
Chapter Nineteen: REDEFINING A CLASSIC, 240
INDEX, 252