Buying a New Car, Turbo, or N/A? Part 2

And in this post, I'll be talking about choosing either a turbo, or n/a. The previous post probably ran out of topic without me realizing when I pen my thoughts down.

For example, we'll take the pocket rocket category. Take for example a 1.6 n/a, and a 1.3 Turbo engine on a same chassis, a Daihatsu Charade Espri.

It is not an issue to use both of these cars as a daily drive car. However, the 1.6 n/a will naturally guzzle more fuel due to it's displacement being a bit on the large side. This may not upset the power to weight ratio for the car, but given the size of the displacement, it will naturally guzzle more fuel comparing to driving a 1.3 turbo off boost. In this situation, we CANNOT take the power to weight ratio into consideration.

On the bright side, on slight tap on the throttle during low revs, the 1.6 will perform better compared to the 1.3, being it suitable for city driving. And as the rev picks up and shoots up, the power of the 1.3 will be immediately transferred to the wheels once the boost kicks in, giving it the extra oomph.

When driven off boost, the 1.3 forced induction engine will give mileage due to it's perfect power to weight ratio, even better than having a 1.0litre engine in it which makes the car underpower (this causes the 1litre engine to overwork itself resulting in high fuel consumption).


Summary :


1.3 Turbo on Chassis X
-Low end not as good as a 1.6
-Much more powerful when the turbo kicks in
-Gives better FC compared to the 1.6
-Not recommended to maintain on high speed on highway unless you can keep it off boost. You don't wanna kill the turbo nor engine as Turbo engines generally run hotter than the n/a engines.


1.6 N/A on Chassis X
-Gives better low end
-Worse FC compared to the 1.3 Turbo
-Not as powerful as the 1.6
-Good to maintain on high speed on highwyas



P/S :
We ain't talking about slapping a turbocharger on that particular 1.6 n/a engine though, another long story :). And we ain't talking about souping up the natural aspirated engine to beat the 1.3 even when it's in full boost, it's possible.