’V8 with Supercharger!’ I win!

If you were at school in the late Seventies, chances are that if I suddenly shout “V8 with supercharger!” you will groan and realise that you have just lost a hand at Top Trumps. An essential part of any scholar’s equipment, along with a shatterproof ruler and compass with interchangeable points (what were they thinking?), a dog-eared packet of Top Trumps was a vital part of any school bus trip, wet lunch hour or even a method to settle disputes peacefully – sort of.

Highly collectable, they were also informative, with thousands of us even now probably still able to quote the maximum speed of a Lockheed SR71 Blackbird or the size of a Mustang’s engine. A favourite pack was ‘Supercars’. 30 or 40 cards featuring the top supercars of the era complete with stats. The game would rattle along as we bartered speed for CC, horsepower for seats. The only glitch was a killer card which had ‘V8 with Supercharger’ as engine description. It was unbeatable, and once you had it, you knew you couldn’t lose. I’m sure the packs are better balanced today, but in the late 70’s the cry of ‘V8 with Supercharger’ was the ultimate winning taunt.

It also engrained into a generation the unbeatable attraction of the really big car engine. Huge blocks of metal lowered menacingly into a groaning chassis; great pistons and thirsty carburettors combusting petrol and air in an explosion of raw power. Sorry, but size really does matter (sometimes…)

But is it really practical to continue building these behemoths of the road? Technological progressions have introduced a whole raft of materials and techniques which would have been unthinkable thirty years ago. Even though manufacturers have improved performance immensely in the large engines, morally does it make sense to drive big when reducing the size of an engine can be just as good, especially if performance can continue?

When it comes to downsizing engines for reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions the automotive research and development engineers at Antonov reckon a simple dual-speed mechanical approach is the optimum solution when considering supercharging. “Two speeds are better than one,” says Chris Baylis operations director at Antonov Automotive Technologies based at Warwick in the UK. “And two speeds are enough – particularly when considering the cost, weight, packaging and vehicle refinement implications for high volume car production.”

This was the key message from Baylis in a presentation delivered to motor industry experts attending a major automotive exposition taking place last week in Stuttgart in Germany. Baylis addressed the subject at an open technology forum on supercharging and engine downsizing.

“Motorists have come to expect a certain level of performance from their vehicles,” said Baylis, “and while as an industry we strive for ever lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions we have to keep driver expectations and vehicle performance in mind when making engines smaller. “Car makers are increasingly looking at superchargers to enhance the performance of small engines. Unlike turbochargers there are no heat issues to manage, and the study of exhaust gases can then be assigned to energy recovery systems.”

Using the dual-speed approach, Antonov believes that car makers could also halve the size of the engine for any particular application with a dramatic reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions. When you consider that the standard car engine has remained the same physical size for over half a century, this could revolutionise motoring.

“A 25 to 50 per cent reduction in engine size seems feasible for road vehicles,” says Baylis. “The dual-speed supercharging solution certainly delivers the performance and, importantly for road cars, maintains excellent driveability…the ability of a dual-speed supercharger to operate as a passive device without the need for sophisticated and expensive electronic control systems or hydraulic actuators means low cost, high efficiency and simplicity of application.”

With three dual-speed supercharger studies currently being pursued by Antonov, the development is sure to make waves. An engine downsizing application for a typical family car, an aftermarket application already in production for high performance vehicles and a performance enhancement application for off-road vehicles with relatively poor class performance are projects I will be keeping my eye on with interest.

Who knows, a few years from now someone will play Top Trumps, and the unbeatable card in the Supercars pack will be a ‘1.0 Litre TDCI with Supercharger!’ Not quite the same ring though.

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