Why do turbos need time to “spool up” before they can have a significant power boost?
In: Engineering
It’s because they spin so fast. The turbo in your car has a typical operating speed of 20,000rpm, and it takes time to spin the assembly up to those sort of speeds. You can make that process faster by making the turbo smaller, but that also makes the turbo less effective, so there’s a compromise in the design there.
(Note some cars use two turbos–a smaller one that spins up quickly to give more immediate power delivery, and a larger one that takes time to spin up to provide maximum power over a longer time).
Latest Answers