why Caterham is blocking?

[skwdenyer]

Gary C said:

moivre said:

a Garry: ..... Compressor technology no longer exists! and has been advantageously replaced by the turbo, even better, the bi-turbo

Errr,

A turbo has a compressor, its the bit driven by the turbine.

The reasons for using an engine driven supercharger are important and goes to the heart of the philosophy of a caterham.

Turbo's have major advantages but throttle response isn't one of them. As such Caterham uses this technology that 'no longer exists' in preference to a turbocharger giving similar power. Loosing out on efficiency and emissions to improved throttle response. Vitally important in a light, high powered car.

As to the 'lol', it wasn't personal but its interesting that anyone can think of engine driven supercharging as old fashioned compared to turbo supercharging.

Also ""All" thermal cars are currently turbocharged, to pass euro6 pollution tests", not true. Yes its a solution that many have chosen to meet the demand for performance and still meet emission targets, but certainly not "All" cars are turbocharged.


Its amusing to think that a number of years ago, people were prophesising the end of the turbocharger because its placement didn't allow catalytic converters to reach light off quick enough in the emissions test. How things change.

So the question remains, do you see the advantages and disadvantages of each solution ?

Edited by Gary C on Wednesday 8th March 12:48

Turbochargers with an added electric motor allow very different throttle response. Or, in the past on much bigger engines, linking the turbo compressor to the crankshaft via gearing and a fluid coupling achieved similar results. Lancia achieved something similar by combining a turbocharger with a supercharger on, for instance, the Delta S4.

[moivre]

there is a "sport" button which acts on the exhaust (the noise changes), and increases about 30 horsepower, to have 237 (240?) horsepower.

I don't have a date on my order for September 2022, and the Caterham garage in France, this month of March 2023, still doesn't know when the 485 car will be accepted again on the EU market.

[BertBert]

I wonder if it's worth contacting caterham in the UK to ask?

If language is a challenge, I'd be happy to give them a quick call for you.

Cheers
Bert

[moivre]

Thank you very much for your idea and suggestion.

But I wanted and was able to cancel my order on thursday . Too many uncertainties, too long ,and exceeding my fixed and fixed budget of mid 2022

[nunuk]

moivre said:

there is a "sport" button which acts on the exhaust (the noise changes), and increases about 30 horsepower, to have 237 (240?) horsepower.

...

Right, there's that button, it leaves the exhaust valve open all the time, and i think the map also has to change because of the delivered power in sport mode (all of it 240bhp) against the 180 without activating it. Or that's what the dealer said to me. But i think it could not comply the EU6 reg. with the sport mode on. Could this be the reason of the matter we're discusing here?

[Gary C]

skwdenyer said:

Turbochargers with an added electric motor allow very different throttle response. Or, in the past on much bigger engines, linking the turbo compressor to the crankshaft via gearing and a fluid coupling achieved similar results. Lancia achieved something similar by combining a turbocharger with a supercharger on, for instance, the Delta S4.

Offside !

Your moving the goalposts off the pitch

But yes, compound supercharging is another very old idea and the McLaren turbo 'in fill' is a nice new idea. The Lancia triflux engine was a bit epic and a plumbing nightmare . A CS Ecoboost though, interesting

But whenever you use the exhaust flow to drive a compressor, your building in a non-linearity and delay in throttle response and thats what we were talking about.

None of which play to Caterhams core values really.

High revving, small(ish) and light.

But the future...

Edited by Gary C on Sunday 26th March 22:47

[moivre]

Nunuk: the button marked "sport" on the dashboard, increases the power by about 30 horses.

The discussion was on: Why Caterham does not use the turbo/twin turbo, (since all the cars have it now), to allow to pass the pollution tests ? And also to avoid customers of the Caterham 485 (240hp) paying a pollution tax CO2 of €20,000 on purchase (!!), in the european union

And being blocked for more than 10 months, because the 485 model is refused for sale because it is too polluting now. And that a turbo allows a better performance AND to pollute less AND to pay much less taxes, AND to pass the anti-pollution tests, AND to increase the power / weight ratio which is the fundamental thing of Caterham

I got my answer here , on this forum on this website , with my thanks : Turbos don't respond fast enough to acceleration, Caterham don't like that