are NA engines fun?

Author
Discussion

rubez

Original Poster:

118 posts

116 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
coming from driving turbocharged cars delivering "big power" it's hard to imagine something being as fun as shifting down a couple of gears, spooling your turbo and planting it - what would doing the same feel like in a NA engine?

what is the NA experience like in general? (both when giving the beans and normal driving)

one thing though, wouldn't miss turbos breaking down on me.. or do NA engines have their own pitfalls?

rubez

Original Poster:

118 posts

116 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
so what are they like? smoother, bigger or more usable power band? more refined, less hooligan obviously.

what are they like down low?

rubez

Original Poster:

118 posts

116 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
no. thinking of going from a 370bhp 2.0L turbo to a 270bhp 3.5L NA. i know it will be a big performance drop, but then the car costs half the price.

worried it won't have much overtaking grunt for one.

rubez

Original Poster:

118 posts

116 months

Friday 14th April 2017
quotequote all
hmm... if you have to wait nervously for your turbo to "drop", you are in the wrong gear or something, i don't know.

but in my scooby, it redlined @ 8000rpm. if i wanted to overtake someone who was already going at a fair clip, i'd shift down a couple of gears, fully spool the turbo past the point where it *would* engage - but keep the gas pedal *just* above the dipping point where it needs to be before it will actually engage... then, the second you plant the gas pedal (when you have an opening) you have instant massive power to overtake the other person like they were standing still. i always cringe when i see people slowly overtaking someone else. if the other driver can look over and see the whites of your eyes when your overtaking, you have no business overtaking biggrin

with a small amount of experience, you know the exact nanosecond that the power will drop on your turbo. hardly the nervous "wait and see" experience people are claiming. you just need to manage your gears and accelerator... it's called driving smile

as such, i always thought turbocharged cars were they ones that made you work for it, now people are saying it's NA engines? i assumed a decent-sized NA was big power always on tap, despite the gear.

Edited by rubez on Friday 14th April 10:20