Viva Italia Concours D’Elegance Turbocharged Fun To Benefit The Children’s Guild 09-27-2009
VIVA ITALIA Concours D’Elegance, a turbo charged fundraiser for The Children’s Guild, fills the streets of Harbor East with Mid-Atlantic Italian cars and motorcycles.
So you ask, what is a turbocharger?
The word turbo derives from the Latin word turba, which in turn comes from a Greek word that means bustle, whirl, turmoil, disorder or tumult.
A turbocharger, or turbo, is a device used to increase the mass of air entering into an internal combustion engine through the compression of air into the forced induction system.
A naturally aspirated engine uses only the downward stroke of the piston to draw air into the cylinders, just as a person’s lungs fill through inhalation. The air is sucked in to the chamber through the intake valves as a result of an area of low pressure created by the increased open area in the cylinder.
The turbocharger employs a small radial fan or turbine driven by the flow and heat of exhaust gases. The heat energy of the exhaust activates the turbine, which shares a shaft with a compressor. This operation compresses ambient air and delivers it to the air intake manifold at high pressure. The result is a larger volume of air entering each cylinder leading to increased power. The increased air mass brings in more oxygen and can be mixed with a higher volume of fuel. These increases create more power and torque output.
The Swiss engineer, Alfred Buchi, is credited with the invention of the turbocharger. His first patent was applied for in 1905. By the 1920’s diesel ships and locomotives were built with turbochargers. The first automobile to feature a turbo was produced by the “Schweizer Maschinenfabrik Saurer” (Swiss Machine Works Saurer) in 1938 as a turbo-diesel truck.
General Motors introduced the first mass produced turbocharged auto engines in 1962 with the A-body Oldsmobile Cutlass Jetfire and the Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder. Mercedes-Benz launched the 300SD as the world’s first mass production turbo-diesel in 1978.
Mr. Tire presents VIVA ITALIA Concours D’Eleganceon September 27, 2009 in the Harbor East community of Baltimore. Italian cars and motorcycles from throughout the mid-Atlantic will join forces to support The Children’s Guild.
