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Old 05-18-2009, 01:36 PM   #6 (permalink)
some_other_dave
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There are a couple of gasoline-powered cars that do not have traditional throttle plates. There was a BMW M3 engine, I think, that did not. They actually mucked with when or how much the valves opened to draw different amounts of air into the combustion chamber. That gave them less intake restriction than a car with a throttle plate, because the only restriction was the manifold pipes and the valves themselves.

I am guessing tha they didn't stick with it because it was too complex to be cost-effective, and possibly also due to the difficulty of precisely measuring how much air was going into the motor.

Anyway, turbocharging is only bad if you don't need the power the turbo provides. If you need it, then turbocharging is good.

-soD
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