reathe deeply, let your lungs drink.
Assuming you’re reading this somewhere
near sea level, your nostrils are flooding
with 14.7psi of nitrogen marbled with
blissful oxygen, 12 litres of it.
This is the stuff naturally-aspirated
engines have survived on for decades.
And, of course, in a world free of
turbochargers, the only recipe for
kilowatts is more compression ratio, more
fuel, more revs.
Times, of course, are a changin’.
Apparently we’re cooking ourselves on
this little earth. The nitrogen and oxygen
is getting elbowed by carbon dioxide.
Cars are an easy target for regulatory
greenies looking to reign in emissions.
And naturally-aspirated engines are the
weak zebras, an emissions-conscious car
company’s easy target.
As the curtains silently but steadily
draw on naturally-aspirated (NA) engines,
we can either sob inwardly as we drive
yet another turbocharged car with a
lopped-off redline, a lazy, doughy throttle
and an engine note so limp and lacklustre
that fake noise needs to be played through
the speakers. Or we can grab a few
cracking NA cars still on sale today and
give you some lotto goals.Enjoy it while you can.
Ferrari (458), Porsche
(911), Honda (NSX)
and Ford (GT) will all
have turbos bolted to
their next supercars
And they will be lotto goals because,
unfortunately, right under our noses the
affordable NA car is already gone. These
days you need a wallet as thick as Clive
Palmer to own a bewitching naturally-
aspirated car. Even cars in the price range
of M3 and RS4 are, of course, turbo or
heading that way.
We must head into truly expensive
territory to continue our NA worship,
so we’ve grabbed three of the most
spellbinding NA cars ever built.
Representing V8s, the Ferrari 458
Speciale is, by way of specific output,
the most powerful NA engine ever.
Representing V10s, we have the howling,reat
Assu
near
with
bliss
Th
e