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Nerd’s Eye View – SEMA Edition 2012, Part II
By Khiem Dinh
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
SEMA isn’t just for tuner cars (which we checked out in Part I). Some heavy duty race hardware shows up along with big budget OEM projects. The OEMs have gotten into the business of making tuner performance parts too and come to SEMA to show them off. Let’s have a look at what can be built with big OEM and professional race team resources.
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| If you’ve been living outside of the US and Europe, you might not have noticed that Ford has been making a major push with turbochargers. The reason for going forced induction with turbos? For improved fuel economy and power (you can read all about it here). The current 2012 Cobra Jet uses a supercharged 5.4L rated between 430hp and 500hp depending on the blower size used. I suspect it actually makes closer to Shelby GT500 numbers of 662hp. However, for SEMA this year, Ford decided to build a twin-turbo 5.0L V8 which brings it in-line with the EcoBoost theme. |
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| Looking at the side of the engine…. no turbos there! But you can see the exhaust manifolds do go forward. Of course, they are also covered in insulating exhaust wrap to keep the heat in the exhaust and out of the engine bay. |
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| Sitting behind the mesh in the corners of the bumper are the inlets for each turbocharger. |
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Peaking underneath the front bumper, I spy a Borg Warner EFR 7163. Check out the duct in the bumper feeding air to the turbo. Again, the exhaust manifold and downpipe are wrapped. |
