A classic car revival has been sweeping the continent for the last decade, bringing new enthusiasm both for classic cars and the latest models of certain classics as companies roll them out. The Grand Prix from Pontiac is one of the few muscle cars that has enjoyed continuous production since it first came on the market in 1962. Today the Grand Prix is Pontiac's largest car, with modern innovations in power drive and emissions making it cutting edge technology.
As with most muscle cars developed in the 60's and right through the 90's, though, the Grand Prix lacked an efficient system which would generate the power it needed in order to be truly impressive without costing an arm and a leg when it came to fuel. Not only the Grand Prix, but virtually every other model of muscle car suffered in popularity not due to a lack of enthusiasm over form or power, but simply due to practicality.
Today, it is possible to breathe new life into your classic Grand Prix by fitting it with an after market turbo charger or turbo charging kit. The intake pressure of standard cylinders is determined by the atmosphere, whereas a turbocharger puts more control into the hands of the vehicle owner. Turbo chargers work through forced induction; a compressor forces more air into the cylinder at the intake point. Because there more air, there is also capacity to burn more fuel, which will allow the car to achieve more power per compression.
Turbochargers are more efficient than other power boosts such as superchargers as they use the emissions of the engine to drive the turbine, rather than a belt that is connected to the engine. Belts necessarily take away some of the power from the engine overall; the use of the exhaust to drive the charger means that instead of taking power out of the equation, the mechanism is effectively recycling an already occurring by-product.
In order to truly breathe new life into that Grand Prix, you will need to make sure that the engine does not waste power due to back flow; thus the need of the entire turbo charger kit. Kits are designed to reduce backflow around turns in the exhaust system through waste gates and bends in the pipes. Too many bends mean a lot of different welds, increasing the chance of leaking exhaust gases and a resultant loss of power, but a kit which incorporates only one or two bends will mean less possibility of leakage.
If you're looking for an efficient way to bring the power back in your Grand Prix, a turbo charger is a good way to go. You'll be able to use more fuel in a cycle, and the fact that the charger uses the emissions to run means that there is no compromise in terms of power output.
