You can thank these guys for the turbo in your car | Speed School Podcast Ep 11

Walt Ware, former president of Garrett AiResearch, joins Gale Banks to discuss the turbocharger's history in aerospace and how they got them into cars and boats, despite the naysayers.
00:00 Intro
02:40 Garrett's origin
09:25 Turbocharger origin
13:20 Triple spool jet engine
19:20 Operation Paperclip
27:05 Turbos compensate for altitude
36:10 Cafe standards force use of turbos
39:25 Detonation and O2 sensors
1:11:18 Banks and Garrett turbo marine projects
1:21:44 Turbo metallurgy
1:25:08 Reading AFR with spark plugs
1:29:32 Garrett says cars don't need turbos
1:32:36 Walt's hilarious history with Caterpillar
#mechanicalengineering #podcast #turbo

[@markjohnson9736]

Wow!!!! Gale & Walt….. hands down the absolute best podcast I have ever listened to. Can’t wait for number 12. You guys know how to have a proper conversation. The history is fascinating…. You can hear the absolute passion in 60 year careers! Thanks!

[@StabyMcStabsFace]

I wish Garrett could figure out turbos in the modern era. They hated on and dragged their feet on billet compressors until they were the only ones with cast wheels. Their home page was a two page paper claiming billet was a crutch and wouldn't compete with their cast stuff. Well, they finally tried to catch up, but never touched their turbine wheels. GT30s worked great, GTX30 doesn't because the hot side maxes well before the cold side. They never fixed the GTXs, and kept over rating each unit's power. Now we have the G-Series. The compressors are over rated by at least 10% and the turbines are undersized greatly. This is a company that makes turbine engines? The last mistake was moving everything to China and allowing pulsar and the others to exist.

[@herbalchicken]

Thank you for taking the time to make these, Mr. Banks. If you ever decide to put some of your stories down in a book that would be icing on the cake.

[@hectorsandoval7971]

I really enjoy hearing these old school legends talk about their careers. They share so much valuable stories and information about how turbo’s came to be what they are today. I can’t wait for the next podcast! I hope to be able to save all of these podcasts. I’m sure listening to them again will give me more knowledge that I missed the first time. Great job Mr Banks and Walt, thank you both!

[@danr9584]

They DID make a Monte Carlo turbo for 1980-1981. They are rare and ended up using the Buick v6 Turbo. It was very Interesting to hear that he worked to develop a v8 turbo for it. It seems that Wald is unaware that GM moved forward with the Concept after his work stopped.

[@FlightEngineering1]

Fascinating, thank you. This makes a lot of what I read in the book "Turbochargers" by Hugh Mc Innes about 4 years ago make sense! I have seen that trochoidal (triangular) shaft used on some German WW2 V12 aero superchargers, either Daimler-Benz or Junkers, I forget, but I know a lot of those Germans ended up working in the USA post-war.

[@b.snoodleman5864]

Actually the Allison V-12 that was used in the early P-51's always had a supercharger. The Allison V-12 was originally developed to be used in the Bell P-38 Airacobra and to be turbo charged, but late in the P-38's development phase it became apparent that the airframe wasn't big enough to fit a turbo charger. Allison didn't have the time to properly develop a multi stage, multi speed supercharger, so they had to use a single stage, single speed supercharger. This is why the engine was only good for low altitudes. It has been said that if the same supercharger used on the Merlin's was used on the Allisson's the Allison's would have out performed the Merlin's.

[@Bondsai00]

The first turbo car I ever drove was a test drive in a brand new turbo Century like the ones you talked about. It took 3-4 seconds from the time I floored it for the red/yellow/green turbo boost indicator to go through the sequence, then the Buick would take off pretty strongly. Cool stuff in the day!

[@captaintoyota3171]

Man this guy designed turbos 4 my life. Early dsms etc. Now i got 90s yotas

[@GMCJay_lly]

Tape the podcasts, so we can watch them.

[@DillonPrecisionFan]

AiResearch/Garrett was a good place back in the day. After the Allied-Signal merger, it wasn't the same anymore, the old AiResearch was gone. Then the defense spending cuts in the early 1990s really hammered the Phoenix divisions (engines and pneumatics). I can remember in the 1970s Garrett used to rent out the ASU activity center in Tempe at Christmas time. They had stacks of wrapped presents by age groups for the employees' children that were handed out....find me a company that does that today! I can remember my father telling me the same story about the HP calculator purchase program. My dad started at the Phoenix AiResearch/Garrett division in 1970 with 6 years of prior experience at Sundstrand and his BSME (IIT) and MSME (U of Ill., Champaign), RIP pop!

[@henryarrington3446]

Yes, thank you very much Mr. Buchi for the turbocharger. Well done sir.

[@dougobrien2840]

Man i love hearing all this stuff .cheers from Australia.

[@pault4513]

i think it was about 1978 I was working at mack western and our engineering lab put a twin turbo on a cummins KT400

[@460EFI]

I would literally kill to be able to sit down and talk shop with Walt, one-on-one for a day, specifically about Garrett turbos for diesel engines.

[@darrylm3627]

Good Stuff,Great Tips 😄👍🏿

[@the1maxb]

While Gale's recollections of automotive history is astounding for both its breadth and detail, he consistently forgoes the opportunity to explore the same of his guests. Gale: "Tell me about how you established Garrett's automotive turbo program. I really want to hear about this!" Walt begins reply... Gale: "Well that's cool, but I'll instead tell you even more about my projects instead. And more. And more. And we're out of time, sorry."

[@PhillyDee215]

All in the TUNE😎

[@josephmatuszak3855]

Legends.

[@frankr6702]

Re: turbo in my car: Thanks! Most of all thanks for the work on all the bad ass toys for our bad ass boys.

[@rolandtamaccio3285]

Please, more details on Smokey's thousand horse, 202 cube small block .

[@captaintoyota3171]

I agree wade every car should be turbo

[@tl1024]

Hey, if you know of a more "bad-ass" airplane the SR-71, please tell us more about it.

[@chimpfoos65]

Do you have something on the GM FAILED CAR DIESEL HOWEVER WE OWEND ONE IT WAS A GREAT CAR

[@bill2178]

There are some really smart engineers like Brian Barnhill Greg banish and walt ware But we have a 6.4 Navistar so not all engineers are created equal

[@howardkeil1526]

SR-71 was badass wen there will people driving cars with flatheads daily.

[@mechanicallycreative9788]

Tell me Gail own an x758 or455 or something similar.

[@bernhardjordan9200]

You should have video as well

[@Diddley-js6lf]

Need to know basis

[@johnrupert1063]

Dauntless v6 jeep

[@HUD308]

You can build a house in Yosemite?

[@bankspower]

In the 1980’s Gale purchased a piece of property with a house on it, inside the park. There are around 100 homes that were built before it was declared a national park. This is one of those properties.

[@johnstuart3851]

Well, Walt never got to tell how he got to Air Research, with Gale interrupting constantly with off-topic tangents.

[@mikehunt7030]

Nothing worse than listening to a podcast on KZbin with a stupid static screen can't be done I can't do it I'm out!

[@bankspower]

Most people listen to the podcast via traditional podcast players like Apple, Google, Spotify, etc, found here 👉 official.bankspower.com/speed-school-podcast/

[@GMCJay_lly]

@@bankspower tape the podcast so we can watch it here. . Put the podcast on Stitcher please

[@SuperUnknown1967]

Don't forget your purse!

[@drumhed]

Gale and Walt, did either of you come across Larry Widmer and Energy Dynamics back in the day?