Gen II Turbo Prius

Yep. It's a joke. Someone probably bought a turbo decal from Autozone, and stuck it on there.

 

It's probably been done before on both Gen I & II. For certain on the Gen I. The performance was less than 4% if I remember.




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That's funny. I am going to take the HYBRID lettering off the sides of mine, but I don't think I'll put TURBO letters in their place...

 

The Toyota Prius is designed as a fuel-efficient hybrid car and not really as a performance car. So putting in turbo on a Prius is not really a sound idea.

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Mazda Accessories

 

Well turbos are a more efficient way to make more power using less fuel. I think it a good idea, but i also think a diesel prius would be the coolest car ever.

 

Turbochargers can increase efficiency, and compensate for power loss at altitude. They're not such a bad idea, but they can be expensive and not so reliable, which is why they're not often seen, especially on a production car.

 

20 years ago? Sure. Now? No way. Turbos can be found on a huge number of production cars and they are fully capable of lasting the life of the vehicle. The technology has come a long way, and they are a great way to obtain performance on demand without sacrificing fuel economy.

 

Not quite.

Turbos are more efficient at making power per volume of fuel. They don't use less fuel to do it, though.


The turbo emblem is Porsche. Probably ripped off of a Cayenne. I saw one on a black Prius here in Austin.

 

Uhh... what?

Turbos are on MANY production cars. Saab uses the **** out of them. Ford's EcoBoost engines are basically smaller displacement engines with turbochargers.

The idea is that a smaller engine is more fuel efficient under low loads, but are not powerful enough for larger vehicles. The solution? Turbocharge it.

 

I've played with many superchargers and turbos over the years and I will tell you straight up, a good turbo engine does not run super high compression. The Prius violates this rule of thumb AND has a split compression spec which makes tuning and cam design even more difficult.

On a regular ICE go for it but on a Prius???? Nah, I wouldn't even bother.

 

OK, so I was wrong about turbos not being very common. Porsche, Saab, Subaru, Ford...so what's Toyota's excuse? I was thinking they'd be concerned about cost and reliability, but apparently that's not the problem. I'd far rather have a turbo than fancy interior lights or a solar-powered air vent. I'm hoping it would make a big difference on long mountain climbs.

edit: Of course, I could be wrong. As long as I know why, I'm comfortable with that.

 

Also, it seems to me that the turbo would be doing the opposite of what the Atkinson cycle engine is supposed to be doing. AND the VVT with delayed closing of intake valves and blowback would seem to make engine management much more complicated.

I think the decals is as far as I would go on this mod. Installing a flux capacitor or dilithium chamber could hardly be more complicated.

 

The picture in question is from the Autospeed article on putting
a turbo into a Classic. Julian Edgar actually did quite a bit
of research and cut-n-try on that project, and the fun and
frustrations are quite evident in the article series. Search
for "turbo prius" over there for more of the story.
.
It *did* seem to make improvements in an NHW10, and could feasibly
have similar effects in a second-gen since the engines are
virtually the same. In either, there's the Atkinson issue to
think about, which changes the game.
.
_H*

 

Looks like you're back and down with the resurrection.

 

Turbocharging an Atkinson cycle engine can be very effective. When you add turbocharging, an Atkinson cycle engine is called a Miller cycle engine.

However, as previously mentioned, turbochargers add complexity and cost. The Prius doesn't push its ICE very hard. If Toyota had needed more power from the same engine, their first course of action would have been to increase the redline. As it is, the ICE loafs along most of the time, so turbocharging was not an attractive option.

Tom

 

A turbo Prius would be awesome! What about supercharged?

My mum has a Fiat Bravo T-Jet 150, it makes 180HP from a 1.4T engine (150HP stock, but it's been chipped), it goes like crazy...

 

It will but what about emissions and reliability in the long term? Not a problem on a 10 year old car but could be an issue when you're providing a warranty on a new vehicle that will be sold in different markets.