There’s more than one way to turbo, it seems.
Italian supercar marque Ferrari appears to be experimenting with turbos, but not the way you’re expecting. While the Maranello firm is no stranger to forced induction, much to the chagrin of brand purists, they might have reason to cheer if documents leaked from the European Patent Office prove to be accurate.
It seems that rather than using exhaust gasses to compress air and then feed it back into the engine, Ferrari wants to put a turbine into the exhaust duct to generate electricity instead. The electricity generated from that would then be thrown into a battery of some kind which would then, when needed, feed power into an electric motor.
In theory, an electric motor/petrol engine combination would allow for the kind of performance benefits normally reaped by forced induction, minus things like turbo lag and the ‘altered’ acoustics of an engine. AutoGuide discovered the patent filings first, and the internet has been charged with chatter since.
Once the electric energy has been stored, it could also be used to drive an air compressor that would then feed the engine. The flexibility of the system means a wide variety of applications, though the objective is pretty clear. Ferrari hasn’t exactly been coy about how it intends to take on the wave of electrification, with its future cars all but confirmed to feature some kind of electric assistance, be it in the form of F1-pioneered KERS systems or with these exhaust turbines.
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