Timelines · Formula 1 · 4 of 7
A 1.5-litre engine the size of a suitcase making over 1 000 horsepower — until it exploded.
1983·BMW M12/13 1.5 L four-cylinder turbo·~640 hp race / ~750 hp qualifying (1983); 1 300+ hp by 1986·1983 Drivers’ title (Piquet) — the first turbo champion·over 850 hp per litre in 1986 qualifying trim
· THE STORY
In the 1980s Formula 1 discovered you could take a tiny engine and force-feed it air with a turbocharger — a pair of turbine wheels spun by the exhaust. The Brabham BT52’s BMW engine was based on a 1.5-litre road-car block, and within three seasons this engine family was passing 1 300 horsepower in qualifying. Those engines lasted minutes at full boost, and nobody cared: they only had to survive one lap.
· WHY IT MATTERED
An engine makes power in proportion to the air it burns. A turbo crams in several atmospheres of it, so a 1.5-litre engine breathes like a 6-litre one. The demo’s single boost dial is the whole era: turn it up and the power climbs almost in a straight line.
· WHY IT MATTERED
The turbocharger is a small gas turbine — the same compressor-and-turbine pair as the jet engines elsewhere on this site, just wrapped around a piston engine. Energy that every earlier engine had thrown out of the tailpipe now drives the compressor.
· WHY IT MATTERED
BMW’s qualifying engines ran boost that melted pistons in a handful of laps, burning toluene-heavy fuel closer to chemistry-lab stock than petrol, with blocks seasoned by being left outside to rust. Maximum power for one flying lap, then rebuild — a philosophy the rules eventually outlawed.
· TRY IT
The exhaust spins a turbine, the turbine spins a compressor, and the compressor stuffs the cylinders with pressurised air — the same blade-wheel pair as the site’s jet engines, miniaturised. Turn up the boost and watch the power climb and the engine’s life expectancy collapse.
Power tracks the air an engine burns, and boost is simply more air per stroke — a straight line all the way to the materials’ breaking point. The same compressor-and-turbine pair as the jet engines elsewhere on this site, put to work on four pistons.