I need some of this!
Was talking with a. 215 specialist at the Dayton show and was surprised to learn it wasn’t just alcohol and water, but had some lubricating chemicals in it too.
Interesting solution for the time. Clever engineering.
Chris
Interesting solution for the time. Clever engineering.
Chris
And if Oldsmobile had just dropped compression on the Jetfire engine to something that could have lived with the turbo's boost, there wouldn't have been any need for all that methanol injection and hardware. And they'd still have had a screamer.
RR -
Quite right. They could have made it less maintenance-intensive, but chose to go for something with better performance that required more customer effort.
Personally, I applaud the effort, but as we know in the end many customers dumped the complex system for simpler 4 barrels. It wasn’t a commercial success, but I’m glad they tried.
All too often, especially these days, we see good-to-great engineering dumbed down in the name of customer friendliness. I’m not against that, but here & there, it’s great to see an engineering marvel tested in the field to probe consumer appetite for complexity in the name of performance.
Just wanted to take a second to celebrate engineers pushing the envelope. All to rare then, and now.
Chris
Quite right. They could have made it less maintenance-intensive, but chose to go for something with better performance that required more customer effort.
Personally, I applaud the effort, but as we know in the end many customers dumped the complex system for simpler 4 barrels. It wasn’t a commercial success, but I’m glad they tried.
All too often, especially these days, we see good-to-great engineering dumbed down in the name of customer friendliness. I’m not against that, but here & there, it’s great to see an engineering marvel tested in the field to probe consumer appetite for complexity in the name of performance.
Just wanted to take a second to celebrate engineers pushing the envelope. All to rare then, and now.
Chris
Chris, the four-barrel conversion was actually a factory recall, sometime in 1965 I think. Eric Jensen will know for sure.
Biggest reason was owners wouldn't keep the Turbo-Rocket fluid tank filled. The system had a fail-safe where if the TR fluid went low or ran out, it didn't allow any boost. Owners raised hell with the dealers because the cars didn't perform well. So, the Jetfires were recalled to eliminate the turbo and convert to a regular 4-barrel 215. But as we know a few escaped, and guys like Jim Noel salvaged a lot of those recalled turbos and kept them going.
Biggest reason was owners wouldn't keep the Turbo-Rocket fluid tank filled. The system had a fail-safe where if the TR fluid went low or ran out, it didn't allow any boost. Owners raised hell with the dealers because the cars didn't perform well. So, the Jetfires were recalled to eliminate the turbo and convert to a regular 4-barrel 215. But as we know a few escaped, and guys like Jim Noel salvaged a lot of those recalled turbos and kept them going.
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