POWER GAMES

The naturally aspirated engine is capable of stirring emotions a turbocharged motor can still only dream of. Here we celebrate the best of the breed, before looking at what the future holds

- ADAM TOWLER

TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING. FORTY years ago, the excitement and novelty factor of the turbocharger was enough to prompt the contrivance of the word being plastered on everything from vacuum cleaners to razor blades. Natural aspiration? Oh yes, that more traditional approach, where air enters the induction system of an internal combustion engine at the same pressure as the planet outside before being compressed with a squirt of fuel by the piston and ignited with the assistance of a spark? That one was suddenly so very yesterday.

Nevertheless, and perhaps against the odds, the naturally aspirated engine mounted a comeback, and for a while the turbocharger was as unfashionable as other forms of ’80s excess, such as Ferrari Testarossas and shoulder pads, and those weird battery-powered dancing flowers in pots. The naturally aspirated engine made inroads back into both motorsport and road cars, from Formula 1 to hot hatchbacks. Revs and noise were once again king.

It didn’t last, though, and in more recent years the roles have been reversed again – for well-documented reasons ranging from emissions testing to the growth in vehicle weight and the subsequent need for strong, low-down torque – and we now have a situation where the naturally aspirated engine is a real novelty, and the introduction of a new one – as in the Cayman GT4’s 4-litre flat-six – an almost unthinkable and celebratory extravagance.

But apart from desiring what we can no longer have, the lure of the NA engine is obvious. However advanced turbocharging setups become, they can never hope to replicate the direct and instantaneous relationship between the movement of your right foot and the response of the throttle, and their use of exhaust gases to force-feed an engine with air above atmospheric pressure means an inevitable masking of intake and exhaust noise.