How Many Turbos Can You Slap Onto A Single Car?
Quick Links
- Almost Everything Had To Be Custom-Built
- The Moby Dick Of Turbocharger Builds
- These Aren't Even The Wackiest Things Boosted Lifestyle Has Built
The turbocharger was first patented all the way back in 1905 by Swiss engineer Alfred Büchi, with early prototypes being built a decade later. The technology wouldn't really become commonplace until the 1970s and 1980s, though, with automakers looking for ways to save fuel without sacrificing horsepower. Since then, you can expect to find turbos in just about every segment, with a single turbo often being used to add a little bit of pep to crossovers and compacts, twin-turbos helping to deliver sports-car performance, and four-turbo setups being used in hypercars like the Bugatti Veyron.
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2024 Ford Mustang Coupe
Beyond that, the idea of a six or eight-turbo car becomes kind of an engineering nightmare. How do you ensure optimal airflow to all of those turbos, and how does the engine handle the extra force without popping like a water balloon? Well, those are the questions Boosted Lifestyle wanted to answer when they slapped eight turbochargers onto a Ford Mustang, and the result is something that you'll want to file under O, for "Oh my goodness, what were they thinking?"
The following is based primarily on videos posted to YouTube by the channel in question, with any conclusions or opinions drawn thereupon being those of the author.
What Exactly Are We Looking At Here?
Boosted Lifestyle 8-turbo Mustang Build Turbos
The eight-turbo Mustang began as a relatively sane LS engine swap project with the hopes of eventually getting the car up to a total power output of 1,000 hp. By the end of 2020, they had eight turbochargers ready to go, and the project was officially underway. This took lots of measurement, and lots of trial and error before they could settle on a more-or-less functional arrangement with the help of some custom framework to hold everything in place with four turbos per bank.
Almost Everything Had To Be Custom-Built
Next up would be the manifolds, stacks, and oiling system, and by this point, the car is starting to look like something that Dr. Seuss had a hand in designing. Simply getting the project to the point where they could start the engine up to see if it even runs took months of custom-welding and DIY engineering, but they do eventually get it running, and it sounds like a whole car meet all on its own.
Ford Mustang Sedan
What's The Worst That Could Happen?
Boosted Lifestyle 8-turbo Mustang Build
Try to guess what goes wrong when you attach eight turbos to an LS V8 engine in a Ford Mustang. Whatever you guessed, you're right, that's what happened.
Along the way to the car's maiden voyage, you had all the technical hiccups you'd expect. Problems with the custom oiling system, cracked components, and all the broken eggs that go along with making an omelet. Once the car was ready for more extensive testing, it was simply one blown turbo after another until, about a year and a half after the project first got underway, Boosted Lifestyle made the difficult decision to dismantle the eight-turbo setup and go back to a relatively simple single-turbo LS build.
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The Moby Dick Of Turbocharger Builds
They put the extra turbochargers aside for safekeeping with the hopes of getting back to the eight-turbo concept at some point in the future, possibly when winter rolls around, and they have some nice long cold months to look forward to to keep the engine from melting down under its own combustive power. In the meantime, Boosted Lifestyle continues to experiment with some pretty cool engine swaps and custom builds, especially in the Mustang department.
These Guys Make Some Pretty Wild Mustangs
Boosted Lifestyle 8-turbo Mustang Build
Remember, the whole idea behind the LS-swapped Mustang in the first place was to get the pony up to a thousand horses. So, how did that project turn out after they pulled all the extra turbos off of it? Well, good news, they managed to do it, eventually achieving a power output of 1,167 hp. As fun as it may have been to build an eight-turbo muscle car, the fact of the matter is that it's not the most sensible build.
Another Mustang they've been working on seems downright reasonable by comparison: a Fox body with a twin-turbo Hellcat engine, and a goal of 1,300 hp. Okay, maybe "reasonable" isn't the right word for it, but the simple fact that it doesn't look like an Atomic Age spaceship makes it seem a little bit less mad-sciencey than the eight-turbo build.
The Hellcat Mustang is more than a simple pull-and-drop engine swap, of course. The project demanded a whole new fuel system and endless custom fabrication and welding. But compared to the work required to attach eight turbos to an LS engine, that's really just another day at the office.
These Aren't Even The Wackiest Things Boosted Lifestyle Has Built
Ever wonder what would happen if you built your own Formula One car from scratch in your garage? Well, they did, and they got it working. We have no idea if this thing is street legal up in Canada, but we won't tell the Canadian Counil of Motor Transport Administrators if you don't.
Building a custom chassis from the ground up turned out to be the most laborious part of the process for the DIY Formula One car, as that's really just a whole bunch of measuring, cutting, and welding, and that gets old fast. The fun part was the engineering.
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We definitely recommend visiting the channel and skimming the videos page, and then clicking on whatever grabs you. They've built everything from turbocharged winterized lawnmowers to boosted Malibus and a 420-cc tricycle, that looks like something Johnny Knoxville would ride off of the roof of a warehouse. Put simply, Boosted Lifestyle is doing a lot to keep the spirit of the hot rod alive and well in the snowy white north. Most recently, they even 3D printed a hot dog body to create a miniaturized two-wheel take on the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. This is one of those car channels that proves DIY engineering is limited only by your imagination, and whether or not you're brave enough to test-drive one of these things.
