Inciner-8-or

About 5 years ago, Las Vegas, Nevada's Steve Sandlin wanted to build the "ultimate" '57 Chevrolet resto-rod. Sandlin contacted Aloha Automotive (Port Washington, Wisconsin) about building a custom power train for a '57 Chevrolet convertible. "From the get-go, I was thinking about a multiple turbo system," said Aloha engineer Randy Kirmse. "The wildest turbo system I had seen to date had four turbochargers installed on an engine. One night, I was talking to fabricator Dan Strouse and joked about the fact that it would be kind of cool to install eight turbos on a V-8 engine, in other words, one turbo per cylinder! We all had a good laugh about it, and went home!"

At the Performance Racing Industry trade show (PRI) at Indianapolis, the Aloha crew saw a quad-turbo setup on a diesel engine in the Banks Turbo Systems display. After much conversation, and knowing that the car would be powered by an 8.5:1 compression, 347-cid LT1 aluminum alloy Corvette engine, Banks engineers concluded that the approximate size according to Garrett Air Research's turbocharger specifications list would be 1.5L, which when multiplied by eight, would safely deliver 10-15 pounds boost. However, those particular model turbochargers were not available, at least not in this country. Un-daunted, the Imagine Motorsports engineering team began to look elsewhere.

They cross-referenced a Borg Warner-Triple-K Turbos specification sheet, and found that the equivalent turbo was originally used on a German manufactured 1.9L, Ford Turbo Diesel. Fuel Systems Incorporated in Milwaukee was able to order eight of these turbochargers direct from Germany.

The original thought was to place four of the units on each bank of the engine, but since all eight turbos were exactly the same, they could get four of them to fit nicely on one side, but would have to reverse the other four units creating a lot of plumbing nightmares.

A consultant from West Bend, Wisconsin, named Brian Sheridan suggested that they place all eight turbos up front since there's so much room ahead of a '57 Chevrolet's radiator support bulkhead. Sheridan also suggested having the turbocharger ram air tubes exit rearward across the engine into the Fuel Air Spark Technologies (F.A.S.T.) "LSX" polymer fuel-injection intake manifold.

Meanwhile, the actual car itself was quickly coming together.

Dave May, owner of Genesis Fabrication in Galt, California, built a new-from-the-ground-up, dual rail, 4130 chrome moly tubular chassis powdercoated in silver.

"There is a lot of interesting stuff under that car," says Randy. "As you know, turbos rely heavily on oil, and under normal circumstances, oil from the engine could lubricate one, or two turbos, but not eight. That would require approximately 245 gallons an hour to lubricate! We had to opt for a separate 3.5-gallon oil reservoir tank system located right behind the radiator, directly below the turbo log." The 6061 T-6 aluminum piping coming out of the turbos going to the induction box at the firewall actually radiates off the heat. There are no intercoolers. The intake plenum was designed by Imagine's Matt Pape and features provisions for all eight induction tubes to go into the engine from the turbos. These tubes basically turn the intake charge around 180 degrees, and force-feed it into the throttle body.

On one run, the engine achieved 730 HP @ 5,800 rpm, and 710 lb-ft of torque at 5,000 rpm, at 13.5 pounds max boost.

"It's a real pleasure to drive," said Kirmse. "I put about 100 miles on it one Sunday to set the speedometer and test its cooling capabilities. When the turbos come in, it's almost scary. Actually, it takes a lot of courage to stay in the throttle and see it spool up to 12 pounds boost. I've never experienced the sound of something like that before. It sounds like a jet taking off. You would swear that the wheels were going to burn right off the car, but it just hunkers down, and goes!"