[sumeethaldankar]

Hell yes. Owned a diesel 1.6D Verna and drove it for 5.5k kms till I sold it. It was my first turbo diesel. Hated it as that thing was possessed. It would suddenly leap into places it should not be when the turbo vuro kicked in during wrong times. It would try to run down pedestrians by suddenly surging forward and I had to rein it in using the clutch and it was awful.

A NA engine is not as strained as a turbo as the turbo engined car would mean the engine is small in size (unless ina luxury cars or sport cars) and needs the turbo to meet some sort of norm be it FE or power. A NA engine will have lesser moving and complex parts and would last longer with much lesser maintenance. Also with a NA engine you do not need to idle the car for 30 seconds to save the turbo oil seals from wear and you can just switch the car off with no care in the world once you reach home tired from the traffic.

Give me a Vtec kicked in Yo anyday over a turbo kicked in yo .

[akshay4587]

Absolutely Yes!!!!!

Turbo Petrols are nice, call me old school, but I dislike this idea of downsizing motors and adding FI; will love to own a Big Block NA soon before they are extinct.

(There is no Replacement for Displacement)

Here are characteristics of two of my favourite NA motors i own:

1)Mercedes Benz W124 E220- M111 110KW/150PS/210NM

It's a 25 year old car with an older engine, while the figures may not sound impressive as compared to today's engine's,
I absolutely love the engine's characteristics, its low end torque is excellent and mid range is punchy enough to keep up with most modern cars easily.


2) Alfa Romeo 159 2.2JTS- 135KW/185HP/230NM

The numbers, though healthy by indian standards, are mediocre by Australian standards( Where i own this car),
It's a Direct Injection Petrol and coupled with a slick short ratio gearbox, which makes it an absolute joy to drive,
the torque curve along with excellent gear ratios let me climb slopes in 6th gear.
This car is an absolute joy around curves primarily due to instant power delivery.

[AMG Power]

While the entry and mid level NA engines may be found wanting, high end manufacturers are still supplying their top of the line models with NA engines:

The yet to be launched 2021 Porsche 911 GT3 RS will be naturally aspirated:





As are the 718 Cayman GT4 - Naturally Aspirated with a manual gearbox



And the 718 Spyder Boxster - Naturally aspirated with a manual gearbox

[roadrunner_nv]

My beater car is a 2011 Fiat Punto 1.2 Petrol. Love the car for the comfort, ride, old school engine and the ruggedness. Just about decent torque in the city but take her for a long ride and I miss my turbo blessed cars. Overtaking, hills, e-way rips are so much more fun in Turbo cars.
That being said, nothing beats the sheer convenience of a NA petrol..especially when there are no turbo cool down rituals to follow. Just sheer simplicity..

[D'Ro@dSt@r]

Voted NO. Had started my Automotive journey with the hyundai's 1.2L NA petrol engines and was quite happy with their performance till I tasted blood in the form of Turbo petrol Engines with DSG and DCT gearboxes. I used to always feel the lack of power in the NA engines during my highway drives or those quick overtakes and it always used make me feel "Kya yaar, yeh bhagti kyon nahi hai "
And that was the main criteria, that it has to be a turbo petrol for my next change and I zeroed in at the 1.4L turbo Petrol DCT Creta and boy is my wish fulfilled? YESS. I get the power on demand, smoothness of the petrol engine.
I don't think I am going back to the NA petrol engines anymore.
I was never a fan of the diesel motor, but my extended family are all diesel heads with Hyundai & Honda diesel manuals.

[procrastinator]

One thing that is still unheard of is driving characteristics in hills.

If turbo petrol suffers from lag, expect it to stall on steep inclines with its obvious small displacement engine.

In city driving conditions, I have always preferred cars with linear torque curve.
Ford 1.4L TDCi , Renault/Nissan’s 1.5L in 85bhp tune and VW 1.4L TSi. They offer subtle kick and have enough torque to keep you going at lower revs.

For highways, cars with strong turbo kick gives smile.
A gentle tap and it feels like rocket that will stop at next toll station.

For someone like me or many of us, the choice is to have
linear torque band, refinement (most of them on sale are 3cyls) and minimal turbo lag when driving on hills.

[Ultim8]

Hell yeah! This poll already would've proven the OP wrong.
Even though our NA engine dreams would've been downsized today, our obsession & the spirit of redlining them have not!

NA petrol engines are more about that smooth linear power delivery all the way to the redline. The downsized NA engines available in India (read the 1.0 & 1.2Ls) aren't as exciting as the existing 1.5L and the legendary 1.6L, 1.8L and larger NA offerings.

Turbocharged engines are hoot to drive, and can easily be remapped for more power. But they, especially the puny downsized three cylinder turbos (looking at you 1.0L), will never match the ease at which larger NA engines handle slow city traffic and triple digit speeds, despite being as powerful or more on paper.

I enjoy revving my dad's Ford Fiesta 1.6, and will continue the same as long as possible!

[jayanttalwar]

I personally prefer naturally aspirated engines with bigger displacements, its more about raw feel and happiness I get from driving those, the civic 1.8 manual for me is more exciting to drive and rev then faster cars I own.

Even turbocharged petrols are fun to drive and faster in many cases but If have an option of owning an NA which is even a bit slower I would prefer that unless the difference is too much.

[Hayek]

I am certainly a fan of Turbo Petrols, even though I have owned 4 NA petrols out of my 6 cars so far.

I must admit that I have never really used the high revving nature of NA petrols, except perhaps in my Zen which was my first car (I can’t be sure since it did not have a tachometer).

When I was first buying a new car, I had a choice between the Team BHP favourite, the outgoing Honda City 1.5 VTEC (105 HP), and the brand New Honda City iDsi (77 HP). After my test drive, I realised I liked the newer car more - because that engine was tuned for urban drivability and more mid end torque.

Since then I have shifted to automatics, and I must say the right engine gearbox combination is critical here. The 1.8 l Superb TSI outclassed the 2.4 l Accord - whether merely because of the turbo petrol, or largely due to the superiority of the DSG over the 4 speed TC, I can’t tell. Similarly, the 1.6 l NA Vento outclassed the City - in this case, it was clearly due to the better 6 speed TC gearbox, since the manual City was as nice to drive as the manual Vento.

What will our next car be? Can’t tell - but most likely a Turbo Petrol (I had more or less zeroed in on the 1.4 DCT Seltos - albeit without test driving it until the ANCAP results). NA petrols are increasingly coming with inferior auto boxes too - and don’t exist above a certain price point. Diesels in the BS6 world make no sense at all for my driving cycle - 85-90% in slow moving urban traffic, with no opportunities for an Italian tune up. The only thing that worries me about Turbo Petrols is the tendency to drink engine oil - my Superb needed a can of oil every 4-5 months. But that is a more manageable problem than those with other engine types.

[dhanushs]

I think the thread has a more apt name now.

The kind of Throttle response you get from a NA Petrol is just priceless! It’s not only about speed for me, so, yes, I still enjoy good high revving NA petrols.

[AMG Power]

The Cayman GT4 and the Spyder Boxster (shown in my earlier post) that come with manual gearboxes and Normally Aspirated engines cost 1 C-R-O-R-E more than their Turbocharged counterparts the 718 Cayman and 718 Boxster that come with automatic gearboxes.

[extreme_torque]

I think this question is a lot more nuanced. Given the same engine size, would I want a turbo petrol or a NA? A turbo any which day.

Given two engines with same power one being NA, the other being Turbo, I would take the NA any which day. Between my Lexus RX350 with a V6 Petrol or the same car with 2.0 Turbo with lesser power but a little more max torque, I would take the V6 any which day.

There is something graceful about a big free revving V6 with grunt right from the idle on, silky smooth as if it is powered by honey and not something as vulgur as Petrol. It is unflustered compared to the 2.0 liter Turbo in the same car. The promise of downsizing also is better fuel economy but I have seen that it doesnt hold true in the real world. From user reported economy numbers, V6 is slight more efficient and sounds a whole lot better. The V6 also is a pretty sophisticated engine with both Direct Injection and Port Injection, simulated on demand atkinson cycle and Toyota's dual VVT-iW and it lasts for a long long time. Scotty Kilmer tested 12 year old RX with the last version of the same engine with 170k miles on the clock with the engine in perfect condition.

Here’s mine doing an impromptu 0-100 kph run

https://youtu.be/pZo2ub03CZE

[Aditya9100]

Couldn’t vote due to new member restrictions.
(Although i do go through new threads everyday stupid).

I drive a 2010 swift 1.2 petrol and although in modern times the engine technology does feel outdated , nothing can beat the top end and smoothness of a 4 cylinder petrol. I recently took a test drive of hyundai 1.0 t-gdi and the performance was brisk , but cant really have my confidence on the long term reliability of such complex engineering. And the rev happiness of a naturally aspirated engine is a sure shot grin maker.

My vote will go to yes the naturally aspirated engines are fun.

[Maverick Avi]

Voted Yes. I haven't driven turbo petrols much but owned a turbo diesel. It was just fantastic on highway drives where rpms were constantly above 2000. But back in Delhi it was quite uninspiring. On the other hand I still enjoy my Alto and Ford 1.2 dragon both in city and highways. For some reason I love the Alto's F8D more. It has better low end torque and I like to push it more. Ford's 1.2 is not that exciting but never feels underpowered too. I would say I have no grouses with NA petrols if they are designed well and fulfill my needs from the car.

[bhansali_hardik]

A simple NO was my vote! Simple reason, there's only a very few little cars which fit my budget and the budget constraints is all what drives our purchase!

In India if I'm spending a million, what really are good NA petrol engines that I can choose?

Answer : None!

I love the 1.2 on my 2010 Swift and it was a great fun car for it's time, however the times moved on and the cars did evolve where my wife baleno feels like a dead horse with the k12 and there is absolutely no fun in driving it! All for a better FE maybe! (biased due to my purchases I know!)

The amount of car which I get for a million and the corresponding fun to drive factor will be available in only a turbo! Bought a TGDI, the turbo lag is annoying at times but sometimes we feel the lag is bad because the engine in the power band is so great! The similar NA is only as good or bad while creeping over those potholes!

Yes, they are complicated systems and are fuel guzzling monsters compared to the same class of NA's but then, since when did mind have a control over automobile purchases!