Normalair-Garrett Manufacturing - 1970s turbo kits

[Franco Cozzo]

Found this and I thought it would be interesting to some others here on AFF, looks like in decades gone by there was some early work on turbo setups for Cortina/Falcon with 3.3L/4.1L Crossflow engines:

Looks like it was done by a company called 'Normalair-Garrett Manufacturing' based in North Western suburbs of Melbourne, which appeared to be part of the Honeywell Group, based in Airport West, and their ABN was deregistered in 2020.

Was anyone aware of this company and these kits? Seems an early effort of using turbo technology a long time ago, they look like they're using draw through carb setups, where its putting fuel through the compressor of the turbo which is rather interesting - every time I've seen a turbo setup on a carb its been blow through rather than draw through.

Doing a bit of research, looks like they were around in the late 1970s and doing stuff for local cars incorporating turbo systems, they had done various Holden 6 and 253/308 setups too which didn't receive support from Holden at the time.

As well as companies like Garrett-AIResearch which seemed to do a kit for an XE Falcon, we saw one of the cars come up for auction recently here on AFF when someone linked to it,

Certainly well ahead of their time, its a bit of a shame that there was no interest from Ford or Holden with these products where the aftermarket had put effort into creating an out the box solution.









I found the PDFs on the below website, they are available for download if you want high resolution copies.

http://www.mikevineturbochargers.com...%203.3-4.1.pdf

http://www.mikevineturbochargers.com...0Crossflow.pdf

[russellw]

They did several kits in the 80's for the XF Fqalcon (I had one) and I think I still have a Wheels road test of one which was pretty impressed with the results. I thought most of their earlier (70's) stuff was more Holden focused but I might well be wrong.

[Bossxr8]

I can remember reading about their work on what was probably HZ or similar model kingswoods. Never really took off.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

I can remember reading about their work on what was probably HZ or similar model kingswoods. Never really took off.

They did quite a few dealer-fitted kits for UC Toranas, HX Kingswoods & VB/VC Commodores. One model which many believe to be a genuine thing is the UC Torana SL/T, complete with badges.

They had a genuine GM-H dealer network set-up with a major dealer in each state. They were sold as new cars with full warranty.

They used those same tuning level names as well, Strata II etc.

Dr Terry

[slowsnake]

Grey motor Supercharger.these were used in the 50's usually on powerboats, I had one of only 250 Repco crossflow heads on my EK, some had Twin OHC motors, lot of good backyard engineers around, sans Jack Brabham.

https://images.app.goo.gl/nu1kEkNiDCNZ5vYY6

[CyberWasp]

Here is info on the UC Torana SL/T.
Never heard of it before but still learning new stuff.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

Here is info on the UC Torana SL/T.
Never heard of it before but still learning new stuff.

image

The first thing I want to ask is why is it so slow but its 1978 and ADR27A or what ever it was appears to have ruined everything for everyone

Look at that torque though,

But 7.0:1 compression ratio, were they using decompression plates because of poor quality fuel available? I thought leaded fuel had a much higher octane rating than unleaded?

Or could it be the fact they didn't have overly good control over fuel and timing when it was on boost?

[jpd80]

In 1983, I had a stock yellow 5.8 XD Fairmont, a turbo 4.1 XE treated me like I had treated so many atmo 4.1 Falcons.
Even with draw through carbs and no intercooler, that thing made a ton of torque and power, jaw dropping to see…
TF Cortinas were ended by then but I have to imagine that a turbo six in one of those would have been a fun ride….

[Franco Cozzo]

I feel its a bit sad that it didn't go further than it did, if you think about it, Holden never really capitalised on it from a OEM perspective for a local car, (aside from when they did the SAAB Alloytec 2.8L V6T in Port Melbourne), as much of a boat anchor the 3.6L V6 is, it responds very well to boost.

Ford Australia would have probably started work on incorporating the technology on the XR6T in the late 1990s or what ever their development cycle is where it took them to create the Barra.

I wonder if engineers in the past had discussed it previously but it never made it past conceptualisation stage until the XR6 Turbo got the rubber stamp?

I wonder the discussions that came up about those early emissions regulation days and trying to create options that weren't complete dogs compared to what they could offer a decade prior, surely forced induction was on the table.

[tbro4123]

Suttons in Homebush did a heap of these, don't know how successful they were but they tried to get the NSWPF to use 2850 Commodores as pursuit cars, great while you could keep the boost up but as soon as a corner came up and you had to slow down you had a 2850 auto with decompression plate with 2 coppers on board who couldn't keep up with a corolla auto for the next 10 minutes.


One young HWP fella who's FIL was a big time collector/racer and owned the supposed best Mustang collection in the world hated then with a passion, and following orders that cars must be turned off when ever you left them took great delight in going flat strap from Liverpool to Mittagong bells and whistles and then pulling over and turning off the car, opps! another cooked POS, called in for a replacement and tow back to Homebush. Only took the Boss after 4 or 5 failures a couple of months to can that project.


Can't remember anyone being upset at that decision, funny that!




Stay safe
Terry aka Tbro

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

The first thing I want to ask is why is it so slow but its 1978 and ADR27A or what ever it was appears to have ruined everything for everyone

Look at that torque though,

But 7.0:1 compression ratio, were they using decompression plates because of poor quality fuel available? I thought leaded fuel had a much higher octane rating than unleaded?

Or could it be the fact they didn't have overly good control over fuel and timing when it was on boost?

Fast in the day with those figures and most turbo conversions needed the engine to be low compression otherwise "Bang" was the end result.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Itsme

Fast in the day with those figures and most turbo conversions needed the engine to be low compression otherwise "Bang" was the end result.

Yeah but surely 8.5:1 wasn't such a stretch, there has to be a reason for at that time needing to be so low on static compression, it would drive like an absolute dog off boost, super doughy response.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Yeah but surely 8.5:1 wasn't such a stretch, there has to be a reason for at that time needing to be so low on static compression, it would drive like an absolute dog off boost, super doughy response.

Yes, correct with off boost comments and also did nothing for fuel economy.
Lack of intercoolers was a big problem, hot induction temperatures and limited timing advance and rich mixtures to avoid detonation all added up to lots of fun but vehicles that liked a drink under full boost.

Keep in mind that Holden also had a strong core of V8 buyers so the choice for them was simple, they dropped the 5.0 for maybe one year in the early 80s and the outcry was fierce.

Don’t forget that Ford was also working on project Capricorn based on fwd Mazda 6 for a few years before changing back to what was eventually EA, so during that time XF was extended and no development on turbo considered as it bridged ULP in 86. During that time, Holden dumped its I-6 and bought in the Nissan 3.0 I-6 in atmo and turbo, the cost nearly sent Holden bankrupt inside two years….

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

The first thing I want to ask is why is it so slow but its 1978 and ADR27A or what ever it was appears to have ruined everything for everyone

They had no intercooler, no ECU control for fuel or ignition, compromised manifold design & the fact that the basically stock red motor wasn't noted for good head flow figures.

If you did the same today to that same car, with today's technology it would be a weapon.

Bench-flowed head, computer profiled camshaft, well designed manifolds & EFI system. Exhaust temp & oxygen sensor feedback. A lot has changed in 40 years.

Dr Terry

[Bossxr8]

Combustion chamber design has changed a hell of a lot. Alloy heads help as well.

The red motor was a piece of junk by the time the 80’s rolled around. Ford kept power switching to ulp. The holden 6 went backwards, and used more fuel at the same time.