Exhaust turbocharging

Sir,

With Reference to C. B. F. WinstanIcy’s letter (October issue), the Napier Nomad was in fact a horizontally-opposed 12-cylinder engine. It was the Napier Deltic which had three banks of six cylinders with opposed pistons, but it was not a genuine compound. As for the application of such engines to G.P. racing, I see no prospect of this until such time as the powers that be come to their senses and adopt a fuel consumption formula (whereupon the thermodynamic shortcomings of the current crop of turbocharged motors will doubtless be exposed). Incidentally the Napier Nomad and Deltic are both featured in L. J. K. Setright’s “Some Unusual Engines” (Mechanical Engineering Publications).

Enfield, Middlesex I. J. G. BERRY