| I talked to Corky Bell about this. His book is a little dated but he was a huge advocate for the VATs when he first wrote the book on Maximum Boost. Reality is that reliability of these VATS is a problem not easily overcome. Then there's the control issue. VATs are extremely sensitive to very minor changes resulting in a very edgy engine (think sling shot engine). Corky has had plenty of experience and today no longer advocates for the VATs at all! That's a pretty strong position coming from a guy who made his livelihood trying to sell this idea. I believe the VATs are more practical with diesels because the turbos run cooler, hence somewhat improved reliability, plus the smaller operating range implies they're not quite as sensitive to the control issues. I'm convinced the generic consumer is very concerned about the turbo lag albeit indirectly. A simple test drive compared to a mid- high-end lagless NA and most generic consumers would drop their money on a smooth feeling car. Our Z community is an exception. Skyactive technology is also very impressive. It'll be interesting to see which technologies of Skyactive stay the course. Is there a lot of clap-trap on the Volvo engines, Skyactive engines, etc? You bet! But I suspect customers through competition are demanding these enhancements. FWIW if we could infuse Volvo equivalent level of technology into the VD we could probably get 100% lagless 600hp too. Now wouldn't that be nice? I imagine cars will eventually get to the level of refinement of the cell phone, digital camera, or computer where either it works, requires minor repairs, or you throw it away. Sign of the times man and there's nothing we can do about it.
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