The early years of hot rodding produced some wild and wonderful ideas, for example the Oberhausen electric supercharger.
The golden age of hot rodding was a trial-and-error enterprise. The time-honored way to learn if something would work was to head out under the shade tree, build it, and see. Enthusiasm often trumped expertise and naturally, not every idea was a good one. One fascinating example is the Oberhausen supercharger, which was first advertised in 1958.
As the photos above illustrate, the Oberhausen was a centrifugal supercharger, but with a difference: It wasn’t driven from the crankshaft. Rather, it was powered by a standard 6V/12V automotive starter motor, which turned an 8.5-inch impeller via a set of bronze reduction gears with a ratio of 6:1. “Hold on,” you will say. “That will never work,” and you’re not wrong. A starter motor is good for a few horsepower at best and only in a short burst, which is isn’t nearly enough to operate a centrifugal blower of automotive size. It’s doubtful that this setup could produce any significant boost at all.
This shortcoming must have become evident early on, as the Oberhausen Engineering Corp. of Atlanta, Georgia was soon offering improvements on the orignal Oberhausen Dragster Supercharger, as it was called. Some kits (above) added a second motor, while others included a conventional belt drive in concert with the electric motor. None of these setups made any noticeable impact on the hot rodding and drag racing scene, near as we can tell, and at some point the product line was acquired by Turbonique Inc. of Florida, reportedly. Today, barely a handful of the units remain in the hands of vintage hot rod collectors.
But just to show that the concept wasn’t totally wihout value—that maybe they were onto something—the kernel of it can be found in the E-Turbo, eBooster, and similar systems developed in Formula 1 and now making their way into current production cars. With a 48-volt hybrid electrical system there’s sufficient juice available to make the approach practical, using a high-speed electric motor to generate boost and/or a generator to harvest exhaust turbiine energy. The Garrett-Mercedes-AMG E-Turbo is shown below.
Hey! I need to put one of these on my EV!! 😎
Will it work good with my Fish carburetor or Wal Phillips Fuel Injectors?
I want to try out one of their “solid propellant”-powered units! WTF!
A “bit” before it’s time. But then, I seem to remember reading about a gas turbine powered turbo charger.
Believe it or not but i cheated in tractor pulling using an Electric Blower.. i went from a negative Vacuum on my 88 diesel Tractor to a plus 3 pounds of boost at 2700 hundred RPM. Its not alot but when you factor in the cool air of the Evening Pull.. it sure made a huge difference…!
In the early 1980s I was at the Carlisle, PA flea market at a vendor booth, and the guy there had a box full of Oberhausen supercharger paperwork, he said his dad had worked for the company.
One of the brochures was in English on one side, and Spanish on the reverse. The brochure touted this supercharger as being designed for very high altitudes [perhaps the Andes?], where the much thinner air made starting gasoline engine a lot harder. If I remember, as the starter motor was engaged, so was the supercharger motor, upping the air/fuel pressures to aid in starting. Don’t remember them saying it was to be run all the time, or just when needed, perhaps for situations when a little extra power was needed.
I found the info fascinating, but he wanted too much for the entire box, and wouldn’t sell me a single brochure, so I passed on them. Over the last 40 years I’ve never seen anything else on the Oberhausen supercharger.