Ford Predicted Our Turbocharged Future All the Way Back in 1984
It seemed dystopian then, but a few decades later, the prophecy has become a reality.
As recently as a decade back, we believed there to be truly no replacement for displacement. Want big power? Need big engine. [Grunts of agreement] But small, turbocharged engines started to supersede larger, naturally aspirated plants in force across the Twenteens, first appearing in supercars like the McLaren MP4-12C and Mercedes-AMG GT, and later on, nearly the entire lineups of mainstream automakers. It's a future almost nobody saw coming — nobody except for Ford, which prophetically foretold this turbo trend 36 years ago.
"In the long run, we believe small-displacement engines with turbos will be the only performance engines," said Ford's then-marketing manager Dave Hall in the April 1984 issue of Popular Science. "We foresee the time when we will no longer offer a V8 as a performance engine."
