[Tom Vaught]

About the 2009 time frame, I was selected to be do research on what it would take for my company to have their own Turbocharger Gas Stand.

The first "Battle" was whether the Gas Stand would be located in England, Europe, or in the USA. We did a bunch of studies comparing the benefits of each location vs the negatives.

Eventually it was decided that England and Europe mostly did smaller engine work and that the USA (Dearborn, Michigan) could support a much larger variety of vehicles and Boosted Engine Systems. So Dearborn, Michigan was chosen for the location of the Turbocharger Gas Laboratory.

It was determined that the old Gas Turbine Car Laboratory (Walls several feet thick) would be a good choice if we ever had a high speed Turbocharger failure in the Lab.

So one Engineer (that I worked with Keith Plagens) was selected to put the initial proposal together as far as what we needed, what it was going to cost, what the timing of each stage of the program was, who were the key parties in that portion of the work, and finally co-ordination with the SKILLED TRADES located on the Research campus.
(There was a lot of Brick and Mortar work required as well as Electric and Plumbing Work
before we could even think about what Turbo Test Stand we could select for the installation.
Mr Plagens did a Outstanding Job on his part of the program.

There were a total of 13 Engineers assigned to the project. Each Engineer brought a specific "Skill Set" to the team.

The team was divided up between people who had a lot of experience with the "Building" side of the project and people who were well versed in the Turbocharger Size, Selection, Program "wants", Turbocharger Testing, Fabrication of Turbocharger Systems, and how a Turbocharger Test Stand actually operated.

The Team reviewed other Turbocharger Test Stands in Europe, China, Japan, Germany, and the USA. The Turbocharger Test Stand selected was the Kratzer Automation stand.

https://www.kratzer-automation.com/t.../turbocharger/
(Picture of a Turbocharger Test Stand shown below).

Just a comment, this was not a "ONE YEAR Project", and then move on to other work.
This was 'Do your NORMAL WORK PLUS do the work required on getting the Turbocharger Test Stand "up and running" as soon as possible. We spent over 5 years working on this assignment.

So 5 years later we had the Turbocharger Test Stand up and running.
Also during this time frame, my company decided to come back to racing in the Le Mans
race in France, after 50 years of not racing there. They won the race in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969 with the GT-40 Race Car. The Guy who hired me into the company was the Program Manager for the 4 years that they won, HOMER PERRY, may you rest in peace.

So the Cars were designed and built, the engines were designed and built (Turbocharged V-6 engines) making a 'dialed back' 600+ HP (the original GT-40 engines with the 427 engines made a durable 475 hp on the dyno for 36 hours of simulated racing in the 1966-1969 time period. They asked me early on if I could make 1000 HP with durability, I said yes.

So during the last year before the 2016 Le Mans race, the cars were running at Daytona, Sebring, and other tracks and were having issues with "Losing Boost" during the race.
In some cases the car would come in and the Turbocharger Wastegate for one side of the engine would be loose at the Marmon Flange clamp location. No Boost or partial boost and you do not do well in where you finish in the race.

So members of the Turbocharger Test Stand Team decided to test some component parts on the stand and determine the failure point that was causing the lass in boost pressure.

A few weeks before Le Mans, Mr Plagens and the team identified that the Marmon Flange Clamps had a "failure point" in the clamp design. A different design using different materials was tested with 100% durability of the parts.

So the Le Mans Race, my company won the race leading the #2 Italian competitor by a full lap (7 mile lead) and won the race after 50 years. My Boss, Homer Perry watched the race and saw the win. he passed away at the hospital two days later a happy man.

Obviously the company is using the Turbocharger Test Stand for other tasks beside the Race needs. Over 2,000,000 vehicles now have that Turbocharger Technology on them.
So it was worth the money, effort, and time spent making the Turbocharger Test Stand happen.

They were nice enough to give me an Award (The Highest One in Research given out that year) for the efforts of our team. I have attached a picture of the award plaque.

There are a few Companies out there with Turbocharger Test Stands, some quite old, other like ours state of the art. We are very fortunate as Boost People to have access to Turbos designed on these test stands. The Turbos are better than any ever produced in the past.

Sorry for the long post but the background was important. (The Marmon Flange "Swivel Pin" is fine for Drag Racing but will fail under long race Turbo Durability cycles.)

Tom V.