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Top 5 Benefits of Turbosmart’s Award-Winning Electronic Wastegates
BY Mike Maravilla //
March 17, 2023
@mike_futureclassic
Photography: Brandon Cody
@bcody_formative
Additional Photography: Turbosmart
@turbosmarthq
  • An external wastegate fine-tunes boost pressure to precisely control your turbocharger’s output to maximize power, efficiency, and fuel economy.
  • Since 1997, Turbosmart has been the industry leader in high-performance boost control accessories for turbo applications.
  • Turbosmart’s electronic wastegates offer the precision, flexibility, and control serious enthusiasts’ need without the drawbacks of a pneumatic controller.

There’s no replacement for displacement. In the year 2000, that old adage might have resonated a bit more than it does today. Indeed, the modern world has found its displacement replacement — turbochargers. Companies like Australia-based Turbosmart are finding ever-innovative ways to extract the most out of nearly every platform’s unique demands. This technology has not only provided the performance community entry into the horsepower stratosphere but also unlocked valuable fuel economy for the general consumer — a happy benefit as emissions requirements grow more stringent. The impact has been so far-reaching that more than 40% of new cars rely on turbocharging technology, a 39% increase since the new millennium began.

For decades prior to this turbo renaissance, pneumatic wastegates, in both OE and aftermarket applications, have been the industry standard for controlling boost. As mechanically-driven components, these controllers are unquestionably stout at performing a singular action, but this often added detrimental complexity and weight — both of which remain taxing handicaps to race vehicles that require every advantage available. Fortunately, turbocharging’s mainstream takeover has led to rapid evolution in this segment: electronic wastegates.

Our partners at Turbosmart have made themselves available to shed some much-needed light on this breakthrough, how they’ve managed to harness it, and what that means for the performance community.

Joshua Burney, Turbosmart: While electronic wastegate technology has been around for some time in the OE segment of the automotive industry, there had yet to be any that could handle the high pressures and harsh conditions of racing. That changed in 2019 when we released our first range of poppet-style valve, liquid-cooled electronic wastegates, which immediately became the highest-flowing poppet-style wastegate available. Compared to their pneumatic counterparts, which rely on mechanical air pressure from the engine to actuate the “door” to the turbo, electronic wastegates can be independently controlled for maximum flexibility. You can elect to set the wastegate valve position based on gear, time, RPM, GPS, altitude, turbo shaft speed, and more — all from your standalone ECU. The only limit is your imagination.

It is, unabashedly, the only electronic wastegate of its kind in the industry. Performance aside, its billet CNC aluminum actuator housing can be rotated 360 degrees for maximum flexibility. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, this wastegate received industry recognition from the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) for “Best New Performance Racing Product”.

Two years later, Turbosmart released another revolutionary electronically controlled external wastegate: the Electronic Straight Gate 50 (eSG50). The eSG50 is a butterfly-style, liquid-cooled external wastegate; the proprietary 50mm butterfly valve design boasts all the control of a traditional poppet-style wastegate, but with a broad range of response. Simply put, this is in fact the highest flowing and most linear wastegate in the industry. Like its poppet-style counterpart, this new variant offers full electronic standalone ECU control — no diaphragms, springs, or compressed gas are required — and as such, saves considerable weight over its pneumatic predecessors.

Once again, the industry definitely noticed. That same year, SEMA crowned the eSG50 as the “Best New Performance Racing Product” and “Best New Engineered Product” from the show.

But equally important as our engineering commitment to pushing this segment forward, we are also a company dedicated to rigorous testing. These new billet CNC aluminum electronic wastegates are tested to 2300 degrees Fahrenheit at over 1 million actuations.

The Top 5 Benefits of Turbosmart Electronic Wastegates:

  1. The first electronic wastegate that can handle the rigors of racing’s demands.
  2. Steadfast actuation/wastegate control with greater precision and easier tuning.
  3. Ability to set your wastegate valve position based on gear, time, RPM, GPS, and more – all from your laptop.
  4. Modular actuator housing allows 360 degrees of rotation for maximum mounting flexibility.
  5. Liquid cooling provisions extend the operating window for extreme applications.

We would like to thank Joshua Burney at Turbosmart for lending us his time and knowledge. If you’re interested in learning more about Turbosmart or its innovative product line, visit the company’s website for more information.


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