He had to admit that, barring any surprises, Rose Champagne would definitely finish ahead of Lilligant and Maractus.
"What a fierce turbo whine..."
A turbo could be understood as two connected fans. Exhaust gases spun the fan in the exhaust pipe, which drove the fan in the intake pipe.
It formed a perfect cycle that used exhaust gases to increase air intake.
Using a move to boost "Speed" and increase air intake required at least one Pokémon to divide their attention to keep track of it. A turbo required no extra attention at all, and the faster the car went, the stronger the exhaust flow became, making the intake fan spin even harder.
As for its drawbacks, those had shown themselves during Huzang and Shen Qi's test runs.
At low speeds, the exhaust flow was too weak to spin the turbo, so it could not drive the air intake either. That meant there was no turbocharging, just the extra weight of another component for nothing.
That lack of power at low speeds was called "turbo lag."
Off-road racing in particular had plenty of obstacles and difficult sections, requiring frequent deceleration, which made turbos even more of a liability.
But after Rose Champagne slowed down, its turbo lag lasted only briefly, and it picked up speed very quickly.
"Did they use some kind of trick?"
"Anti-Lag Ignition."
There were muffled bangs of backfiring amid the engine's roar. They were probably using Anti-Lag Ignition.
The simple explanation was that some extra energy was discharged at low revs. What the generator could not consume entered the exhaust pipe and ignited.
That added extra exhaust flow at low revs, keeping the turbo spinning to some degree so there would be much less lag when the car actually got moving.
The drawback was obvious too...