In terms of performance, turbochargers have a bit of an advantage over naturally aspirated engines when it comes to performance. This is because it can force large amounts of air into the engine, allowing it to burn more fuel with each stroke. Naturally aspirated engines can still have a trick up their sleeves, and that comes in the form of individual throttle bodies.
Usually, a vehicle’s engine comes with a single throttle body which controls the flow of air into the engine. This configuration is cheap and easy to maintain, but the intake manifold will be running a partial vacuum until that throttle is opened. Air at atmospheric pressure then has to travel through the manifold before hitting the cylinders. With individual throttle bodies, each cylinder has its own throttle body, the intake manifold can be full of air at atmospheric pressure, and that air doesn’t have to travel far to hit the cylinders. A vacuum is instead pulled in the small space between the throttle bodies and the cylinders themselves.
As a result, the throttle is much more responsive, and the added efficiency generates more power for the engine. It also sounds fantastic, which adds to the driving encounter these engines furnish. There’s plenty of talk about power and torque, but the driving encounter itself involves noise, smells, and a general feeling of excitement.
You don’t see this configuration often, because it’s expensive to carry out and harder to maintain. But older, naturally aspirated, M engines aimed to be as good as they could be. So many of them came with individual throttle bodies.
