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Once again ......... GM had a Turbo version of the Ecotec in Europe (Saab and Opel..used also by Lotus) and on US sold Saab's since the 1st generation 2.0L LK9 motor designed and on the road well before the '03 SEMA show ..... as well as a turbo version sold on every generation since ......
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All true, but the introduction of the Ecotec to North American nameplates is to what I allude, as at the time the North American and European divisions were much more separate entities than today (we are going back some 15 years here). This Ecotec engine introduction across traditionally American nameplates was a sea change for GM North America, and a neat story in itself which I've described in great detail elsewhere. Said North American introduction was accompanied by our turbo versions at the SEMA show, as per GM's directive.
The very first Ecotec-branded engine, the nameplate being rolled out in 2002, was the engine upon which we pioneered aftermarket Ecotec boost on in the USA, via the cars GM donated to us for SEMA exposure, as well as for aftermarket development. It was the lowly L61 2.2L, which we'd ultimately take to 750 HP in our racing operations. These engines actually had little in common with the European SAAB version. To that end, GM's first foray into boosting Ecotec in the USA was in fact not even a turbo, but a supercharged engine, the LSJ as would come later in Cobalt. One of our earlier specialties was tearing off the compromised Cobalt factory superchargers and placing a turbosystem in its place, a trend which has seen great success since. To that end, GM again followed our lead...shelving the supercharged Cobalt in favor of a turbocharged version, some four years after we'd pioneered turbocharging on Cobalt.
Similarly, Solstice and Sky were also introduced as non-turbos, a shortcoming which we immediately latched upon, creating turbosystems for them that are still popular to this day. Our early boosted work with that 2.4L engine (we were the first to boost it in both Solstice/Sky and Cobalt), is of course what's led to our offerings today with Slingshot. Three years later would come the factory turbo versions of Solstice and Sky, which bear more than a passing resemblance to our pioneering efforts, as I've outlined above.