The Turbocharger
The turbocharger for the Corvair increased the horsepower from 80 to 150. The torque rating went up from 128 to 200 foot-pounds. The turbocharger was kicking in around 4000 RPM, which gave the car a nice boost when driving on the highway. In the third gear the car can accelerate from 50 to 70 in 6.2 seconds compared to 17.1 without the turbocharger.
The principal of the supercharger is fairly straight forward. In layman terms a rotary pump that aids atmospheric pressure in the charging the cylinder with air-fuel mixture. More mixture will created more force to the pistons during the power stroke, which means more torque and horsepower. More torque and horsepower means more grunt and speed.