If you’re a fan of the Fast and Furious saga, you’ve for sure heard about the word “NOS”, nitrous or nitro, but what is it really? Does it give cars a boost as shown in the movies? Keep scrolling to learn about it!

What it is

Nitrous Oxide System (NOS) is a system which injects nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas), which increases the amount of oxygen put into the engine to increase its power. It is exclusively used for racing, drag racing and tuning.

It is also important to know nitrous cannot be injected into any engine, only into specifically designed engines that can handle NOS, as injecting it on normal engines can lead to an engine failure.

Brief history

Nitrous oxide was used long before cars were invented. It was first synthesised in 1772 by Joseph Priestley, and years after it started being used as an anesthetic and recreational drug, and it got the name “laughing gas”.

Many years later, Horace Wells used nitrous oxide as an anesthetic in 1844.

Finally, in the mid 1930’s, car enthusiasts discovered that injecting nitrous oxide in engines increased their power. Almost 40 years later, Nitrous Oxide Systems became quite popular, specially for drag racing purposes. Nowadays, NOS isn’t very used, and only some tuners and drag racers use it.

How it works

The way nitrous oxide gets more air into the engine is through chemical reactions. Explained briefly and in an easy way, N₂O has 2 particles of nitrogen and one of oxygen. When a certain temperature is reached, the N₂O particles break down, releasing more gases that just the O₂ in the air. Apart from N₂O, common air is also put into the engine.

In conclusion, N₂O just adds more gases to be burnt, which in the end create more power.

N₂O in movies

The Fast and Furious saga often shows N₂O being injected in tuned cars. Along with the increased power, colored flames (often blue) also appear in the exhaust, but does this happen in real life, or is it just a special effect?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: If no additional modifications are made, nitrous oxide doesn’t produce that amazing flames in the exhaust. In the movie, they’re used to show in a more visual way that nitrous is being used, along with giving it a more amazing appearance. Those blue flames are probably edited on a computer, or maybe they injected some substances that produce those effects, such as an ignition enhancer.