Quote:
Originally Posted by TurboBRZ
For as far back as I can remember I have been a turbo driver. If my car didn't come with one, I bought an engine that did and swapped it in, or added one to it. To me there is just nothing like the feeling when the boost kicks in around 3-4k RPM's when you get sucked back into your seat.
But I see a lot of members on this site who have gone with a Supercharger install instead of a turbo, and rather than asking them each individually what their reasoning is I thought I would make a thread.
For those of you who don't know, Superchargers require adding an additional pulley onto your engine which creates more drag on the engine and therefore power is robbed from the engine to create forced induction - to create more power. To me this has always seemed inefficient, as my goal is solely to increase HP, not take HP to make HP. Turbos on the other hand run off exhaust gases and do not rob HP from the engine to make HP - and thus turbo'd engines tend to be more economical in terms of fuel economy (and they typically make more power from the same amount of boost).
So for all you supercharger guys out there - what was your reasoning for going Supercharged instead of Turbo? I'm obviously missing something and am looking to be educated.  |
This question comes up regularly.
Transient response, and heat management.
A turbo can create "more" power, and a fatter powerband, but it comes at the cost of throttle response (the turbo needs to spin up to create boost, whereas a supercharger is already spinning at the necessary speed and is always making boost), and heat (all that extra piping is extra heat in the engine bay).