Personally I like superchargers, but when a turbo spools up it makes my insides all gooey. My vote is with superchargers, since the power is increased throughout the powerband, and torque increases with horsepower at a more equal rate.
i vote volkwswagen 1.4TSI. using both to get 170bhp from a 1.4.. or lancia who used both in the s4 rally car. but in an either or situation id go with a supercharger.
really depends on the engine, intended use etc... hard to so... either way forced induction is a good thing
Well I've only ever driven NA and turbo cars but I reckon a supercharger would be best for road use, especially the recent centrifugal ones.
My little car at most only has fuel injection. But my dad's Golf 4 1.9TDi is pretty cool to drive. I love it when the turbo starts to whirl and whistle and the car surges forwards as it reaches 2000RPM. I can actually feel the compression of the engine when my foot is flat on the accelerator. Ha ha! I was getting annoyed with an idiot driving behind me one day in his Polo. He overtakes me, but I slam my car into second and floor it. I sort of kept up to the guy, but in the end he overtook. I was then chasing the idiot up a hill. May I remind you, I drive a 1.4i VW Citi Golf. He couldn't get away from me and I was keeping up. At the intersection at the top of the street I stopped behind him and saw to my absolute and complete surprise... TDi! Sputnik
For street use, I vote for turbochargers, and I even have decent reasons: A supercharger is great for racing, because the power is boosted through the entire rev range and power delivery is therefore very linear. This makes the power easier to control and easier to use. However, because the boost is always on, you are losing efficiency when you aren't asking the engine for very much power, which is most of the time on the street. A turbocharger, on the other hand, is excellent for street use. Modern small turbos don't hurt economy nearly as badly when you aren't caning it, and when you do want to have an adventure they wake up quickly, make cool noises, and allow you to produce massive torque at low RPM. And torque, far more than peak horsepower, makes a car enjoyable on the street. Sure, you can't get all the power in the world out of a turbo, and at some point it becomes unreasonable to keep adding turbos or making the existing ones bigger. The Ford GT, all the Koenigseggs, and fast Mercedes make excellent use of superchargers. The Bugatti Veyron uses turbos, but it takes four of them and I suspect the choice had to do with space constraints. Just remember, it's more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. What matters for fun on the street is the character of the car, not its limits. And a turbo certainly adds character.
Twas what I was thinking. What's the difference between a supercharger and a tubrocharger? I understand the concept of a turbo, but what's the diff with a super?
AFAIK there the same thing except the supercharger is allways on. Turbo just kicks in at certain revs. I think.
A supercharger uses the flywheel to spin up to provide boost pressure so that it provides boost all the way through the rev range where as a turbocharger uses the pressure from the exhaust gases to spin the turbo when they get to a high enough pressure so they only operate further up the rev range - hence people talking about a turbo "kicking in" at a certain level of revs. Turbos are great for high power but superchargers do provide power all the way through the rev range.
From what I understand, another benefit of superchargers are they are more easily "reversible" if you want to go back to stock, say to sell it. Usually take less room too which depending on your engine bay, may be a decisive factor. I've been eyeing FI for a long time, though due to my car, I'm quite limited and the few options are extremely expensive per HP. It looks like when I cross that bridge, I'll be going with a supercharger.
Ah, a flywheel I don't understand why they don't use an electronic pump mapped to the engine revs rather than something linked to exhaust gas or flywheel.
Basically similar to a turbo in so far as they both force air into the engine. Turbo is driven by exhaust gases, SC is belt driven from the crankshaft. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/supercharger.htm
That is the direction I think forced induction is going. There are larger truck turbos fitted with electric motors to boost the low speed response and help overcome lag. They can also be used to generate electricity in a hybrid-esque sorta way Problem is the power needed to pump the amount of air needed is high, so you end up with a big motor, thick cables and need a high output alternator, even for a small engine. The introduction of 42-volt electrics would probably make it a lot more feasable.
I think it depends what you want from a car. My mini would be a pig with a supercharger, the wheels would spin, and the gearbox would break, due to the extra low down torque. The turbo doesnt come onto full boost until 3300rpm, which gives the car time to grip, and get moving before the shove. My golf on the other hand, wouldnt work as well with a turbo, its bigger, heavier, and generally more of a car, so the smooth style of the supercharger works really well. Always the rule though: Turbos for HP figures, Superchargers for quick times.
I understand that you have aftermarket parts, but I'm not sure the engineers at VW and BMW would agree with you. Both cars are available with factory forced induction, and they did it backwards from you. Minis, at least the Cooper S, have superchargers and Golfs, at least the TDi and GTI, have turbos. Also, a couple of people have mentioned that turbos provide good boost at high revs, which isn't completely true. Small turbos spin up very quickly and do good work at low RPM. As an example, look at the Golf GTI and the various other VW/Audi cars with the same engine. The peak torque on that engine is at only 1800 RPM and actually starts to drop off again by 5000. That would make it an awful engine for racing, because the peak power is poor, but it's an excellent street engine because it gives you phenomenal torque right away. And, Crix, I actually saw that just a few weeks ago. Hate to think what it does to the handling, though. When they were pushing 800 hp, they only showed it running in a straight line, and when they took it up past 1000, it couldn't even do that properly.
