Turbos Or Superchargers?
08-23-2003, 04:10 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 1,784
Got into a lunchroom debate the other day with my musclecar friends on turbos and superchargers. I know turbos are more efficient than superchargers and can easily run more boost than a supercharger but everytime i'd bring those up they'd say something along the lines of "why dont any drag cars have turbos, theyr'e all blown" talking about f-bodies and domestic draggers and funny cars and what not. Anyways why do they run superchargers rather than turbos on those and why are most of those domsetic v8s supercharged rather than turboed.
08-23-2003, 04:34 PM
#3
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: calgary
Posts: 28
i heard this somewhere, so this may not be true.(i believe it was on trucks, and they were at a major automotive school)
for gasoline applications, a supercharger is better. while a turbo is better suited for diesel engines. they didn't mention anything about alcohol cars though.
can anyone shed any light on a possible reason for this claim? i can't remember the reason.
for gasoline applications, a supercharger is better. while a turbo is better suited for diesel engines. they didn't mention anything about alcohol cars though.
can anyone shed any light on a possible reason for this claim? i can't remember the reason.
08-23-2003, 05:29 PM
#4
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Close enough to annoy you.
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Turbos don't produce boost at low end, superchargers do and have a more steady boost curve. When you're running a drag car the split second it takes for that turbo to spool can cost you a race.
Turbochargers are pretty close to something for nothing. Superchargers have parasitic pumping loss. Even still last I looked at it you still win out with a supercharger over time. That was some time ago so things may have changed techology wise.
As far as supercharging a rotary the thing to remember is a rotary doesn't make much torque or hp at the low end anyways so part of the point of the supercharger is defeated. Still you can gain some serious power.
sequential superchargers or dual stage really kick ***
Turbochargers are pretty close to something for nothing. Superchargers have parasitic pumping loss. Even still last I looked at it you still win out with a supercharger over time. That was some time ago so things may have changed techology wise.
As far as supercharging a rotary the thing to remember is a rotary doesn't make much torque or hp at the low end anyways so part of the point of the supercharger is defeated. Still you can gain some serious power.
sequential superchargers or dual stage really kick ***
08-24-2003, 12:45 AM
#7
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: KAOH
Posts: 597
what about both super and turbo chargers together on the same car? even though rotaries don't really have torque a supercharger could help with the low end and then the turbo charger could take over for the high end? i know this has been done on some four cylinder engines where there torque is almost as nonexistent as our rotaries, i read an article in sports compact car where a 1st gen toyota mr2 had a supercharger for low end, turbo for high end, and then nitrous for different parts of its torque/horsepower curve. ugly car but from what the article said it was insanely fast. has anything like that even been done to a rotary? 
08-24-2003, 10:34 PM
#9
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: va
Posts: 92
i think that supercharging would be the way to go for drift and turbo for drag. eaton is the only company ive seen with blowers for rotary and they still have 1st gens that run like 10s. the blower is almost the size of the 12a. me myself i want as much low end torgue and hp as possible. but its your car so do as you wish. i sould say the eaton 12inch blower is the way. the full kit is a little over $3000.running a turbo will be just as much or maybe even more. i dunno cause all i got is a 88 with a rebuilt ported and 3mm sealed na.but i want the blower. so have fun choosing.