Quote:
Originally Posted by ponjohn
If superchargers need so much HP to produce then why are they a viable option vs. turbos?
Relative simplicity?
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Sort of. They are considered "easier to race" like a nitrous car vs a turbo car. It is an easier transition from nitrous to boost with a procharger than to turbo due to the methods of power management used.
Over-simply put, you slow the crank down, you control the power, you can do that with a graphs in a digital 7 just like you can with a nitrous car. With turbos you have boost controllers to deal with to program the ramps. Basically, pro-chargers have been viewed as less of a learning curve and something you could eventually do on your own, while turbos have had a stigma of always needing to have a "tuner" on hand helping with your program to go fast and win races.
Then when it comes to driving the car you stage a procharger car just like a nitrous/NA car, while a turbo car you had use to have to learn how to build boost, ride the breaks, bump in etc. Of course now, you put the right converter in the car and it comes up on boost quicker, stages easier, etc. Or you can use a "bump box" like a friend of mine makes where you bump the trans break button:
http://www.leashelectronics.com/Puls...tem-PL2000.htm
If you already had a nitrous car, it was easier to convert to pro charger as you could often re-use many components that were on the car vs "having to start fresh" with a turbo swap.
Obviously things have been changing at a rapid rate for turbo cars in the past couple of years, the stigma about the tuners is going away as more guys are "doing it on their own", procharger can not keep up with the technology advances in turbos in class racing leading more and more guys going to turbos which probably has something to do with that, I know of one car and another in progress that can be swapped from turbo to procharger in a few hours (power adder, converter, cam, gear, EFI program) in anticipation of class rule changes if one power adder has the advantage over the other in the class, the turbo and procharger uses the same ramair inlet in the lower front fascia, if you have the extra 10-15K to spend for the parts to sit in the trailer, it is what you can do when you want to win a championship...