Gerardo Brinkman excitingly wrote:
> I just finished the installation of the super charger I bought earlier
> this year from Hi-Flow in Australia. In one word "wow".
Terrific!
I personally believe that supercharging is the best method of bringing your
car into today's performance levels while satisfying a preservation for
originality. No other bolt on brings such an increase in power as
supercharging can, and being a bolt on it means that you're only changing
the intake system. In my mind that is no worse or difficult as installing a
side draft Weber.
Fortunately, the advances made in forced induction, primarily supercharging
in the last decade, mean that economy and reliability due not suffer.
Vacuum by-pass valves ensure that your supercharger is only producing boost
in situations when such acceleration is needed, and in times such as idle or
cruise the supercharger is doing such little work as to only draw a fraction
of a horsepower from your engine. Of course this means fuel economy, for
the most part, stays the same unless your car is used primarily as a race
car. Advances in aftermarket electronics also mean that you can now install
ignition systems which will monitor boost and engine characteristics for you
and alter timing at the right moment... and more importantly some systems
will go so far as to allow individual cylinder timing and knock control so
the longevity of your motor does not suffer.
So go supercharge your vintage cars if you're looking for the extra
performance without the engineering and work associated with a V8
conversion, not to mention the greater fuel consumption of a V8. You will
be pleasantly surprised to see your reliability and economy stay the same,
but with a wonderful increase in usable power.
For me it has become an addiction, I've had a supercharger kit for my TR6
since July of 2000 but I've decided that I could design a better and more
efficient system myself and through that process I have become one of
supercharging's greatest supporters. Especially because you need not
sacrifice originality, reliability and economy for that extra performance
you crave to drive your car in a more spirited and fashion.
If it is good enough for Aston Martin, GM, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz (all using
Eaton superchargers) and Mazda and Nissan (using Lysholm superchargers) on
their current stock production cars... then supercharging must have
progressed enough to make it a sensible upgrade for any vehicle.
Kai
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