What are the advantages & Disadvantages of Supercharing VS. Nitrous system in terms of performance and reliability on drag & street?

 

Supercharger Pros:
* Power is always there, no bottle to fill
* CAN be generally more reliable than nitrous (depends on setup/tune)
* Bad butt sound and respect on the street (my D1SC gets me a lot of thumbs up)
* Centrifugal supercharged cars are monsters on the highway

Supercharger Cons:
* Expense!
* More mechanical components on the car to maintain
* Getting the setup right can be troublesome sometimes
* If you get a loud blower, your car won't be stealth -- if you get a quiet one, you'll most likely wish you had a loud one. Just the way it works I guess.

 

If you are looking to add 100-125hp for the occasional run at the track, n20 is the way to go.

If you want more HP or want it to always be there, FI is the way to go.

N20 is generally much harder on the motor than FI.

n20 is cheap to get started with, but can be pretty expensive over time. It can also be very expensive if you get into a high end system with a progressive controller.....

FI is expensive to get started with.

FI power is not all that impressive at the drag strip. n20 is instant, but FI has to build boost and you will need some big HP to hang/beat the n20 cars.

A combination of the two is also an option.




[Modified by QuickSilver2002, 12:07 AM 7/5/2004]

 

Unfortunately I don't have any practical experience with N20, but the things I ALWAYS disliked about it are:

1. Fill the bottle.... OFTEN.
2. Fear of a fuel system lean-out.
3. Have you ever seen an N20 backfire??
4. Excess abuse to drivetrain components when the system "hits".

Now a BLOWER car has been a desire of mine since I was 20. I'm now 36 and have just this week attained my personal DREAMCAR SETUP. I am a big supporter of blower cars for many of the same reasons others have mentioned.

Hope this helps, let us all know what your ultimate desicion is.


[Modified by dads01dream, 3:42 PM 7/4/2004]

 

Nitrous rules at the dragstrip.
SC power is always there.
Nitrous power is there when you need it.
SC's look cool.
Nitrous systems look cool.
SC's have harder install.
Nitrous is easier to install and remove.

 

Very well put; Some people don't have $7000+ to put into a blower so they go with N2O. If these cars were slow and you needed the spray just to have fun, it might be different, but a C5 properly modded can handle 90% of the cars you will encouter without the gas.
I don't feel that N2o is neccesarly much tougher on the engine, because you only use it occasionly, unlike a blower which, if run at high boost levels can stain an engine too.
Blower cars are cool, but Nitrous is cheap, fun and FAST!!!!!

 

I can tell you from first hand experience that blowers are much more than $7K by the time you factor in gagues, valve springs, clutch, fuel pump, tuning, etc, etc, (lots of etc's), however, blowers have the ultimate cool factor. Frankly it's just hard for me to have any respect for a car with N20. JMHO.

Mark

 

blowers have the ultimate cool factor. Frankly it's just hard for me to have any respect for a car with N20. JMHO.

Mark

[/QUOTE]

Wow; Personally I respect anyone that takes the time to mod their cars, especially if they do the work theirself.


As far as respect goes, there are a lot of Nitrous cars around, especially the ones running direct port, that will demand respect from any blower car that is not set up properly.
It's just a matter of apples and oranges. I personaly can fill my bottles several times on the $6000 difference. JMHO

 

My take on this:

running nitrous is like dating a hooker, you pay for every little thrill you get.

running a blower, on the other hand, is like marrying a beautiful nymphomaniac. you get all you want, all the time!

 

Then again you can always have your cake and eat it too. That is what I will be doing with my car. I had N20 for 3 years now and did not use it that much. I added a SC just so I could have more all the time power. I am turning my N20 into a Cry02 so when I want that addition kick I can get it from C20 and its about 12.00 to fill a bottle rather than 50.00.
Jon

 

JB

 

I was dealing w/the same issue when I began heavily modding my car. I went w/the N20 setup because I like being able to choose when I have my power. By all means, I plan on putting a supercharger on a C6 in the future because I think they are awesome! But for the $$$, I decided to go H/C w/nitrous and will probably spend about the same as what one would for a blower. From what I researched, H/C cars are performing considerably better at the track and that's another big reason why I went that route. If you don't plan on trying to make your car faster and faster and don't plan on 1/4mi. racing a lot, I would go w/a blower. I honestly would say that a blower would seem like a lot more fun. My problem would be that I'd never have the discipline to stay out of the gas. I would put a LOT more abuse on my car w/a blower. Which is another negative to me about a blower...it's always on there and it's always wearing on the motor. You'll be squeezing the crap out of a nitrous setup for the first few weeks, but after that, you'll settle down. I fill my bottle about once every 2 weeks, and that gets me through a lot of races Anyways, good luck on what you go with. It's a hard choice! Took me 6 months to decide, but I'm extremely happy w/it. Final thoughts: If you want better track times and better street racing , go w/nitrous. If you want something that is more fun ALL the time and adds to the cool factor ( although the N20 does impress people), go w/the blower.

 

Seems like the track times for the blower cars are improving drastically. No question, there was a significant learning curve to get the blower setup correctly. Now, with the ATI setup by A&A, I think you will see the blower cars running better times. . .

 

I was just reading an article about N2O and they made some interesting points,
As others have mentioned with N2O you get the boost when you want it vs SC that puts a continuous strain on your engine
N2O might be more an issue on older cars but on a newer one all your internals should be able to take it no problem.
N2O also help lower the incoming air temp where a SC increases the temp.

Personally I like the idea of a nice underhood blower

 

OOOOOH, if only that were true..... about the nympho wife that is!!

 

 

Bottle Fed:

Let me rephrase. I have respect for fast cars, but, fast cars that are only fast because of N20 (I'm not implying your car falls into the category) don't do much for me. One of our local Vette guys runs high 11's at 121 NA with his Z06 + GX3 cam. He also has a 100 shot of N20 for occasions where he might be outmatched. I'm impressed with any car that can run low 12's or high 11's without N20.

Not sure where your getting the $6,000 price quote from.. FI is way more than that by the time all is said and done.


SR71:

Beautifully put.

Mark

 

Or a "high maintenance biotch".

 

Not exactly accurate info. The SC doesn't create boost unless you actually romp the throttle. So, in normal driving around town, the SC will actually be running in vacuum. Also, any of the intercooled SC's will provide very similar input temps to a non-SC'd car.

I like both. . .I would love to have both the SC and the Nitrous. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until internals can be forged.

 

In regards to FI not performing impressivly at the track, I would love to see some empirical data on this. Could it be that the FI cars aren't tuned properly? Don't know how to launch with all the extra power (esp. Mag)? Air temp get too hot during a hard run?

I would have expected that FI card would perform well at the track. The FORD GT is a supercharged V-8. It does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and the quarter in the mid to high 11's. It outperforms the Viper's big V-10 (stock).