209TIME!!!

Okay superchargers look damn good, sound great and give you a lot of HP but, those nice pieces of bling cost some serious bucks!!!

and almost all the CHARGED cars at the track where getting beat up on in the 1/4 mile, you hear them coming but you see them losing...

the cam and head cars whooped A$$ all day and the fastest cars at the track were C5Z's with auto trans,that seems like the way to go for me.....(JMO)

what do you guys think?

Dominic Toretto

If I had the choice to go for big power NA or boosted, I would go for all motor all day.

-Alex

bumble-z

There's alot to be said to an automatic trans 1/4 mi C/5. Couple that w/ an ECS Pro charger and the fixens = EZ 10 seconds & below!

molten vett

I've been lurking over in the parts for sale section for months looking for a blower. I'm heads cam and exhaust already and i'd love to slap a blower on
There was a guy selling an A&A kit the other day for 2500.00
By the time i saw the post i was 5th in line. That was the deal of the century.

FYRARMS

Easy. Heads, cam, and supercharger. Why skimp?

Blow Torch

Worked for me

joshtownsend

If you want just a drag car.. I guess that would be ok.. Maybe you could even try out for the new fast and furious movie seeing as you live life 1/4 mile at a time!!!

Most blower cars are not built for the track.. I never go the track... But, If you want to run 50-150.. let me know.. you will change your mind.. then getting 30mpg to and from the race.. also a great reason to go with a blower

Dominic Toretto

All things being equal between cars(Tires, suspension, transmission etc), would a blown 500hp corvette outperform an NA 500hp corvette? Again, everything else being perfectly equivalent between the cars.

-Alex

Todd157k

Most NA cars that are at 500 rwhp are near that in rwtq and (depending on type of FI) boosted cars are a little short of that. The two biggest differences are:
1. a boosted car is much easier to drag more power out of
2. it's far less expensive to go FI than to build a 500 hp motor.

Dominic Toretto

That is correct but, my question is the other poster stated something about a not-so-sanctioned race and I was just wondering why a boosted car would perform better. If things are equal then what is the real benefit in that particular scenario.

-Alex

road pilot

I think someone is opening a can of worms. Have fun.

webelo

Forced induction is great, but I have to say that I LOVE the sound of big cubes.

Nothing beats the rumble of a big block with huge cam.

jbondfl

Hey, hey ,hey, can't we all just get along?

Purpose built cars give something up to get something else. We've beat this to death here before.

As you approach/exceed 500rwhp you quickly lose street driveability. It's not impossible, but it's not comfortable driving a huge cam car in city traffic. Keep this puppy on the track and it's fine.

Personally I find it hard to belive a 500hp NA car would have any advantage over a 500hp boosted car at the strip. HP is HP and other than the extra 70lbs of SC or turbo weight the race will be determined by something other than HP/TQ.

And if you saw a C5Z automatic ( you implied there were more than one,, "the fastest cars at the track were C5Z's with auto trans"),,, that was not the only thing they changed and it probably wasn't an A4. Why would anyone change a Z06 tranny to an A4 if they were purpose building it for the strip? Why not a Powerglide instead? And if it is a Powerglide it certainly wans't the only change.

black98c5

x2

BT-01-vette

There are other issues to be addressed when going to FI especially on the track. Countless hrs where put into my car by ECS cooling her dn and they may have a proven formula....waiting to see when it gets hotter how she handles the heat on the track. I have a custom made radiator along ducting that have so far proven itself on the street. No heating issues on a 90* day beating on her. See my sig for a complete break dn of what was done. Before this setup I had a H/C package, give me FI any day!

zeevette

Beautiful car, BT. And 209 time, you're really stirring up the pot. The one thing you have correct when equating superchargers as just "bling" is noticably absent in centrifical applications. You must be thinking of Magnason SC'd cars. They are definately engine bling in polished form. However you can't deny the power gains from even a mild SC application. Power is power. If you can get it to the pavement, higher HP/TQ will win the race, other things being equal. Big cubic inches is a great way to improve performance, but comes at a pretty high cost. Even if you spend 20k on a big inch motor, you can spend another 10k or so and FI it for MUCH greater gains. I went the full bolt-ons H/C route, and I'm just finishing up a Vortech centri install, so put me in the BOTH category.

209TIME!!!

you my friend sound like one of those guys that would go to the track with your nice supercharger and get spanked.

i dont live a 1/4 mile at a time the facts are the facts, most of the supercharged cars on that day got spanked, it could have been many factors that came into play, driver, tires, track, bad tune the list can go on and on.....all i am saying is i would be pi$$ed if i spent that kind of cash for some HP & SPEED and i was getting beat up on like that!

(THAT IS JUST MY OPINION)

FYRARMS

Depends on what those guys "getting beat up on" had in mind when they did their build. Everything is relative. Chances are favorable that someone who installed a supercharger kit on a stock engine wasn't trying to break any dragstrip ET records with it anyway...

Worthington

I think something to consider is whether or not you ever plan to road race. Road racing is a hundred times more fun than drag racing (imo).

If you plan on road racing, NA is the way to go.

I suggest trying it out, I realized I really don't need much more power after doing it. I did add nitrous but just b/c I can turn that off and just use it occasionally.

I know after doing the road course I suddenly changed my perspective on power adding mods. I also had the time of my life, I never though I'd find something as fun as riding crotch rockets (did that for 8 years) -this was more fun, quite a bit more fun.

ArcticWhite

Power is not power. It is area under the curve that matters. A lot of s/c cars are still stock cubes at 500rwhp. Usually 500rwhp NA cars are using larger cubes. Typically these cars have more area under the curve than the supercharged cars and are therefore quicker.

Now, build a s/c car with the same cubes and the advantages goes away. The type of blower makes a difference too. Blowers like the procharger, build boost with rpm, and therefore produce big numbers but not as much area under the curve as a something like a Kenne Bell blower.

Also, high HP cars are a lot harder to launch and maintain traction, a lot of the time making them slower than lower HP, NA cars that can get a better launch and better traction.

Finally, not all high NA builds loose street driveability. I've got 590rwhp NA out of 447cu, and the car drives very easily in traffic and on the highway. The torque at low rpm and instant throttle response make it a blast on the street. I've done a 4000mile trip with the car and it was nothing but pure enjoyment. The only downfall: 590rwhp is probably 2.5x the price NA vs. FI.