I know this has been discussed before, yet I tried to do a search and turned up nothing. I got the OK to mod my vert and want to take it to a tuner this spring/summer. I can't decide what will be better(reliability/drivability) head/cam or supercharger(roots style). I've got my tuner down to two in Dallas area and would like to ship it off in a few months. Thanks.

 

1vote for H/C

 

I thought this about this over and over but I love the sound of the cam. I am doing H/C and then SC.

 

I love the rumble of a H/C car so that is what I had done

 

Nothing beats the wow factor of the SuperCharger - AND let's not forget factory driveability, that is until you mash the gas

 

Supercharger! Great for driveability! The sound awesome too!

 

Maggie kit would be the way to go

 

 

I just had the same debat with myself over the past 2-3 months. I finally decided to go with the S/C. Reasons:

1. The car will drive like stock until you hit the go pedal.

2. When I sell the car, it will be easier to remove the S/C then tearing apart the engine.

my 2 cents

 

H/C is best bang for the buck IMO.

 

Unless you want to have the idle sound of a head and cam combo, I'd go with the Magnusson. You''l have much better driveability and less headaches. Not to mention a crap load more torquye down low where you really use it on the street. To have a H&C car make the same power as an SC will require a noticeable cam and make the low end suffer. No need for high stall converters or deep rear gears that make the car tach higher going down the road. Get the Magnusson, you won't regret it.

Jersey

 

went with the H/C and couldnt be more happy. Depends if you like a mean sounding vette or more of a quite sleeper. Both are good

 

So far what I am understanding is that the supercharger has more "drivability" and more torque down low where I'll need it on the street. To get the same in a H/C package it might be more "radical" than I want, right?

 

I have been the H/C route, twice. I have a very strong car that produced very good results running N/A with all the extras. I love how the car drives and I really like the power. In fact, I haven't seen an A4 yet (there must be one) that has the kind of power I found and certainly not with the kind of driveability I have.

Buy ya know what? If I were starting from scratch like you are and I had it all to do over again, I would get the blower.

Bang for the buck it's a better deal. I could have put a blower on for the money I put in mine the last time I did a H/C setup. However, I still don't have the kind of power a blower can make.

Go see John Page at 21st Century Muscle Cars. They have done many of these and they are very good at it. Everyone I have met who has one loves it and the new hood will not hurt the looks of the car either.

Get the blower and have fun.

 

I am going H/C, I went with a centrifugal blower on my 98 TA and it made real pretty dyno #'s but its track performance wasnt phenomenal. The car would run pretty even with H/C auto's making 50 less rwhp. Roots style blowers are said to make a more broader useable power band as opposed to peaky power numbers that centrifugal units put out.

Well Ive seen mag #'s side by side both the Vortech 9 psi kit and an ATI D1SC and the mag just seems to make less power up top, and not any more power down low...

I am also concerned with throwing 70 lbs on the front of my car, and getting a new hood to fit the mag isnt thrilling. I added it up and a polished, intercooled mag with an painted motor city hood was gonna run upwards of $10k together and I could bank on a solid 470 rwhp.

The H/C combo Im going with is $5k altogether, and I am dropping 20 lbs off of the front of the car. And I can bank on a solid 430-440 rwhp with a more useable power band.

And nothing beats a lopey, nasty sounding motor, although Ive seen a clip on Lingenfelter's site of a mag C5 tearing down a straight and I must admit it sounded like a frickin Tie Fighter, way cool.

So heres a recap:

H/C $5-7 k (depending on what kind of heads)
ZO6 weight-3130 or so minus 20 lbs= 3100 or so lbs. (LG LT's drop 20 lbs)

Mag, hood, paint yada, yada: $10k or so
3130+70 lbs = 3200 lbs or so

One more thing, I recently read an article in Hot Rod magazine, they thew an intercooled mag on a GTO and had to get ahold of Magnusson because they were getting sub par track performance. Even with the intercooler, the mag was getting serious heat soak. The track times and power dropped after every pass like 1-2 tenths and 10-20 hp.

I hear the intercooler is ineffecient. Rumor has it Kenne Bell is in the process of releasing a screw kit with an intercooler that works.

If you must go FI, turbo's are also not out of the picture either. But thats enough of my 2 cents. Someone else can chime in on turbo's if they like. Heres my 2nd post here, Im on a roll....

 

Do the blower I've done H/C and now have a All Bore motor the ATI is the best S/C route to do set up right you will love it Andy at A&A or ECS or MDMC they have the best setup out there if I was to do it again it would be a S/C then H/C the H/C is good for track use but for fun on the street s/c is the way to go.The maggie I don't know much about but it seems a maggie would run out of steam in the higher rpm's
just my .02

 

Thanks to all who replied. I think a blower will work fine and fit my application well. I can still do Z06 heads and a mild cam when they put on the blower. Then I'll have to find a way to get traction