General trend: supercharge or turbo?

[Shenlon]

It seems to me that the general trend for LS1s is to supercharge rather than turbo. For other cars, it seems to make a lot more sense to turbo than supercharge (Supra, WRX, Civic, namely cars that come from the factory with/option of a turbo to begin with). What makes supercharging easier than turbocharging for us? Is this just a mis-conception that I've had? Let me know what you guys think.

[Teufel Hunden]

I don't think it's necessarily easier to S/C a 4th Gen FBody than it is to turbocharge one. It think it has alot to do with which kits are more well known and easier to get ahold of. Take imports for example. It's very rare to see a Supercharged import, where as tons of companies make turbo kits for a wide variety of import applications. I'm sure if there were more companies who made S/C kits for imports, the division between the two FI sides would be more equal. The same goes for our cars. While there is more than one company who offers Turbo kits for them, it's much more common to find a S/C kit for sale. Of course, there are other factors involved here, but i'd say availability is one of the main reasons.

[MIGHTYMOUSE]

the trend for domestics has been supercharging for a long time.. turbocharging an american car has for some reason never gotten really big.. but its comming along :)

you can calculate the airflow of a sc at wide open for any given rpm.. for a turbo it varies which does make tuning comparatively more difficult with the stock computer.

[Exotic Performance Plus]

Aftermarket turbo kits have a bad tendency to break the turbo mounts, do to all the heat cycling that comes with a turbo. If you do go with a turbo, you want to find a manufacturer that has been around for a while, that will stand behind their products. :)

[slow]

and if you look at teh cars you listed, all have "CAST" manifolds available for them.

something we don't have (other than the incon kits that are floating around)



Ryan.