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Superchargers – A guide to supercharger kits benefits vs disadvantages

Superchargers offer the promise of substantial power gains with very few drawbacks. So lets look at the growing popularity of supercharger kits and see what its all about.

A supercharger is quite simply an air compressor which helps push more air into an engine. These are driven by a belt from the engine effectively creating pull on the engine sapping up to 30% of the engines power.

What is brake fade and what causes brake fade?

This phenomenon known as brake fade can be quite unexpected and lethal and I would hazard a guess that 1 in 4 cars are likely to experience brake fade to some degree. Brake fade manifests itself by a spongy feel on the pedal and little or no braking force. Do not confuse brake fade with bad brakes or a mechanical fault as it applies to brake systems in relatively good condition.

Alloy wheels and their impact on handling and performance.

Some rally style alloy wheels are lighter – (less weight = more speed) and also are designed to increase the cooling of the brake disks.

Some designs hold up better to being curbed than others and some break very easily when hitting a pothole or curb at speed.

Always go for the best quality alloy wheel that you can afford and read the reports and reviews. If you do go for a different overall size you must get the suspension and tracking realigned to avoid uneven wear under acceleration.

How to add a turbo to a non turbo car.

The basic reason for forced induction (turbo or supercharger) is not to increase compression or the maximum pressure in an engine cylinder, it is to increase volumetric efficiency (the efficiency of the engine at drawing in air) although forced induction is the most effective method of upping compression.

In computer games we just tick a box, and within seconds our car is fully turbocharged and running much faster. In the real world things are very different.

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