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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.

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.

Principles of porting an engine and big valve conversions

The inlet and outlet ports on the engine block are usually larger than those of the manifolds that connect to them.

This allows for scope in the manufacturing process to allow for mismatched alignment.

Generally the engine ports are larger in the upstream flow direction avoiding turbulance but power gains can be made by matching these up.

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