Angrey
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2020
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- Location
- Coral Gables
- Vehicle(s)
- 2016 GT350
The one thing I'll emphasize is that there's two distinct camps/categories.
Category A is moderate power compared to the chassis/tires.
Category B is excessive or way excessive power/torque compared to the chassis tires.
If you're in Category A, just about any power adder system will work (with different aspects and pros and cons).
If you're in Category B however, where you're making 4 digit power and crazy torque, the choices start to get really different. The distinct advantage of a turbo setup is the ability to manage the boost/torque through a wastegate and controller.
You can make 4 digit power on Turbo, Twin Screw or Big Centri. How that power is delivered however becomes an issue if you're greatly exceeding the tires/grip.
With a big power Twin Screw (aka Whipple) the power/torque is only modulated by your right foot. Which on the street and even at the track is SCARY. Why? Because to get the car to perform you're going to want to be somewhere near the point that the tires spin. In order to do that, you have to calibrate your foot and get as close to spin as possible without breaking traction. Breaking traction at 20 mph in a parking lot is cute. Breaking traction at triple digit speeds is a recipe for carnage.
My advice is....if you're going to go 850 hp and say 750 torque or less, pick whatever blows your hair back. Roots, Twins Screw, Centri, Turbos. If you're going to make torque that's north of that you'd better have some max effort chassis and tire setup (aka drag suspension and 15" slicks) unless you can manage that torque with a boost controller (aka turbos). Otherwise the car is just a spin machine.
A guy who just posted a sub 4 second dragy video was asked "what's the secret" and his answer was both spot on and insightful. "Boost ramp."
If I were going less than 850 wheel, I'd opt for either a whipple or an ESS/Procharger setup. Both have particular traits that you can read about in countless other threads. But if you ever plan on going BIG numbers, go with turbos. You can at least control and choose how much sauce you want for varying conditions, circumstances, gears, rpm, etc.
At some point, TRACTION becomes the dominant factor in rear wheel drive cars. You can make 10,000 hp but if the tires can't put it down, it's not just useless, it's outright dangerous.
As any car climbs through the gears, the torque multiplication drops with each higher gear. Starting off, my car makes almost 11x the torque to the wheels that the engine is creating (in 1st gear). So at peak torque (nearly 900 Ft-lbs) the tires are seeing nearly 10,000 ft-lbs of torque. Which is why it just rolls them over. As the gears climb, it eventually drops to 5.03 times the torque (in 3rd), 4.09 times the torque (in 4th) and 3.272 times the torque (in 5th).
This issue is one of the reasons why roll racing has become so popular. In order to keep the torque (and traction limitations) manageable, big power/tq cars need to be in higher gears (less multiplication) to keep the traction from being overwhelmed. That translates to higher speeds.
So to summarize, if you're below the sweet spot in traction and torque limits, choose whatever. If you EVER plan on going big torque numbers, turbo is about the only option outside of expensive systems like MOTEC that can manage the engine output relative to wheel spin.
Category A is moderate power compared to the chassis/tires.
Category B is excessive or way excessive power/torque compared to the chassis tires.
If you're in Category A, just about any power adder system will work (with different aspects and pros and cons).
If you're in Category B however, where you're making 4 digit power and crazy torque, the choices start to get really different. The distinct advantage of a turbo setup is the ability to manage the boost/torque through a wastegate and controller.
You can make 4 digit power on Turbo, Twin Screw or Big Centri. How that power is delivered however becomes an issue if you're greatly exceeding the tires/grip.
With a big power Twin Screw (aka Whipple) the power/torque is only modulated by your right foot. Which on the street and even at the track is SCARY. Why? Because to get the car to perform you're going to want to be somewhere near the point that the tires spin. In order to do that, you have to calibrate your foot and get as close to spin as possible without breaking traction. Breaking traction at 20 mph in a parking lot is cute. Breaking traction at triple digit speeds is a recipe for carnage.
My advice is....if you're going to go 850 hp and say 750 torque or less, pick whatever blows your hair back. Roots, Twins Screw, Centri, Turbos. If you're going to make torque that's north of that you'd better have some max effort chassis and tire setup (aka drag suspension and 15" slicks) unless you can manage that torque with a boost controller (aka turbos). Otherwise the car is just a spin machine.
A guy who just posted a sub 4 second dragy video was asked "what's the secret" and his answer was both spot on and insightful. "Boost ramp."
If I were going less than 850 wheel, I'd opt for either a whipple or an ESS/Procharger setup. Both have particular traits that you can read about in countless other threads. But if you ever plan on going BIG numbers, go with turbos. You can at least control and choose how much sauce you want for varying conditions, circumstances, gears, rpm, etc.
At some point, TRACTION becomes the dominant factor in rear wheel drive cars. You can make 10,000 hp but if the tires can't put it down, it's not just useless, it's outright dangerous.
As any car climbs through the gears, the torque multiplication drops with each higher gear. Starting off, my car makes almost 11x the torque to the wheels that the engine is creating (in 1st gear). So at peak torque (nearly 900 Ft-lbs) the tires are seeing nearly 10,000 ft-lbs of torque. Which is why it just rolls them over. As the gears climb, it eventually drops to 5.03 times the torque (in 3rd), 4.09 times the torque (in 4th) and 3.272 times the torque (in 5th).
This issue is one of the reasons why roll racing has become so popular. In order to keep the torque (and traction limitations) manageable, big power/tq cars need to be in higher gears (less multiplication) to keep the traction from being overwhelmed. That translates to higher speeds.
So to summarize, if you're below the sweet spot in traction and torque limits, choose whatever. If you EVER plan on going big torque numbers, turbo is about the only option outside of expensive systems like MOTEC that can manage the engine output relative to wheel spin.
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