Howdy,
On Sat, 2 Dec 2000, Jeff Winchell wrote:
> I was wondering why superchargers are discouraged so much. In the
> prepared classes, people can achieve very high HP (i.e. CP and BP)
> without them. In SM, the weight and possibly the suspension of the bigger
> cars that aren't allowed to have them are bigger liabilities that another 100-
> 200 HP from a supercharger won't solve.
>
> I realize some can argue there are better ways to achieve more HP. But
> particularly with SM, it is supposed to attract new people, and
> superchargers are not uncommon among at least one segment of the SM
> target audience (ponycars), yet those cars can't put on superchargers.
I'd definately agree with you if we were talking about
supercharged/turbo'd pony cars. I don't see how adding more horsepower
would help those cars vs. adding power to a CSP civic. The weight of the
pony cars and DOT tires should cancel out any advantages. Heck, it always
looked to me like Karl Witt's camaro had more power than it could use
this past year anyway.
The only wrench here (IMHO obviously) is that according to the rules you
can do engine swaps etc. and you need to watch for psycho combinations.
Even then, however, SM can run a built small block v8 that could make
a reliable 400hp right now. I dunno if race gas is allowed, but if so,
and with more psycho tuning I could see 550hp or so. With those levels of
power legally available, I don't see why you need to outlaw superchargers
& turbos on v8's. The extra power is just _more_ overkill and will likely
make the car even harder to drive.
On the plus side of making such a change, it would give the supercharged
Mustang/Camaro guys a place to play and give folks a motor building option
that's cheaper than an all out race motor.
Mark
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