Well, this is definitely a difficult issue and has been around more
then a few times. Wonder why? From where I stand it is because the
problem is not correctly labeled. Usually this comes up like turbo
cars and boost control. I believe that this issue is much bigger than
just that and I will try to brake it into the two different one, so
it might be easier to deal with them one at a time.
1. Boost control through the electronic gadgets ---> Here is the one
that was mentioned above as one of the big problems, but in this case
this one is much bigger than a turbo charged cars. Let see what is
out there.
1.1. You can control boost with some aftermarket controller
(there are too many to list them here) that is plugged with the stock
computer control. The good thing about those is that they all require
some extra gadgets to be plugged around your engine so they can be
policed relatively easy.
1.2. The other type is the one that controls the boost through
the stock (or whatever is in there) computer unit (let's call it ECU
from now on). Well, there are good and bad things about this one.
1.2.1. The fact stated up there that most of the newer cars
have electronic boost control is simply not true. In general there
are two main types of electronic boost controllers. One of them are
based on the actual manifold pressure (usually cars that are equipped
with the MAP sensor - examples MR2 Turbo, Supra TT, and so on). Those
are the cars that usually have some kind of the boost activated fuel
cuts, so disabling any of those is illegal according to the rules.
You can still gain some advantage if you raise the boost closer to
the fuel cut level, but most of the allowed mods will bring the car
there anyway, so I don't believe that this is a big problem.
1.2.2. The other type of the electronic boost controllers are
based on the mass of the air that enters the engine. Those are the
cars that are equipped with the MAS sensor (typical examples are
DSMs, EVO, and I believe WRX and STi). The problem here is that
computer in reality never really knows what kind of boost is present
inside the engine. Usually, boost level is calculated from the amount
of air and temperature. This is not that accurate to set any boost
limiting devices around that so luckily they don't use it. What they
do is for certain RPM ranges they would open up boost control
solenoids and attempt to lower the boost from whatever level it was,
down as much as the system will allow. In reality, that is not
significant enough and on the engines that have improved flow (intake
and exhaust), makes very little difference. Boost creep that happens
is larger than those units can handle in most cases I am familiar
with. And this is active only for short RPM range, so overall it
doesn't have a large effect.
Another way that I have seen it happen is that manufacturer
tries to add excessive amount of fuel at the higher RPMs. This kind
of works fine on the stock cars, but once in Street Prepared, this
can be removed due to legal mods that can be used.
But, on the other hand this is a big issue for the Stock
class cars. And to make it even larger, it is not just a turbo car
issue any more. The fact is that nobody can argue that E36 M3
wouldn't gain a few ponies from the right chip (fuel and timing
changes mostly).
Same would go for the EVO for example which can be
brought to 300 HP with easy after tweaking the fuel and timing maps
on the otherwise stock car. This issue should be addressed under the
computer modifications and as far as I know (after a lot of
discussions have taken a lot of time) there is no working solution
for this. It actually looks like that this issue is not possible to
control at all (to name just a few: too many official revisions for
the codes, inability to read to codes in the impound even if we would
know the correct codes, and so on). I think it is very important not
to mix this issue with boost levels!
2. Boost control through the mechanical gadgets ---> This is a very
difficult issue and obviously has no easy answer. The main problem is
that some of the legal mods affect the boost levels, so in some cases
it is legal to increase your boost. Most us here are using K&N air
filters and they could give you one or even two pounds of an extra
boost ones you remove your restrictive paper based filter element and
an air box.
The good thing here is that it is much easier to police those
mechanical gadgets and most of the illegal activity is visible to
anyone. Ones you change a wastegate or do some porting inside the
turbo is as easy to spot as ported heads or stroked engine.
The bad thing here is that those legal modifications increase the
boost too and once you are faced with a competitor that has beaten
you 0.001 second and is on the way to wear jacket that was almost
yours, we run into different kind of a problem(s). Even if the jacket
was so far that you couldn't even see it with binoculars, you get a
question mark in your head. Was that boost level achieved through the
legal mods or you have a cheater ahead of you? But, on the other
hand, wouldn't you ask the same question if you where beaten in your
ZO6 by the guy that has the same kind of car (even the color is the
same)? I believe I know the answer to this one for me, and I hope
that you know yours as well!. :)
So, what to do here? I am definitely against something like 2 extra
pounds for all to make it fair. That would make things even harder to
police and in reality makes no sense to me.
One of the ways is to make all of the turbo equipped vehicle
competitors would have to have a unified controller which can be
easily checked and can not be mocked. Road race guys used to have
such a device, but I believe that it will be too much for everyone to
add such a device on the car at their own expenses. That would also
lead to the set boost levels per car, or per the whole category (I
guess for Stock and Street Prepared).
On of the interesting ideas is to have unlimited boost for all. Then
class each of those cars to the new (if needed) appropriate classes.
The fact here is that in the case of 2G DSMs (guess what I am driving
for an extra bonus?), boost controller or not, you are limited to
around 275 HP. The turbo that is in those cars is just that small and
it can't run any higher. I do believe that every turbo car has such a
limit, and if assumed that limit will be achieved, car should be
classed to the class where those numbers make sense.
Or just leave it as is and if car happens to be too fast, move it to
the higher class!
Just don't use Mark Dadio as a base in those cars!! :)
Happy boosting!!
Fedja
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