Seth W

I'm super excited, I had trouble sleeping last night!!

Oh, which system have I decided on. . . .

Well, let me share the decision-making process a bit.

First off, its a pleasure dealing with both Andy and Tim. Both of these gentlemen, and I do mean gentlemen, are extremely professional and are very much dedicated to what they are doing. Both know these cars quite well, and both make compelling cases for their respective systems. Both of them spent quite a bit of time with me explaining their systems, their philosophies and why they were doing this. I thank them both heartily and can say that I would not hesitate to do business with either in the future.

Tim has a bit of a head start here. I think he has been offering a complete kit longer, and there seem to be more supershark folks posting then supermodel folks. That counts for something. His kit is very asthetically pleasing, and has shown real world power. The stage 1 kit is much lower priced than the stage 2 (I only considered stage 1) and should pop on and off quickly. The downside to this kit is the noise factor. I've heard the vortech, its not bad inside the cabin (I sat in George's) but its loud on the outside--kind of like an amplified 928 fuel pump. This is a big concern for me.

Andy's kit is a bit newer to the market. There are not a lot of people who are using this kit but its a great price and Tony and Bill Ball are smart guys, so I did a lot of research on it. What I found somewhat surprised me. I googled eaton mp112 blowers and found that they are being installed on all kinds of cars--not just jaguars. Indeed Ligenfelter, the well-known corvette tuner, is installing them on C5 and C6 vettes, both with and w/o intercooling. Kenne Bell uses a twin screw kit too, and for that matter it seemed that most of the tuners were going with non-centrifugal systems. I read a lot about the torque curve, the reliability of the eaton blower, and the relative large population of blowers to be bought out there and got to thinking--this might be the right stroke and then I remembered--I'VE BEEN DRIVING AN EATON BLOWN CAR FOR 4 YEARS!! My wife has an Mercedes 230 SLK. I hate that damn little car (chick car--sorry ladies) but it has this great little engine that is blown with an Eaton. http://search.aimhome.netscape.com/a....benz_slk.html

Boy, its quiet and smooth and the torque is perfect. You really have to listen to get that whine sound too. I like it. This is what I'm looking for in my car. If Porsche did a supercharger, I think that they would choose an eaton or similar system. Yes, the install does not look as OEM as the centrifigual, but the drive and sound ARE OEM. This tipped the balance in favor of Andy's kit.

Oh yes, there is one other thing that tipped the balance, and that surprise I will leave to Andy to disclose.

I'm going to try and see how far the Eaton set-up can be taken in terms of aesthetics, if it can be polished, powdercoated or painted, you can bet that it will be. For an example of what I'm hoping for, check here:

http://www.magnacharger.com/images/s...uck/ls1sc2.jpg


Choose the supercharger that is right for you and bring your car into the 21st century. I'll soon be driving an all aluminum, 32 valve, supercharged car making well over 400hp at the crank with a modern sound system, modern wheels and at a price that still puts me just south of a Honda Accord hybrid. Not bad!

Andy, get that kit together, I can't sleep!!

Seth

blau928

Seth,

I think the SLK compressor is made by IHI, and not Eaton... Or maybe it's the AMG units are made by IHI.. There is a difference between the Eaton (roots type) Whipple twin screw, Autorotor Twin Screw, and Lysholm Twin Screw.. Major differences between Roots and TS... Autorotor now owns Lysholm, and licenses the technology to Whipple and a few others.

Complicated, but not too much.. Anyway, best of luck with your SC project.. I think you'll really like the "new" car..!

Robert_H

Congratulations Seth!

That very pretty car of yours is now also going to be a beast. That engine is going to be incredible looking and running. Very cool.

Rob

mspiegle

From what I gather, the IHI isn't even as efficient. They're also a japaneese company too, right?

AO

Good for you! You are gonna have Sooooooooooooo much fun! I'm very envious.

Seth W

I believe its an Eaton E-62 on the SLK. But YMMV.

http://search.aimhome.netscape.com/a....benz_slk.html

Randy V

Right on, Seth!

I'm wondering how much time it will require to take off for your bi-annual smog inspection?

Posting pics is easy - in 'advanced' mode (i.e. starting a new Topic or clicking on the 'Go advanced' button at the bottom of a topic - not using the text box at the bottom of a topic) click on the little square mountain picture icon, then enter the image URL into the popup box that appears.

Here's your pic:

bcdavis

Do we have a Supermodeled GT yet?

Or is this the first?

Will it need to run lower boost, like the GTS, or is the compression similar to the s4?
Will the GT cams help or hurt?

bcdavis

Yeah... CA smog would indeed be a factor when deciding what system to use.
In fact, that rear-mounted turbo is actually appealing for that very reason...

Gretch

Good luck with the project, and please post lots of progress reports and pictures..........I know if you do this, your posts will have a wide readership.

Seth W

I'm going to run 5psi and see how that goes.

Smog is an issue. I know it. I'm going to be dealing with that issue in a year. My personal feeling is that if it passes at the tailpipe (and Andy says that it has tested well) that this is all the state of CA should care about. This blower is CARB compliant on a bunch of tuner systems. I'll do what I need to do to pass smog. Enough said.

Shane

I do believe there is one in progress in Oregon.

Seth welcome to the club! You won't be disappointed.

blau928

Hi Seth,

Yes, you were correct, the base cars used Eatons, the AMG models (32/55) used IHI licensed twin screw compressors. Kleemann makes a kit for your wife's car with better intercoolers and an Autorotor SC that improves the HP&TQ by just replacing the integrated compressor and IC with Autorotor components.. Kleemann has also done the same with the AMG 32 & 55 cars, more power with less pressure.

Mike,

Yes, IHI is Japanese... They make very good stuff, and made the turbos on the original Ferrari F40... While their version of the Twin Screw is not as efficient as the Autorotor, is is less costly due to the tolerances and complexity of machining of the compressor rotors... The Autorotor TS Compressors are the best currently available in mass production. Other licensees that make custom setups for Drag Racing, are better, but serve a very limited market.

Mercedes will go to turbo's again due to cost of production, and not efficiency.. However, in their hydrogen powered vehicles, the compressors will be Twin Screw.. Ballard Power Systems will also be doing similarTS compressors from Autorotor in their H2 power syatems...

Sometimes, it's got more to do with selling lots of stuff cheaper and making more $$$ than what is the best engineered solution... Business, nothing else.

Many of the car companies operate this way... GM is however, using I believe an Autorotor in the new CTS V SC with Laminova Intercoolers. 4liter 32v Norstar V8 with 400 HP/TQ.

The "better" engineering is usually done by the tuners like Kenne Bell, Kleemann, Saleen, and a few others.

Seth, as far as smog goes, find a station that will overlook the blower for the visual, and you should be fine... If not, unbolting should not be that difficult anyway...

My $.02

blau928

Bill Ball

Autorotor versus roots - is there really any efficiency difference between them at modest boost (5-6 lbs.)?