I've always been curious about something, though: Our Mini, which is just an urban scoot, is not supercharged. The reason I didn't go for that was that the supercharger creates something like an 18hp parasitic power loss at lower rpms when it's not pressurizing. The car was a pig around town, IMVHO, and hard to be smooth in. What's the effect of a supercharger on this engine? Do you notice any drag when you're just cruising around town?

 

18 hp? Wow that sounds too high. I could see this at full boost on that little motor but at low RPM?

Even though it is not boost, it is helping the engine to injest air easier, if you will. On my past S/C'd cars, they would lose a lot of low end torque if you removed the drive belt, of course other factors come into play as the engine has to draw air through the S/C on its own (roots type or centrifuagal).

To your point, I had a friend at work who drove both the "S" Mini and the non and he said the driveability was far better on the low end with the "S". I am sure it is from the S/C helping the engine breath on the low end.

 

Does this advice still ring true eight years later? I'm looking at buying a SC 99 cab with 106k miles. Asking price is $14k, and I want a weekend car for canyon carving (and don't fit in a 986).

 

That advice will always be true.

 

At those miles and at that price, I'd be concerned at the maintenance and how long the SC's been on there as it may need to be rebuilt/replaced.

 

I just thought I would ask about the current health of the engine before you supercharge it? Its a 99 high compression 3.4L. That's not exactly a great candidate for supercharging. If you need someone to explain engine CR's, supercharging, and efficiency, never mind. Hey , it may hold together forever!

 

You spew old 80's thinking and rationelle. Bring yourself into the modern times as well as not responding to 2007 posts bruh.

 

I was reading up on my AMG's engine. The S/C uses the clutch to activate. So if you are at low RPM or cruising along, S/C is disengaged. When you romp on it, clutch engages and S/C goes to work. Kind of like in "Mad Max" movies, you see Max flip the switch and blower comes on. So when you don't romp on the car, it runs as a N/A 5.5 liter (300ish H/P), when you need the power it goes to 5.5 S/C (500 H/P).

 

This is nothing special. A lot of SC's do that.