Recommended cars for supercharging?

Hi,

I'm looking for a car that responds very well to supercharging. I drove my friends turbo'ed Nissan Sentra and couldn't stand the turbo lag. Maybe he needs more tuning or something but I couldn't stand it. Anyways, I'm shifting my focus more and more towards supercharging and have decided to try to find a car that responds very well to supercharging.

I know that there are TONS of cars out there that can be supercharged so I'll try to narrow the search down a bit. This is going to be my daily driver to and from school so I would like it to get good gas mileage. I was hoping that I could get around 25 city driving. Oh yeah, I don't really expect it to get this gas mileage after it is supercharged but that would definately be nice if it still got this kind of gas mileage. Is fairly reliable and can be had for around $15K. It doesn't have to be an import but I would like it to be if possible. If possible, I'm shooting for a 13 second car but that's not one of the main requirements as I could probably do other stuff after it's boosted to get it there if it doesn't already. So, do you guys have any recommendations?

Thanks guys!

- The Punisher

uhh if your a poor college kid like me you can do what i did.

Get a 2000-2002 Cavalier Z24 and put the Gm supercharger kit on it. And i stress that it MUST BE A 2000-2002 Cavalier Z24 ONLY! You keep your full warranty, its very relaible. I get 27MPG highway, around 25 in the city. The car with low miles, being around 30,000 will cost around 6,000-7,000 bucks. The supercharger is 2200 bucks. Only downside is that its not as fast as you want. I run mid 14's with mine. Ive seen people get into the high 13's with them, but thats with a full exhaust, 10 PSI pulley, and alcohol injection, then again ive also seen people get into the 13's with the stock supercharger. Guess it just depends on the driver.

check out my cardomain if you want more information, theres also a small video of me playing around.

mustangs... they are practically made for a supercharger

i doubt ur gonna find anything runnin 13s that gets 25mpg city

ehhh not its not that hard really, supercharges arent like turbos, they dont constantly make boost.

My supercharger works off a bypass vavle, that means if im not giving it a certain amount of throttle, instead of the boost created by the supercharger getting forced into the engine, and the engine dumping more fuel, its just pushed through the charger and out into the atmosphere again.

Other superchargers have whats called an idler pulley, not sure exactly how those work, but pretty much when you dont want the pulley to be used, the pulley will spin freely, then you can engage the pulley as you please. Idler pullies are on AC units in cars.

I could get my car to run 13's and get pretty close to 25MPG. Because when im not punching it, the car is operating NA.

The best cars that respond well to supercharging are the ones that came that way from the factory. Other than that one is going to be about as good as the next when it comes to responsiveness. Judging by your requirements I wouldn't hold my breath for 13s though.

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I kind of expected 13's would be asking for too much. In that case, 14's would be fine too.

Thanks for the reply Jayson, it definately seems like the Z24 may be something that I should look into. Quick question, did you car come with the Supercharger Kit? If not, are the superchargers available straight from the dealership? Does it affect the warranty? Also, would you recommend the LD9 or the Ecotec Engine?

If anyone has any other recommendations I'd still be more than happy to hear your opinions. Thanks guys!

no my car didnt come from the dealership with the supercharger. Yes you can get the supercharger through the dealership, but its cheaper to get it through paceperformance.com. It does not affect the warranty since it is a GM part, you get to keep your full powertrain warranty.

As for engine, it depends. GM doesnt have a supercharger kit available for the ecotec engine. They have one made, but wont release it to the public. Many believe its because it would kill sales of the Cobalt SS S/C. They still might release it, but according to GM it was originally supposed to be released in 2003. There is a GM part number for it with a price, but when you try to order it, it says its not in stock. Been that way for alteast 6 months now.

Now there is only one other company that makes a supercharger kit for the Ecotec engine, but its not very good. Its expensive and doesnt give very good results.

I have the Ld9 and thats what i would recomend if you want a reliable daily driven supercharged car. The ecotec is a bit better when it comes to boost, but your gonna have to turbo to make it worth it.

There is alot of community backing for cavaliers, check out www.jbody.org for more information, specifically the boost section.

The Gm kit comes with a M45 which is a small blower, hence the reason why im not that fast. But there is a guy who is making a barebones M62 kit for the Ld9 engine. This supercharger alone should put my car into the 13's. Hes offering a corecharged for your old m45, and his price wont be bad. But its not gonna be a complete kit, atleast not at first. Its going to be designed as a blower upgrade for people who already have the GM supercharger package.

HPTuners, a company that writes alot of very popular tuning software for cars has decided to create tuning software for the jbody community. This is the first company to do this, and the results should be very promising.

or you can just use a properly sized T3/T4 turbo make make 12 psi by 3000 rpm, and make 300whp.

the reason why people have laggy turbos is becasue of the owners choice. i have a laggy turbo but i want it to be laggy so i can drive it all over town without hitting boost. and i can still make 15 psi by 4500rpm.

if you absolutely want to super charge a car, you can do it to a v-tec honda and it will run 13's.

or you can just use a properly sized T3/T4 turbo make make 12 psi by 3000 rpm, and make 300whp.

Here!.


seriously.... who needs to make boost at 2krpm? even if you do make full boost there, the fact that you are only doing 2krpm means that you are not flowing any air unless you have an already large engine and you have the head design/fucntion to support power being made there.

Just downshift to race, and turbos DON'T make boost all the time. I didn't make a bit of boost today and I got on it a lil.. turbos=displacement on demand.

You can probably find a used 3G eclipse V6 for around $8000 or maybe even less if you look around hard enough. Then you can put on a RIPPMODS supercharger kit. They have a couple stages you can pick from. There have been a few supercharged 3G's pushing 20 + pounds of boost putting down around 400 to the wheels with just forged pistons. Some have ran high 11's with this FI setup.

I have a supercharged gsr and have spent about 10k on my car total.. would be in the thirteens right now, but i blew a couple valve seals when i first put the charger on with 91 octane and stock timing (bad mistake)... handles great, real reliable, definetly gonna be seeing 13's when i rebuild the head this summer.. 25+ mpg.. theres ya car bro

Okay, thanks for all of the replies guys. Looks like I'll be getting the LD9 if I get a Z24, which is looking very good. May go with the GSR though but not sure. Thanks for all of the replies guys!

You poor poor soul.

If you know how to drive you dont need to make boost down low low.
But with a good tune and turbo size matching you WILL make boost down low anyway.

If you want boost, go fast, and good MPG supercharger is not the way to go.

I dont want this to turn into a Tubo v Super thread, however Turbo's are more efficent as well as the fact that you have more controll over boost. WHen yo uwant good MPG (not racing or drving fast) boost can be cut to nothing, saving you gas :) .
The Cavi proves it (not dissing, your car would only ass rape my truck on a sunday but that is beside the point) you can be "quick" and still get good MPG on a select few cars. However, ingeneral you wount find a 12sec car at the track that is supercharged runing around with any more than 15mpg or so.

just my 2 pennies.

You poor poor soul.

If you know how to drive you dont need to make boost down low low.
But with a good tune and turbo size matching you WILL make boost down low anyway.

If you want boost, go fast, and good MPG supercharger is not the way to go.

I dont want this to turn into a Tubo v Super thread, however Turbo's are more efficent as well as the fact that you have more controll over boost. WHen yo uwant good MPG (not racing or drving fast) boost can be cut to nothing, saving you gas :) .
The Cavi proves it (not dissing, your car would only ass rape my truck on a sunday but that is beside the point) you can be "quick" and still get good MPG on a select few cars. However, ingeneral you wount find a 12sec car at the track that is supercharged runing around with any more than 15mpg or so.

just my 2 pennies.

I know thats not true. The 03 cobras run 12's stock and will see 25 miles to the gallon. I would be willing to bet that many other supercharged cars are the same way.

i'm pretty sure cbfryman was refferring to a 4 banger. in that case hes is right. a super charger would usually give you a 100% hp gain at best. usually they give you a 40%-60% gain, but turbos man a good system will give you 100% minimum. and of course can go as high as 600% or higher

I know thats not true. The 03 cobras run 12's stock and will see 25 miles to the gallon. I would be willing to bet that many other supercharged cars are the same way.

Tat is correct, but also the Cobra has and engine that was built from the ground up around being supercharged. We are talking about cars that came from the factory NA and we are addign a supercharger and trying to tune it afterwards.

and id like to see theos cobras run 25mpg with almost any ones foot here in the AF street racing forums :evillol:

see you guys gotta remember, hes looking for daily driveable and ease of use. Hes not building a drag car or a pavement tearing beast, just something to have a little fun in. If you dont know your shit when it comes to cars, turbos are not easy.

Like i said, you can get an LD9 with the GM supercharger into the 13's, daily driven, 25MPG, and have it be very relaible.

wouldn't it be more beneficial to supercharge a 6 or 8 cylinder? seeing as how you're robbing power from the car to turn the supercharger, wouldn't it be more efficientl to do it on a car that has an abundance of power to begin with. this way the parasitic gain is kind of nullified. i was under the impression that's why you see more supercharged 6 and 8 cylinder performance cars and more turbocharged 4's.

with exception of a few cars like the new cobalt's, most supercharged 4 cylinders i see are on the slow side (ie mazda millenia, mercedes 230 kompressor, mini cooper S). When you look at most performance oriented 4 bangers that have FI, usually they're turbocharged, like with the SR20det's in the siliva's or 4g63's in the eclipses and Evo's.

Supercharge an LS1 F-Body. Expensive....but hello 500 RWHP. Get all the bolt-ons and a cam along with the blower....550 RWHP. After that though, you would have to start considering forged internals. Car would have the power for 10's. Would need suspension and rear end though.

Properly sized turbo > supercharger.

Jayson has the idea, since this is going to be a daily driver reliability comes before speed for me. 14 seconds in the 1/4 is completely fine...

cobras are reliable... and it wont require any work... :naughty:

Okay, well now I'm trying to decide between a Z24 or some sort of Honda, probably a Civic or Del Sol.

Tat is correct, but also the Cobra has and engine that was built from the ground up around being supercharged. We are talking about cars that came from the factory NA and we are addign a supercharger and trying to tune it afterwards.

and id like to see theos cobras run 25mpg with almost any ones foot here in the AF street racing forums :evillol:

Yeah I know that the Cobra is out of the question in this situation, but I was just making a point. If that beast of a car gets 25 mpg, than why wouldn't a 4 cylinder supercharged car be able to accomplish the same or better.

Honestly...if you want 14s easily...get a fox body w/IHE and drag radials....