1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Supercharged vs Turbo

  1. mrntd

    mrntd Well-Known Member
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    Sep 30, 2011
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    I have friends that are automotive engineers. Your right they have good ideas when accounting doesn't kill them. They saved HP with electric ps so the logic would follow with an sc. Why didn't they do that? Cost. Turbos are cheaper.
     
  2. jiminni

    jiminni Well-Known Member

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    Yup, a mechanical supercharger or a turbo :biggrin5:
     
  3. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    Yes but cost effective HAS to be part of the conversation when you're talking about production volume, and not one-offs.
     
  4. mrntd

    mrntd Well-Known Member
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    Okay so making the existing blower electric may not work. But after a little research I found a 3 variations including ones by Garrett, Borg Warner, and Turbo Dyne. They all use a turbo compressor. One is straight compressor by electric motor with electricity from the alternator. The next is a turbo helper that adds an electrically driven compressor for when the turbo isn't spooled up. The last is an electrically driven compressor with higher boost then the helper with additional power coming from an exhaust drive generator.

    Years ago a couple of Ford drive engineers got in a debate with me that you could make a plastic/plastic ceramic motor. They lost in can be and has been made, it's just really expensive.

    You can do anything with enough time and money!
     
  5. BRG_Paul

    BRG_Paul Active Member

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    Very true ....