Originally Posted by
Doppelgänger
lulz
Asking which is better will always net you a different opinion from each individual. Both have their good sides and bad sides. I've had 3 boosted Miatas..2 s/c and 1 turbo...so I have a good idea on using both on one particular chassis.
The s/c was fun. It's the kind of thing you put it on and forget about it. They are very low maintainence with the exception of slightly accelerated belt wear. A roots/eaton/twin-screw/positive displacement blower increases low-end quite well and make dd'ing easy. Also, it doesn't require cooling down after driving hard or more frequent oil changes like turbo cars do. Now, centrifigual superchargers act more like turbos and increase top-end power more than anything and don't really feel like the "typical" supercharger you'd expect. The downside is a lack of being able to modify/add-onn to a s/c. Sure you can get smaller pulleys, port/balance the blower and do some serious tuning. The set-ups I had on my Miatas were pretty maxed out and putting down 190-200rwhp (JRSC MP45). I could have gone with a MP62 and had mid-200's pretty easily...but at the cost of a new s/c kit as nothing from the MP45 kit swaps over. Overall, it's a "throw it on a forget about it" system...and if you're happy with a mild bump in numbers and don't really care to nickel and dome your car to eek out every las HP, then a s/c is fine.
Turbos allow for far more flexability. There is an almost limtless range of sizes to suit the power goals you seek and most of the time, if you want more power, it's just a tweak of the wastegate away. But, you do need to keep more of an eye on everything. You have to let the car cool down if you've been beating on it, it does lower the life of your oil and there is a lot more underhood heat. You also have to keep an eye on oil lines (you'd be surprised what a stainless steel braded oil feed line can cut through), water lines (if equipped) need to be watch for cracks/leaks and making sure you arean't over-spooling the turbo because of exhaust leaks/mad fasteners. After any event that I run my car hard, I change the oil, pulle the heat shield off and check all the nuts and bolts holding the turbo/maifold/down-pipe together. Also, IMHO turbos require better engine management/tuning as well. If you like tinkering on the car, adding parts...a turbo is not a bad idea...because you'll almost always be seeing what you can do to make it that much better.
And yes, I saw the posting dates..but figured i'd still contribute since the OP seems to have not made a decision...and for anyone else looking for some insight to the two systems.
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