This thread has a lot of potential, but J you have to clarify a couple of things IMO.

#1. Define "engineering" as it relates to this thread. I'm sure we can all give examples of some very intricate and complex turbo setups that required a ton of R&D, a ton of $, and a ton of engineering. Look at many of the race cars at the track.

#2. If you held everything the same (ie. car model, weight, driver), most N/A cars can not hang with it's turbo clone unless the race is specifically designed to have an advantage to one vs the other. In other words, if you race two clone cars (one turbo, one N/A) in a tight close course where HP is not the name of the game.....there is no advantage of course. Now, race the same two cars in a straight line or on the highway and it's lights out soon enough. There are exceptions to this of course, but more often than not it's true.

#3. Unless you buy your "turbo kit" off ebay......most of the time it takes a little more than merely "turning up the boost" to make more HP. This is why some "kits" make more HP on similar cars than do others. It's about engineering and tuning. You can pick from probably 50 different kinds of turbos right off the shelf for a Honda, but try and find one for my car.... So a "kit" for my car has to have a lot more "engineering" than just an off the shelf piece that uses a plain ole cast manifold, T3/T4 turbo, and a no name brand I/C. Know what I mean? There are a lot of custom setups on the street right now, around here, that are feats of engineering if you really want to look at it.


Yes, it is easier to make more HP with a turbo vs N/A. Yes, you can throw together a turbo kit of course, just like you can throw a bunch of nitrous in just about any car. Yes, it is harder to make an N/A car put out serious HP for a lot of reasons but the main one is......ALL engines use the exact same theory to make power REGARDLESS of N/A or FI or N2O. The biggest difference being that in the N/A motor it has to be done with more parts than doing it with FI.

I still like big balls (ie. big torque) N/A motors in the domestic muscle cars. They're bad ass. I've been on both sides of the fence, and if it's not big displacement, give me FI.