So a turbo produces power by taking advantage of wasted exhaust pulses and heat. A Supercharger gets it's power from a pulley off the engine.

So if you take the principal that "you can't get something from nothing". Ex: the electric supercharger, then how does a supercharger produce power? It isn't coming from any wasted power source. It runs straight off of the power produced by the crank.

So how in the hell does a supercharger get it's "nothing for something"?

 

It takes horespower to make horsepower.

 

You're oversimplifying this. The power comes from the air/fuel, not from the Supercharger. The power required to shove more air/fuel energy into the engine is far less than that extra air/fuel energy itself. Therefor you get more power at the expense of air/fuel using only a little energy from the engine to do so.

 

A supercharger makes more power then it takes, and the more power you make, the more it takes.

I thought I remember hearing about superchargers taking 500hp away on NHRA drag cars. OUCH!

 

In the latest EVO magazine they talk about the supercharged Jaguar S-Type R. It's interesting because in an interview the engineers of the engine state that,

"the technical challenges involved in achieving 400bhp were significant. At full chat it takes about 70bhp to run the supercharger, so although on paper it's a 400bhp engine, the internals have to withstand the strains of developing 470bhp."

I found this interesting 'cause they gave a specific # to how much hp is lost in turning the supercharger on their 4.2 liter v8.

Also interesting to note: this supercharged 4.2liter v8 in this iteration was fitted with piston cooling oil jets, something that comes stock on our b18c1's.

Tom

 

If you follow this argument further, you'll arrive at the conclusion that a fuel pump creates power from nothing as well. It ultimately runs off the power produced by the crank.

Fact is, a supercharger is just like a fuel pump, except it pumps air. Air and fuel combined make much more power than is needed to pump them.