Why Supercharged rather than Turbo?

[JetJaguar]

Anyone have any opinions as to why Mini chose to Supercharge the S rather than Turbocharge?

[eltel]

The engine bay of the MINI is pretty tight and the extra piping required to get the exhaust pipes to meet the air intake would make it even tighter and increase the temperature under the hood.

I have read somewhere that there are some people who are putting together a turbo version for the Cooper.

[goobot]

Also, from what I've seen, the torque curve on a supercharger tends to be more generous... turbos kick in more power, but it's really concentrated on the high end.

At least that's been my experience... I'm no expert though.

[Saanika]

.. and also superchanger work quicker than normal turbo
it means that when you hit throttle pedal superchanger
works faster than turbo.
the superchanger idea is very old ..from year 1874.

SAANIKA

[sergio rollerfunk]

...more torque...no turbo lag...

[weejinky]

A supercharger is also a bit rarer than a turbo (IMO). Typical MINI wanting to be a bit different.

Except that the generation turbos, light pressure, are a lot smaller and start working at much lower revs that the older ones. The VAG 1.8t engines have very little if any lag.

I'd go with the space/temperature theory personally.

J.

[stuartkey]

I recently drove a Leon Cupra R with the VAG 1.8T engine... didn't notice any lag at all, very well sorted engine all round.

I wouldn't be surprised if it had a little bit to do with the 'personality' of the mini... the noise of the s/c kind of fits... know what i mean?

I drive a Golf at the mo and you only notice the lag when the cars chipped, not because you loose bottom end power but because theres a sudden rush of power from 2,800rpms upwards. You would't know the standard car was turbo'd if you couldn't hear the whistle of the turbo.

Probably to prove VW that they can can do it in a mainstream car. Afterall the G60 and G40 engines of the 90's that VW produced needed teh charger to be rebuilt every 50-60K miles.

But if you want really big power then turbo's are the way to go

But yes I agree the sound is in fitting with the mini image.

J.

[Liam"S"]

not smooth enough for BMW, BMW are engineers and realise that turbos work against the engine where as the supercharger works in perfect harmony with the engine.
turbos are a cheap way of producing power but not drivability no matter what turbo you have you will still get lag, and to reduce lag you have to reduce turbo size then you get no power in other words turbos are rubbish and horrbile devices that should be banned. I bet you my left ******* that any supercharged car 50bhp down on a turbo'd car will nail it around a track ( no not an amercian straight line track) but a twistie one.
Liam,
p.s turbo's are rubbish.

[MrWhoa]

The turbo in my 91 Talon TSi kicked in at 3500rpms... not much different then the S as far as when the power comes on. Nice thing about a turbo is an Electronic Boost Controler.. Just dial up the HP.

[v8voodoo]

Got rid of an Audi A3 1.8T for my Cooper S. IMO the supercharger is more suited to the Mini as you're more likely to be nailing it coming out of bends and be wanting instant power with no lag. The A3 did have lag, not a lot, but it was there... you could feel the turbo start to work at about 2800rpm, but by then, the mini would be gone. The cooper is a far quicker car in standard tune. Plus the supercharger sounds the dogs danglies..!!!

Quote:

Originally posted by Liam"S"
not smooth enough for BMW, BMW are engineers and realise that turbos work against the engine where as the supercharger works in perfect harmony with the engine.
turbos are a cheap way of producing power but not drivability no matter what turbo you have you will still get lag, and to reduce lag you have to reduce turbo size then you get no power in other words turbos are rubbish and horrbile devices that should be banned. I bet you my left ******* that any supercharged car 50bhp down on a turbo'd car will nail it around a track ( no not an amercian straight line track) but a twistie one.
Liam,
p.s turbo's are rubbish.

This is a man who hasn't driven one of the latest generation turbo'd cars... My Gti that I drive now makes apporx 210bhp, my corrado G60 which I sold 2 months ago made 203bhp after Jabba had sorted it. My golf spanked the corrado and the corrado was supposed to be the best handling coupe available...

The lastest small turbo cars have no percievable lag and BTW BMW do use turbo's in thier diesal engines...

Superchargers are driven from the crank, using power from the engine to drive them so surely this is working against the engine as it is taking effort to drive the supercharger?

Back to your race track theory surely when going balls out on the track the revs are generally in the upper range? Well they are on every track day I have driven. Turbos are driven by revs so your comment above is total cock surely as the turbo will always be spining producing the goods?

And as someone else on here has already stated you need the revs on the MCS for it to produce the power...Kinda like a turbo of yesteryear...

Just my thoughts

J.

[Nic D]

I'd agree with everything J has just said bar the Golf spanking the Corrado, the Corrado would have it when the fun starts.

[goin440]

Quote:

Originally posted by Liam"S"
not smooth enough for BMW, BMW are engineers and realise that turbos work against the engine where as the supercharger works in perfect harmony with the engine.
turbos are a cheap way of producing power but not drivability no matter what turbo you have you will still get lag, and to reduce lag you have to reduce turbo size then you get no power in other words turbos are rubbish and horrbile devices that should be banned. I bet you my left ******* that any supercharged car 50bhp down on a turbo'd car will nail it around a track ( no not an amercian straight line track) but a twistie one.
Liam,
p.s turbo's are rubbish.

Interesting, considering the Cooper S probably makes 200hp but loses 50 to turn the charger. Older vehicles with motor-driven cooling fans have been known to gain 40hp when the owner swaps for electric unit.

Turbos are more efficient at making power. Have you seen the numbers of Mini Mania's turbo? Quite a bit more torque/hp while retaining stock Cooper internals! (CTRD designed the system specifically keeping the stock internals in mind.) And theirs was a small turbo!

I also have to disagree with your track results. HP/Torque, would benefit the turbo MINI more. IMO, the only spot the charger would one-up a turbo is during take-off due to the turbo's (actually rather minimal) lag.

Look at it this way. The charger requires engine power to operate. The turbo only requires exhaust pressure, the motor has already made it's power.


Engineering-wise.... I call it typical German engineering. Taking the hard route for the same results (remember the ME109 fuel injection). Not saying the charger is a harder install than turbo. Just a turbo would be more powerful/efficient.