Blower?

[sadlerj]

Tempted...me...never.... perhaps a little Christmas present for my Aston...

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/2760...

Proper power gains...

[Mr Aston Martin]

Fine if your V8 is a keeper but it would narrow the pool of possible buyers at the point of sale.


For me the standard V8 has enough power for the road but each to their own. ;-)

[mikey k]

First off I'm going to qualify my comments
I'm a fan of aftermarket SC, I fitted an modifeid a system my self got 420 reliable BHP's out of my old Honda S2000 over did 15k miles with it on.

You might want to do a search on here and AMOC
This is the 3rd system now including RSC & ESX
Not one of them got past a "demo" AFAIK
Big issue for me is none have air fuel ratio feedback to the ECU so none of them know when they are running lean. This is how SCed engines go bang!
None will warranty the engine with thier kit fitted.

And for that reason I'm out!

[sadlerj]

Mr Aston Martin said:

For me the standard V8 has enough power for the road but each to their own. ;-)

+1, but a little lacking for track work..

[Lunablack]

Personaly I'd rather put the £15k towards a newer car....

[bogie]

I love the idea too....but have reservations like Mike


ask said company, how many hundreds of thousands of test miles they have on it, and if they offer say a 24 month unlimited mileage warranty on it

...I suspect it will be warranty on their parts only for 12 months (if that) and you are on your own if your £20K engine goes bang

...a very tiny market for this kind of thing I think...

[JohnG1]

Each to their own.

But you pour that money down the drain to get a car that NO ONE ELSE will buy off you.

And there is no warranty, what happens when the water level is low? As Mikey said, is there a feedback to the real ECU?

"The 5.3 litre tank for the water injection system is good for at least 500 miles between fills. If it runs out of water then the blower is taken offline to protect it from overheating, returning the car to a standard 380bhp."

Hmmmm....

Piggyback "ECU"?

Oh and this:

"The company’s demonstrator sticks with a manual gearbox, but the system can be bolted just as well to cars fitted with the Sportshift automated single-clutch transmission."

Really? They have certified that the box will work with the torque?

The 4.3 V8 was built to FoMoCo reliability standards. This is built to what?

[tonyhall38]

i know of a good blower....but she is alot less than 15k.....

[George H]

sadlerj said:

+1, but a little lacking for track work..

Take it to Mike at Bamford Rose then? I bet £15k spent there would get you around a track faster and more reliably than a supercharger kit.

[mikey k]

tonyhall38 said:

i know of a good blower....but she is alot less than 15k.....

I'll bet she gives feedback as well
But I doubt that comes with a warranty either

[JohnG1]

Vergis said:

I have to disagree with some of the posts here. Its not a bad package for £15k. I am highly tempted.

With regards to reliability of various parts some of the parts are off the Jaguar which the top models handle power from a supercharger. Health and safety these days also dictate that many parts have to be much stronger then the engineers would like. Crash tests et al.

Also I doubt very much BR , although very good with what they do, could offer the power increases of a supercharger for £15k. We are talking torque and hp increases.

I am very tempted by this but there again I could spend the £15k on a better luxo barge to work.

It's not relevant that the parts are off a Jaguar. The Jaguar engineers engineered their 5.0 V8 to be supercharged at a big cost. Who did reliability testing with this?

Really, engineering is the discipline that is lacking from the aftermarket world.

I doubt Mike and team could offer 600bhp out of a 4.7 for £15k. But they would explain in great detail why that would be a bad idea.

"Just because you can, does not mean you should"...

[mikey k]

JohnG1 said:

It's not relevant that the parts are off a Jaguar. The Jaguar engineers engineered their 5.0 V8 to be supercharged at a big cost. Who did reliability testing with this?

I doubt Mike and team could offer 600bhp out of a 4.7 for £15k. But they would explain in great detail why that would be a bad idea.

Jag also integrate it into the ECU/electronics fully
BR would offer ~470 BHP for ~£20k with the right back up

[Neil1300R]

Vergis said:

I have to disagree with some of the posts here. Its not a bad package for £15k. I am highly tempted.

With regards to reliability of various parts some of the parts are off the Jaguar which the top models handle power from a supercharger. Health and safety these days also dictate that many parts have to be much stronger then the engineers would like. Crash tests et al.

Also I doubt very much BR , although very good with what they do, could offer the power increases of a supercharger for £15k. We are talking torque and hp increases.

I am very tempted by this but there again I could spend the £15k on a better luxo barge to work.

Go and post on the Bamford Rose sponsored link and ask Mike if he thinks it is a good idea. Would be interested in his replies, especially about the piggyback ECU.
Its not the reliability of the blower, its what it may do to your engine in the long run, especially on the fuelling.

[Neil1300R]

I think you'll find Mike at BR was heavily involved in the development of the ECU, hence why I said go and ask him. He won't tell you not to Supercharge, just some of the issues that will need sorting.
but if you want to Supercharge, go off and buy it and come back and tell us all about it, as I'm sure lots of us would be interested in the results.

[George H]

Vergis said:

The Vantage, as nice as it is, in my opinion is ‘nearly right’ . A Supercharger is perfection imo.

A supercharged V8V perfection?

I don't think it would beat a V12V in a single area. Including cost if you compare like for like.

A 2 year old V12V might cost you £85-90k, but factor in the fact selling on a supercharged V8V will undoubtedly sell for less than a standard one, plus the £15k wasted on the supercharger, then you aren't too far off. Not to mention all the other extras such as ceramic brakes on the V12V.

I very much doubt you will just be able to give a car an extra 200bhp and the rest of the car will just cope with it.

Personally, I think if anyone is stupid enough to put something like that on their car, then they sort of deserve it if/when the engine goes pop.

[mikey k]

Neil1300R said:

I think you'll find Mike at BR was heavily involved in the development of the ECU, hence why I said go and ask him. He won't tell you not to Supercharge, just some of the issues that will need sorting.
but if you want to Supercharge, go off and buy it and come back and tell us all about it, as I'm sure lots of us would be interested in the results.

+1 I had this conversation with him after explaining my background with my S2000.
He shares the same concerns as me.
All three of the current V8V blower packages fail to correct for lean running (what ever causes it - Octane, altitude, injector cycles, charge cooling etc)
Piggyback ECU's simply alter an input/s to the main ECU to "fool" it in to doing what the tuner wants, not very elegant or reliable
No one has yet "cracked" the AM ECU to enable it to be correct set up for a blower.
"
"You pays your money and you takes your choice"
I know what mine is

All that said if someone proved to me they could fit a proven 10psi centrifugal compressor with the correct continous charge cooling and properly interface the AM ECU directly then I'd be interested.

[mikey k]

Vergis said:

"Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.“

There's the crux - that applies to ALL of the current V8V aftermarket SC packages

[George H]

Vergis said:

A Supercharged V8V will have limited appeal but it would not sell for less then a standard one.

The £15k would not be wasted since it could be removed and have a residual value.

You call someone who would supercharge a V8V stupid? How do you come to that conclusion? They may be successful entreprenuer (who is not adverse to taking calculated risks), a professional or chess grandmaster. That comment of someone being stupid does not inform.

Could there be an unease here of someone spending £32k on a 40k milage 2006 Aston, spending £15k = total £47k on car that would compete strongly with a Nissan GTR in a straight line with the better looks to boot.

I am not saying its the best way to go i.e. lack of decent suspension and ceramics etc but its still an interesting propostion.

Yes, I think anyone who would waste that much money on a supercharger kit is extremely stupid. The logical option is a V12V, the only reason someone would have the supercharger over one is because they can't afford it, despite if you do the sums, it would cost far less to have the V12V compared to the same year V8V converted.

I despise the Nissan GTR, but there is no way it would compete strongly with one in a straight line. There would still be almost a second and a half difference 0-60, which is a massive amount.

I really cannot get my head around someone buying a V8V if they're unhappy with the performance. Why not just buy something else in the first place?

If performance is a main priority, a 911 turbo would be a far more logical option than a V8V.

Edited by George H on Friday 9th December 16:46

[Lunablack]

Vergis said:

A Supercharged V8V will have limited appeal but it would not sell for less then a standard one.

I suggest it wouldn't sell at all

I certainly wouldn't consider a "messed" about with Vantage..... Even if it was as cheap as chips..

[George H]

Vergis said:

You seem to belittle those that dont have enough money to buy a V12. Sure the sums may add up but not everyone has the cash or finance ability to afford one. So they may opt for a Supercharged V8.

I'm not belittling anyone. I said the only reason someone would choose this over a V12V is because they couldn't afford one. And then I gave valid reasons why it would be a stupid decision to go for a supercharged V8V instead, mainly, it will end up costing more in the long run, with depreciation etc taken into consideration.

If performance is all you're after, go get an Ariel Atom for £40k and destroy pretty much anything on the road.