I mentioned a few weeks ago that my BRZ had recently been supercharged. However I didn't offer up much in the way of driving impressions back then. Now, after 3 weeks I’ve had plenty of time to get acquainted with my new and improved car and wanted to share my thoughts. First, let me talk about how the car still feels (when cruising) and looks stock. The Innovate supercharger install is an amazingly clean modification. In fact even looking under the hood, most casual auto enthusiasts wouldn’t even realize any work has been done. That the supercharger modification is totally reversible to go back to stock is icing on the cake if you ask me.

The general consensus is that at 200 hp the FA20 provides “adequate” power. Sure the car feels fast when you fling it through some twisty turns but when you hit a straight or accelerate hard from a stop it definitely leaves you wanting more, and at anything below 5000 rpm the torque can be disappointing. I feel like the Innovate kit fixes that problem, and one can only imagine how this car would have lit the automotive scene on fire if it had come this way from the factory. The positive displacement supercharger doesn’t punch as hard as you might think down low (1500-2500 rpm) but I suppose you can only do so much with a small displacement engine. However the power gains are very noticeable from 3000 to redline. It doesn’t hurt that the factory torque “dip” has been vanquished. The power curve is very broad and not peaky, so the speed builds in a deceiving manner, rather than a high rpm boost like from most turbo engines. And since it's a positive displacement supercharger there's no boost lag. You punch the throttle and bam! off you go.

Still, I would say this car’s straight line performance is in line with a Porsche Cayman S (which was my goal). Hitting triple digit speeds requires very little work and for the first week or so after getting the car back I found myself speeding out of turns like I used to but finding myself going 10-15 mph faster than I wanted (lest I get a ticket). Furthermore, the part throttle power gains are great. The engine really feels more like a 3.0 liter engine than a 2.0 liter now. Whereas before if I wanted to get up and go while at speed I would have to drop down a few gears and keep the engine above 5500rpm now I can just drop down a gear (or 2 depending on speed) and the car pulls very strongly at 3500-4000 rpm. In my day to day driving I used to have to keep the revs up to zip around traffic. Now shifting at 2500-3000rpm is enough to get the same job done.

Of course nothing is free and my gas mileage has suffered a bit more than I had thought, though I’m sure some of that has to do with me exploiting the car’s newfound power a lot since it’s new to me. I previously would get mid to high 20s in town and low to mid 30s on the highway but now get low to mid 20s around town and high 20s to 30 mpg highway. Still, totally acceptable to me.

For aural pleasure the supercharger delivers when you want it to. A nice whine can easily be heard when being generous with the throttle, especially if you are at speed with the windows up. At low speeds and with the windows down the exhaust usually overpowers most of the whine though. I should mention that along with the supercharger I also had an unequal length header (deleted primary cat) and over & down pipes (secondary cat replaced with high flow cat) installed. At this time the cat back exhaust is still OEM. The sound from these pieces can be a bit raspy and flatulent at low engine speed but above 3000 delivers a nice deeper boxer rumble that sounds purposeful. However when cruising at highway speeds the interior noise level is barely louder than stock. I was pretty happy about that.

I don’t feel like this extra 90-100 hp is too much for the chassis to handle. At the moment my car is entirely stock outside of these powertrain upgrades and it is still quite composed, even on the OEM Michelin tires. Power is put down nicely in a straight line at all times and while power on oversteer is much easier to achieve the chassis’s playful nature makes it very controllable. You can feel when the rear tires are about to let go and once they do it is quite manageable, making for a lot of fun! I’m headed to VIR on Monday (11th) for this car’s first track event and I am quite excited about it, even if the Michelin tires end up being burnt away to nothing by the end of day two.

That is really all I can think of to share right now. If anyone has anything to add or a question about it please let me know.

Cheers!

 

A supercharged BRZ traps 110 mph in the 1/4?

 

Sorry I meant a 987 Cayman S, not the new one. Also it's pointless to compare a 6sp BRZ to a DCT launch control equipped Porsche. My comments are referring to acceleration once underway and moving. And there's nothing unbelievable about that really.

Cayman: 295-320 hp, 3000lbs = 9.375 lb/hp

FI BRZ: 280-290 hp, 2750lbs = 9.48 lb/hp

 

Sounds like a perfect mod for the car. Any concerns about longevity of the rest of the drivetrain (diff, transmission) at those torque/power levels?

 

I checked on Innovate's site and it looks like a clean install but no one is going to think that's stock! So you went with their "complete" system with ECU tuning? Do you plan on putting it on the dyno?

Good work man! I'm looking for something RWD and fun to drive and this might fit the bill.

 

One reason I didn't want to go turbo and get "big power" was definitely reliability. At this power level I'm not too concerned. The rear end is shared with the Lexus IS (and a few other Toyota models I believe) so shouldn't be any issues there. Naturally the clutch will wear out faster so I'll go with a stronger replacement unit when the time comes. I'm not sure what the max designed power rating is for the transmission itself but I don't believe any one has had issues with it when producing far more horsepower than I.

I'm not too concerned with engine temp at the track since it's November (weather looks to be high 50s/low 60s at most while there) but the next modification will be an oil cooler, probably followed up with the air to water stage 2 intercooler kit for this charger. I'll change vehicle fluids more often as a preventative step, but the supercharger itself is very low maintenance - has it's own oil system that has to be changed every 30k miles.

Yes at some point I will definitely have it on a dyno to get some hard numbers. I had the supercharger stage 1 kit installed by RevWorks, located just outside of Orlando, FL. They did the tuning, as the ECUTek tuning package that is an option with the kit is designed for a stock vehicle, not one with additional exhaust modifications.

And thanks!

 

That sounds pretty nice. Can we get some videos of you standing on the throttle (in a safe environment, of course)?

Also, if you don't mind me asking, how much does a kit like this cost with all of the necessary supporting mods? Did you install it yourself? How is tuning handled?

Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Am I missing something? I have seen a couple dynos on this SC and they were pretty low. See this article:

http://www.edmunds.com/scion/fr-s/20...sted.html.html

225 at the wheels on Church's dyno no less, another dyno video on Youtube at 218 to the wheels. Is yours a different kit?

I still think that would be a fun car, but would not hang anywhere close to a Cayman S.

 

Crap, I somehow missed your answers above.

 

Bolt-on superchargers/turbochargers generally take the FR-S/BRZ to S2k power levels.

The power made is HIGHLY fuel dependent.