I'm new to this board and new to the S2000 scene but have been a Honda enthusiast for a long time. I love the S2000 but am still debating whether or not to start the journey down the long road of performance enhancements. I've already spent a great deal of time and money down 'that road' and just not sure. To get to the point, I'm a little curious at all of the hype about spending $5,000.00 on a supercharger kit with the rather minimalistic gains it's producing. For close to the same money you could have a reputable shop fabricate a turbo set-up that will undoubtedly make a supercharged S2000 look slow. Are people buying the supercharger kit because it's made by Comptech, or beacause it's 'simple' or what? You could achieve better results with Nitrous for much less money so why all the hype about the Comptech Supercharger?

 

similar discussions about turbo chargers vs. superchargers have been going on for some time now. from those discussions, I seriously doubt you can get a turbo setup for 5K. The turbo options were starting around 7 or 8K, and could bump up to 10K.

comptech is a reputable vendor for such products, so for the branding, yes that is a plus.

for the performance gains, yes, they are minimal too, but Honda did a great job squeezing all the HP out of this engine and giving it to us off the shelf that way. I think its rather difficult to even get minor performance gains in HP with this car.

 

1) $5,000 is a fair price for an extra 100 ponies, plus the substantial increase in torque

2) Comptech is a reputable tuner and has supercharged the NSX with success

3) I doubt if you can buy a turbo (less reliable) kit for this price

4) Very few changes need to be made to the engine for this mod

 

Well, I have a local shop (very reputable) that I've been dealing with for years now. I'm sure I get better pricing than most but I have been kicking around the turbo thing. For about $6,200.00 I can get a 60-1 ball bearing turbo set-up with tubular header, Tial Wastegate, etc. This is all very high quality stuff and I have the highest confidence level in their expertise. The same set-up on my mechanics Miata with a stock 1.6L put down almost 330 hp to the rear wheels. He (my mechanic) has been going over the engine schematics on the S2000 and has figured that at about 5 PSI on the turbo I should easily put down upper 300 rwhp. The main question is, is the engine in the S2000 as 'bulletproof' as other Honda's that I've owned. I traded in a 93 Prelude Si automatic that had been running a 100 shot of direct port nitrous for about 2 years and when I put it back to stock and traded it in with 120K mi. on it, it ran as well as the day I bought it.

 

Where is all this "extra 100 ponies coming from"? Why hasn't there been any Dyno testing results posted or did I miss it? And 5K is misleading as you would need to install a stronger clutch and possibly do sone header and exhaust work to get the full benefit of this "bolt on" SC. And quotes from Comptech about nothing in writing just good faith statements about covering the engine and no failures so far in the NSX dont give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I wanna see some real numbers and something in writing before I consider plopping down that kind of money. Just my $.02

 

S2KRAY,

See this thread:
http://www.s2000online.com/forums/showthre...p?threadid=2436

 

One aspect would be the dreaded turbo delay, i would not want to loose the direct response of the engine which is a major part of the sports car feel of the S2K. Since i have not driven either a supercharged or turbo charged S2K it's difficult to know what the throttle response will be with either setup. The SC is supposedly more direct though. I'm looking forward to reports from those that are installing the Comptech SC. If you're looking for straight ahead grunt i guess it doesn't really matter how you increase power - NOS, SC, turbo. But in the twisties the characteristics becomes important IMHO.

 

You can built a turbo kit for $3000 or less if you'd like. Turbo kits are cheap to build if you cut corners. Regardless, they are bad news on the S2k. Many people have tried and every one has run into problems (except for JDM cars, in which case the Top Fuel kit is excellent).

To build a proper turbo kit it would cost upwards of $10,000, and even then it would most likely not be as reliable as the Comptech SC.

S2000s are not civics, they cant be bought for $1000, turboed and when the motor blows you buy a new motor for $750 and blow it again. The S2000 is a signifigant investment, and I doubt too many people would even consider messing with a custom built motor needed to turbo properly. Try finding a used f20c motor, not easy. Try buying a new f20c motor, not cheap. Perhaps in 5+ years if there is ever an abundance of used S2ks, then you'll see people doing the typical turbo stuff you talk of.

Until then, feel free to turbo your car. Perhaps we can all learn from your mistakes.

 

Turbo lag is definitely something that has to be dealt with on a turbocharged car. However, from what little results I've seen from the Comptech Superchargers, they aren't really generating any power until you pass the 4,000 RPM mark. A good ball bearing turbo (like the afore mentioned 60-1) should be hitting full boost around the 4-4500 RPM range. In addition to which the torque improvements generated by the Comptech Supercharger (at least what I've seen so far) are not very impressive.

 

bassman, see the above thread link as well. The Comptech SC has a similar delay to turbo. Only difference is that the comptech will actually drain hp at very low rpm due to drag on the motor, where as the turbo acts independently and wont lose low end hp.

In fact, a turbo if setup properly with a small ball bearing unit may likely build boost faster and have a stronger low end than the Comptech SC. Your comment is based on a lot of generalizations, there are many different turbos and many different superchargers, all with very different characteristics.

BTW: I personally wouldnt want a roots type blower on the s2k. The Comptech SC acts as a great enhancement to vtec philosophy, still keeping the dual nature of the car. If our car performed like a v8 then it wouldnt be our car anymore, imo.