Is this true?Quote:
Main reason why N/A is better for track is usually down to reliability due to heat.
I thought the main reason N/A cars are more suited for track is the power curve. Turbo cars produce bugger-all power outside of boost, so the power band in the car is going to be super narrow.
N/A cars have a much more even power curve, so you have a much more consistent power output. It's much easier to power out of a corner if you don't have to worry about keeping your RPM in such a narrow corridor. Predictability is important when you're hammering at top speed, last thing you want is for your turbo to spool up mid-corner and throw you for a spin.
Reliability is probably another reason, but all tuned cars suffer from unreliability at some stage, boosted or not.
I see so many of these threads, forced vs natural, and it really all comes down to three things.
Personal preference.
Budget.
Purpose.
I love the sound of turbo cars, and the pull you get when the turbo spools up is incredible, but for anything other than drag racing, I'd always suggest going N/A. It takes a bucket-load of cash to make a turbo car responsive enough to drive on the track. Lightweight flywheel, good quality hi-flowed turbo, good exhaust system and so on and so forth. If your car is not properly set up and tuned, it will be a slug. Throwing a big turbo on a car does not make it good, it just produces big numbers, and that's not really that important when building a fast car.
Case in point, my friend has a WRX (which he's selling by the way, just bought an EK...). It only produces just under 200 kilowatts at all four wheels. That's about 100 kilowatts less than my old ute. He does 0-100 in just over 3 seconds, and top speed is well over 300kph. His top speed is lower than my ute's, but his acceleration is just out of this world. I put this down entirely to the way he's had it tuned, and the parts he's put into it. It has a small turbo to minimise lag, so it's not producing the huge numbers you'd expect from such a fast car, but it's as responsive as any N/A car I've ever driven, and the power delivery is smooth enough to be reliable for track work.
Keep in mind that he's spent over 50 grand just on mods, so if you want to turbo your Civic and have it running at that kind of level, you'll need to spend probably more than that.
I just bought myself an EG, and I'm going B18C. Not interested in putting a turbo on it, not even in the slightest. I want a consistent power curve to minimise the impact that torque steer is going to have on me in the hard corners and also to make sure my car is as predictable as possible.
Personally, I'd suggest looking at only one thing, what do you want to do with the car?
If you want to drag it, then you need to consider a couple of things.
One, you will need to beef up the engine to cope with the strain that's going to be put on it with each and every launch you do. It's all good and well to stick a turbo on it, but if you keep launching hard with stock internals...
Then you need to consider your drive train. Can the diff cope?
Brakes are important too, you want to be able to stop before you hit the wall at the end of the straight.
Suspension is a big one, is it going to absorb the weight shift when you launch so you can get off the line quickly? Hard springs and shocks don't mean alot, you gotta have good suspension to really soak up that torque.
Then you need to have light wheels and good grippy tyres, since FF cars really suck at putting power to the road from a stand still.
...
If you want to track it, whoa, so much to consider.
There's alot more to a fast car than big numbers. Weight, suspension, wheels, tyres, engine response, compression, turbo size, turbo lag, boost pressure, exhaust size and design, engine capacity, drive shaft, clutch, flywheel, diff... The list is endless, and you need to consider them all when you design your car. It's en expensive venture to make a fast, reliable car. Something you should do with alot of care and thought, rather than quick-fixes.
I used to go for big numbers, I drove a 6L V8 with huge power, and then I got pummelled by a car with half the power output simply because it was designed better, and he got around corners much faster too. Learn from that, it's an important lesson to remember when tuning cars.
Hope I haven't ranted on too much, I just see so many of these threads, and I really wish people would learn that speed is not a matter of throwing a turbo on, there's so much involved...
