gt7er

Hello everyone - any thoughts/advice/personal experience would be appreciated.

Now that Brenspeed is in Texas, I'm strongly considering getting my 2007 GT supercharged. It has 95,000 miles on it with a Brenspeed tune/intake that I've had for 2 years.

I would ideally upgrade my car but because of other loans I need to pay off I need to hold off for a few years. So in the meantime I was thinking that this could be a good way to keep me satisfied for a while.

The car's been great since 2007 - no issues really. Strong engine, going strong. Should I go ahead with this? Yay or nay? Potential issues? I just need the car to last for maybe 3-4 years at which point I'll be ready to get something else.

Thanks everyone!

chaoscentral

Is the car manual or automatic? If automatic try to keep the power around 400-450rwhp, and even then don't beat on it too too much. I just lost a transmission a few weeks ago from 400rwhp from a down shift on the highway. (Don't do a 2 gear downshift like I did lol)

But I have a Vortech supercharger, works awesome, great high end power and relatively cheap compared to other options.

Have you also looked into a turbo kit? S&H Performance has a great kit starting at $3499 and only requires tuning, it comes with everything else and will get you to 450rwhp out of the box.

Also I'm at 72k miles and supercharged, engine is going very strong, aside from the transmission snafu which was kind of my fault she's going strong. So long as your car is properly maintained I don't see any issues supercharging or turbo charging.

gt7er

Thanks for the response - mine is a manual. I hadn't thought of a turbo, but yea that's an option to. Are there any pros/cons to having a turbo vs. supercharger and vice versa?

I was looking at the vortechs since they're cheaper.

I do like the engine in our cars - they're really strong and like I said I haven't experienced any issues and I drive my car pretty hard. I'll be really happy if I can throw a turbo or supercharger on there and have the car last 3-4 more years...

chaoscentral

If I could start from scratch with the budget I had then I probably would have gotten the S&H turbo kit. Only reason being is it's a complete kit with intercooler and all, where as I spent roughly the same on my Vortech with no intercooler. Now that I'm ready for a little more power I have to spend another 500+ on an intercooler setup to get more power out of it.

That being said I still love the Vortech, but if I could I'd go turbo because there's no parasitic loss of power from a turbo, and it takes less psi for more power. At same boost levels I'd probably see closer to 450rwhp as opposed to the 404 I have now.

Also with that S&H kit they include all the fuel stuff and a new drop in fuel hat with a 340lph pump so no boost a pump stuff to mess with.

I bought the Vortech because of flexibility. I pieced together my own kit, got the fuel setup from S&H, got a brand new Vortech V3 headunit for 1700 on ebay, and bought all the assemblies from superchargersonline.com Total in parts was a hair over $3000 all said and done including some extras like lower control arms and a 2007+ cooling setup.

moosestang

Cons: Turbos will blow your motor, they are cheap, they are harder to tune, boost creep(see first con), Your entire engine bay will be hotter(turbo mounted in the engine bay).

Pros: They are cheaper.................................that's about it.

Notice I had cheap as a pro and a con, lol!


If you don't have 5-10 grand laying around, then don't do it. Your motor could throw a rod. The chances of engine failure are probably very small with a brenspeed installed and tuned supercharger, but there's always a chance. leave the turbos for the race cars and 4 bangers.

dustin_ra

Do you want instant forced induction?, go supercharged. Can you wait for turbo lag?, go turbo.

I personally have a turbo feeding my 302. now the engine also is fully built, so be warry about just feeding your engine some xtra air. Like Moose stated your engine can be torn apart if your internals are not upgraded. I love the whine coming from Cobras or any other surpercharged engine. Turbos are efficient. They use your exhaust to make you more power (pro). Supercharger, takes power to make power. You will use more power using a supercharger to make the same power that a turbo will provide. There are many cheap kits, but also some not so cheap.

Being I have a turbo I suggest going with buying a turbo. In the end its your decision. Just be prepared to upgrade more than your engine. Once you got the HP/TQ bug you will end up needing better brakes, upgraded cooling system (a CAC), possibly a new trans. I am now without my car because I thought hey the trans is holding up now, but wham. Went to 3rd, and next thing there went 3rd. Now I have a new TKO in my garage ready to be installed.

So if you want more power, you need to do it right from internal upgrades, to spending what you can afford on your drivetrain.

Remember this..... How fast do you want to go? How much can you afford?

moosestang

I am half joking about a turbo blowing your motor, but they do have a bad record compared to superchargers on these motors.

Other cons are you can't use long tube headers and the exhaust note doesn't sound as good, but that's a personal thing.

I would not run a turbo setup without a dyno tune. Most of the supercharger kits have good reliable tunes with them that make good power.

danzcool

By all means, since you like what Brenspeed has done for you in the past, go with a forced induction system they have done well.

however since you asked,
pros for turbos:
more power with less boost.
no issues with belt slippage
you can change your boost level without any special tools if you have a boost controller

cons for turbos
badly cobbled together kits can give boost spikes/creep and/or excessive turbo lag
cost for a well engineered kit can be expensive

indifferent:
can have great exhaust sound (I think mine sounds pretty good).

gt7er

Thanks for the responses guys, highly appreciated.

I got a response from george at brenspeed in Texas. He recommended the Roush supercharger, rated at 560 hp. My plan for the supercharger is to essentially give me enough power so that I can feel a big difference. I was thinking the vortech supercharger since it's cheaper. I don't necessarily need a ton of power - I do want to track the car a little, maybe once a month or so. I haven't done it before, but I want to start doing it mostly to learn how to drive around a track and learn car control. I have more plans in the future, but not necessarily with this car.

http://www.brenspeed.com/v3vortech.html..I was looking at this, mostly from a cost perspective. Probably wouldn't want to spend much more than 5K right now.

danzcool

You would probably be happier with the roush than the vortech, the twin screws and TVS's have more torque down low and are fun driving around town. Certainly get an intercooled system regardless of what you choose.