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View Full Version : hi, i'm new to formula sae .. i've some question


nimdekvan
09-01-2007, 11:47 PM
i'm new to fsae (in my country this is only the second time)..

i wonder why as far as i search there are very few team using a turbo... i wonder that if the rules said use a 2cm restrictor , is there a significant horsepower on an engine? if yes, why so little team using it ? is it hard to tune or something ?
nimdekvan
09-01-2007, 11:47 PM
i'm new to fsae (in my country this is only the second time)..

i wonder why as far as i search there are very few team using a turbo... i wonder that if the rules said use a 2cm restrictor , is there a significant horsepower on an engine? if yes, why so little team using it ? is it hard to tune or something ?
Brett Neale
09-02-2007, 06:16 AM
There's the obvious advantages of higher horsepower and fatter torque curve, however there's some disadvantages:

- Adds some weight with the turbo/cooler/piping
- Increased complexity can lead to reliability problems
- Can consume plenty of development time

I'm sure the turbo guys out there will have plenty of advantages to bring up too.
Pete M
09-02-2007, 06:53 AM
There are enough advantages to running a turbo that we'll be running one again this year for the 4th year. You get a somewhat higher maximum power (although that's comparing against our 2003 car, which wasn't necessarily the pinnacle of NA), and a general broadening of the power curve (how much depends on how much boost you run).

As brett said though, it's more complex, heavier and less forgiving of mistakes. There's also a bunch of issues related to oil sealing, detonation and lag that require intelligent solutions. Basically, it sucks a lot of development time. But no more than a seriously extensive NA dyno program imho.

At the end of the day, a turbo won't win the competition for you. But if you don't know what you're doing, it could certainly lose the competition for you.
drivetrainUW-Platt
09-02-2007, 08:50 AM
"I'm new to formula sae"

That right there is a HUGE reason not to run a turbo. Its an ungodly amount of work just to get a car that passes tech and makes its way around the track under its own power the first few years.

Don't run a turbo, it will not do anything but get in the way of those things.