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Nicebiscuit

Superchargers and fuel consumption, any views?

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Particularly interested in the thoughts of those traders on here supplying supercharger kits...

I know nothing much about Superchargers - but have owned a good number of Turboed cars (closet Saaboholic) so used to the benefit of turbos in that there's very little impact on fuel economy on a light throttle.

Given that one of the things I like about the 86 is that it's pretty frugal for a sportscar, I'm interested in what the real life effect on fuel consumption is (in daily driving - not when using the power clearly - don't care then! )

Not a very 'drivers club' question I know - but hey I'm a Yorkshireman...

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From first hand experience, I obviously saw a slightly lower MPG number when I had the Sprintex 210 installed. 

A motorway cruise on the standard engine would get me around 40mpg. With the 210 it dropped to maybe 33/34? So nothing too concerning

However, on track, I could get around 8mpg with the charger on...but obviously that's full whack 95% of the time

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I have my HKS supercharger for 6 month. I would say 2 liters/100Km increase over stock base on daily driving (but I tend to have an heavier right foot). On track lots of fuel but lots of pleasure ;) I get 25mpg daily driving.

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How on earth did you get 27mpg . I struggle to do worse than mid thirties... Not that I don't go quickly when I can, it's just that on average i'm usually in traffic so can't do much but cruise...

And yes - I'll be interested... eventually! But fi will be the longest term change... Lots of other stuff ahead in the queue. I just like to have a roadmap...

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25mpg 'driving' the car?..  hmmm I used to get 26mpg round town/b roads when still n/a!

 

With the s/c on a run to/from abbey motorsport I got 40mpg .. currently (without resetting the mpg on dash for a few months) .. *hides from the flames* im at 17.4 :lol: .. should have just kept the m3!

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The thing I've noticed about mpg is that if you do a lot of short trips around town, it's pretty bad, like high 20's. As soon as you throw longer trips in though it tends towards mid to high thirties. To produce more power, requires more fuel so a supercharger will increase consumption percentage wise. three-four mpg less seems about right. 

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I guess that's about what I'd expect. I'd imagine the turboed cars have an advantage here then, as driven gently a turbocharged car is effectively n/a at light throttle (hence the current crop of small capacity turboed engines which 'can' post impressive official mpg and co2 numbers)

Can't help feeling though that a supercharger would suit the natural character of the car more though.

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11 minutes ago, Nicebiscuit said:

I guess that's about what I'd expect. I'd imagine the turboed cars have an advantage here then, as driven gently a turbocharged car is effectively n/a at light throttle (hence the current crop of small capacity turboed engines which 'can' post impressive official mpg and co2 numbers)

Can't help feeling though that a supercharger would suit the natural character of the car more though.

That's exactly why I went down the Supercharger route to keep close to the NA character of the car and the linear power delivery. It is more expensive and less fuel efficient but I love it! Ultimately it is up the individuals preference.

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On my HKS V2 charger I see around 27mpg easily and can see around 32mpg on a long run with some cruise in there. 

Obviously on throttle and long red line pulls it uses a lot more fuel! I do notice since having the charger fitted if you go out and play it will use a fair amount of fuel! :) 

Buy for me its now a weekend toy so don't have it to worry about mpg! 

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9 hours ago, Lauren said:

The thing I've noticed about mpg is that if you do a lot of short trips around town, it's pretty bad, like high 20's. As soon as you throw longer trips in though it tends towards mid to high thirties. To produce more power, requires more fuel so a supercharger will increase consumption percentage wise. three-four mpg less seems about right. 

High 20s?! In the rare times I've just used my car to/from work (8 miles?) I'll average 25mpg although now I need to go further into the city centre, it's more like 22/23

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3 hours ago, Nicebiscuit said:

I guess that's about what I'd expect. I'd imagine the turboed cars have an advantage here then, as driven gently a turbocharged car is effectively n/a at light throttle (hence the current crop of small capacity turboed engines which 'can' post impressive official mpg and co2 numbers)

Can't help feeling though that a supercharger would suit the natural character of the car more though.

Around town and short journeys we see low to mid thirties from our turbo car. On a run we're into the 40's rather easily.

 

Come and see what you think of our turbo kit? it's delivery is nice and linear much like that of a charger, yet gives plenty of headroom for future upgrades :) 

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Surely JP in Macc could build you something to mate to Mike's kit? I believe Mike's familiar with their work... :-)

And I will come and have a proper look at the Turbo kit - it looked top notch engineering when I saw it at your open day, that's for certain.

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Would you guys reckon i could still get about 270-300 miles with SC? I do about 44 miles per day on average,i remember asking this question on the 86OC forum but wasn't able to get the correct answer i wanted.

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6 minutes ago, kurosagi01 said:

Would you guys reckon i could still get about 270-300 miles with SC? I do about 44 miles per day on average,i remember asking this question on the 86OC forum but wasn't able to get the correct answer i wanted.

270-300 miles to a tank is what? High 20's or early 30's for mpg? Judging by the responses in this thread, it seems entirely achievable, but obviously depends on your driving style.

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This had been very informative. Thank you all. When Fensport fitted my HKS S/C I seem to remember them saying my fuel consumption would be a little higher, though I don’t remember exactly what they said. I do know that I went back to them after a couple of months to query it. These are my results. All except the track day are taken from fairly careful driving without too much exuberance:

  • N/A (pre supercharger) 7.9 l/100km ≈ 35.4 mpg
  • With S/C 11.5 l/100km ≈ 24.4 mpg
  • Track day, 9x15 mins 29.6 l/100km ≈ 9.5 mpg

 

After reading all the comments here I feel much happier now that I am in the ‘normal’ range post having the S/C fitted.

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