Anyone have experience supercharging 3.0L SC?

I found a super looking turbo bodied SC with a stock 3.0L engine but would only be interested if I could bump the HP up to get the performance to more closely match the look.

Does anyone have any first hand (or even second hand :-) ) experience superchargine 911s? I know Supercharging of Knoxville does this, but would appreciate the opinions of those not trying to sell me something.

I've never been a big fan of any 911 conversions, but this one really looks great. Plus I'm a sucker for Fly Yellow! I hope to see the car in person tomorrow.

Here's a link to the Auto Trader ad: http://www.traderonline.com/cgi-bin/coll/apps/search/photdisp.html?photo=00098632803&phoneId=4807972828&ad=19912641&status=no&imgsite=&page=search&pstat=P

If that car has been done right (all steel) you can believe the $30K spent. I have second hand knowledge of the SOK system. A fellow PCA member in my region has a '78SC 3.0L with a whipplecharger installed. He started out with a centrifugal unit but didn't like the lag. These kits ain't cheap - $7K for the whipple, $5K for the paxton. Not even close to worth it in my opinion (you could swap in a 3.3L turbo and sell the 3.0 for the same money). His dyno sheets showed 260HP at the rear wheels for both systems, the difference being that the whipple unit came up on boost immediately. A 3.0L w/SSIs in good tune (i.e. mine) will put 180HP to the rear wheels, so your talkin' $5+K for 80HP. It did put the car into the 12s at 2600 pounds though. As far as longevity is concerned it is entirely up to you and your ability to leave the boost knob alone. This fella couldn't do that and rebuilt his motor twice as a result. I rode in this car many times and drove it once. Fast, but not scary by any stretch. There's only so much you can do with a 3.0L without the cost getting rediculous.

Lee,

I contemplated supercharging my 86 911 for several years. The reason was b/c of the relatively cheaper alternative to turbocharging or swapping to a larger motor. What I found out was that at the club racing level, very few racers supercharged their cars. Knoxville's kits start out with using the stock compression ratios w/ low boost and their higher hp kits lower compression by machining the pistons and adding a larger gasket. This I found from talking to many engine builders for race cars is a cheesy way of lowering compression for the higher boost. A personal friend of mine is a professional racer in Toyota Atlantics and has raced in the Porsche series in Germany. I asked him to talk to his engineers and they also said to do it the right way for the best reliability. None of the 911's in the more serious competitions use supercharging. That was enough for me, I finally decided to do it right and kill myself with the cost. I've added new racing P & C's, modified the heads, crankfire ignition, twin plug, super large intercooler, with racing wastegate, etc., etc., etc. Most of the parts I am using are factory Porsche RSR racing parts that are proven winners and reliable. As we all know, Porsche has an incredible reputation for reliable power and most of the engineers I've spoke to said that you cannot go wrong using Porsche's racing parts. By the way, I'm the same guy that was offering you the ss exhaust system for the Carrera that you almost purchased. My new headers have a fitting for a turbo now!

Good luck!

Thanks for the info guys! Sounds like supercharging might not be the way to go. To me, the beauty of a 911 is the reliability. It would be a shame to mess with it.

That car looks so good in the ad. I wonder if I'd be happy driving it until I could figure out a way to stuff in a turbo engine. Seems like any time I've read about somebody doing a conversion to a different engine, the person who owned the car did the work. I wonder what the total net cost would be to buy a turbo engine and pay someone else to install it. I just don't have the experience or equipment for something like that. I'm guessing I'd be better off with a factory turbo car no matter how good this one looks. Any ideas?

Lee - There are a lot of good looking modified cars out there. The yellow one you are looking at is exotic enough but I wonder about the price. I have an widebody converted SC, if it were for sale I wouldn't consider asking less than $25K for it (appraised value is more). You've got to be careful when buying a modified car. There are also many 911s out there with supercharged and turbocharged engines swapped in for sale - again, be thorough on the inspection when looking at one of these.