why not an electric supercharger?
 

a supercharger is nothing more than a belt driven fan that forces air into the intake, right?

why not just an electric motor in the air tube that can be turned on or off whenever. eletric motors are cable of high rpms..... high rpm fan = forced air flow ... right?

any thoughts? anyone?

There is already a company building electric superchargers. They claim it puts out 1 # of boost. I doubt it even does that.

Look it up on google.

The CFM's of air needed to create boost ( positive preasure ) would require a large electric motor to turn a small fan fast enough. Also, it would require a device to regulate the speed of the fan to the RPM of the engine. I guess anything can be done but the electrical needs of the fan motor would overcome the electrical output of the car. This would be a good engineering project for the GA. Tech guy!

The one they make now only comes on at high rpms and they claim 3-4 tenths off of your 1/4 mile time. It might work well on a 1.5 liter honda but it would not moves enough air for a V-8

I GOT AN IDEA. How about using a gas powered leaf blower! Mount the thing in the trunk and insulate it for sound. Run the exhaust out the bottom of trunk and hook the throtle cable up to the cars throtle. You could use one of the high dollar electric start models and start it from the drivers seat, that way it would only run when you need it. I'm not sure what CFM a centrifugal blower puts out but I bet a leaf blower could put out at least half that. Also there would be no drag on the engine. What do ya think?

Haha...that would be a good project. We have a club here called GT Motorsports, and that's all they do. They do have an "electric" blower, persay, but it's on a custom build motor attached to a doom-buggey. We won nationals last year and the team got to travel to England to compete internationally...those are some smart boys, but they're all ME (mechanical engineers). Love to help you, but I'm thinking about going Industrial Engineering...

I have, however, heard about this thing called a tornado--I think. It goes inside your MAF and uses the forced induction air to turn it. This in turn forces more air in, but w/out the use of a motor. So the faster you go, the more air it forces it. They're pretty cheap from what I remember, and they are "guaranteed" by the company (for what I don't know). Do a google search on it, maybe you can find something.

That would take one heck of a Motor keep up with even a 3.0L engine. As was mentioned earlier, the electrical requirements would over take the vehicles electrical system. Not to mention how hot and heavy it would be. Electrical motors of that caliber exist, but they are noisy and bulky. The voltage problem wouldn't be so bad, but the Amps is what would kill you, you would need a lot of them to turn an impeller to get significant boost. I have seen them before on import cars that have 1-2 L engines. Another issue is rev speed and latency. That engine would prob be able to vary speed faster than the electric motor could.

I would think that the whole internal combustion system is outdated, there are far greater sources of energy in the world than gasoiline. Take Strong and Weak Nuclear forces for example, if you could harness that kind of power, you could put wings on your car and take off... I personally would like to see a SlipStream or Wormhole drive (and no, I am not a Trekie, these are real science theories.).. Imagine racing someone with a SlipStream engine, you could let your oponent get all the way to the finish line, then let'er rip, and get to the finish line in time to turn around and see yourself still at the start about to leave..... now that's real speed!!!....

There are some weird people on here:o

Nah, not weird, just imaginative.

I agree...I hate gas powered engines...they are way outdated. Isn't it mazda who has the rotor-rotory engine concept...

Yeah...Mazda RX-7 used rotary engines. Their new car (I think they are calling it RX-8 or something like that) also uses a rotary engine. If I remmeber correctly, I think it puts out something like 250 HP. Rotary engines are cool and really quiet/smooth, but for their size, they are typically less efficient on gas (MPG) compared to a same sized conventional engine.

Thanks,
DoranW

OK, about the Tornado comment... WTF are you thinking!!!! j/k
That thing is the biggest bunch of BS and has been proven to show losses in HP on a dyno (ask the guys on Stangnet who swore it worked.)
1) Its a restricition in your air intake, how can that add power?
2) If something like that did work, you would see race teams using that technology.
Their dyno claims are done on an emissions style roller, and they prove it moves air by doing the two soda bottle taped together experiment. WTF is that!!!

surf beast
i know a guy who did that with a electric leaf blower and a power inverter it worked for about 2 seconds before his crank fell out the bottom end but the 2 second ride was awsome:D

there is a company, i forget the name, that has developed an electric supercharger and in their ads they show mustangs and camaros and a viper i called them to inquire about a year ago and they said at that time they only had an electric blower for a few 4cyl applications. i was wondering why they were advertising with all these other cars that they don't have applications for i think they were having trouble getting enough airflow into a v8 i never have heard anything else about them and they no longer advertise.

First of all a eletic blower would NEVER work. Too expensive and not worth the trouble. There was a thread about this in Windsor power, look it up.

Tornado....lol....what a rip off.

Rotory motors are cool, but they are less efficient, and lose a bunch of power when you get around 100K miles or so on them.

but the mighty tornado is endorsed by Joe Schmuck and his multiple station super syndicated everybody listens to this guy cause he knows it all radio show as well as multitudes of professional go cart mechanics and millions upon trillions of loyal tornado users who have already seen the true horsepower and fuel mileage gains of the tornado the tornado has been instrumental in the decline of gas prices nation wide because of all the competition between gas suppliers since everyone is using so much less gas after buying the tornado (this person was paid nothing for their testimonial and is not an actor) "before i had the tornado my honda civic could barely pull itself around town and it took about 3 gallons of gas to cross the street but now after the tornado i can drive from Maine to Washington pulling a 6 ton trailer and it only uses 1 gallon of gas" you see it really is a revolutionary new product.

sorry i couldn't help myself.