brianw,

I'm no techy...but I'll try to help! From the information I gathered, the twin-turbocharger that I mentioned above is a custom install, and cost approximately $40,000CAN, so around $27,000US...as u probably already know, turbo spins the fan by using your exhaust gas to spin one side, while supercharger uses your crank to spin the fan. I think a turbocharger has greater potential for power than a supercharger though. However, as you mentioned, turbo has lag, while u wait for the exhaust gas to get flowing... but superchargers are getting much more efficient...so they're about the same recently. To solve the problem of lag with turbochargers, the install that I mentioned is a twin-turbocharger meaning that there are two turbos...u get one small one and one big one...the small one spins up quick, and gives you some boost at low RPM's and the big one just pushes tons of air once you get the engine rev'd up. It decreases any lag you have at low RPM's with a single big turbo unit. I think the turbo/supercharger setup probably isn't quite as good as the beloved bored out engine or engine swap techniques that almost every M-B tuner follows...I think a bored-out engine gives you better power response throughout the entire rev range and a more "refined" power output...while a turbo/supercharger will give you a massive power surge above a certain RPM...in terms of cost...I was comparing the cost of the turbocharger/supercharger vs. the bored out engine that RENNTech offers, and I think the turbocharger is around $5000US or so cheaper than the 6.0 V8 conversion for E420 for approximately the same gain in power. I think the Koenig-Specials supercharger is cheaper by about the same amount also. You can also go with the option of dropping a Brabus 7.3L V12 or the Koenig-Specials 7.3L V12 (this one has 580hp) engine into your car, but this would make your frontend heavy...but with that much power...sheesh...I could carry an elephant in the back seat...

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1995 black pearl/black Mercedes-Benz E420 :