turbo?

[coachreed]

Joe-
Thanks for the well written response to the thread. I am used to dealing with turbo vs SC talk on street driven cars... not ones that are meant to be used off road at a MUCH slower pace. Your points are VERY valid and VERY true. I guess this comes from my having a one track mind... sometimes I choose to make things tougher than they are... just ask zuzuAmigA (original author of this thread... and a long time friend of mine)... she'll attest to my trying to make things TOUGHER than they really need be.

TTYL!

Coach... aka Randy!

[Hotsauce]

Very funny how VX owners come from similar backgrounds. I had an XR4Ti with a 2.6 stroker, and T03/04 ball bearing 50 trim. Then i purchased an AWD Eclipse. VX, although much slower, is more balanced, and more fun to dive.

John C.

[Zu4two]

The supercharger kit from Alpine is engineered to provide up to 5 pounds of boost. Most of the time, due to it's tricky bypass valve, it runs in vacuum and it only "comes on the boost" under 3/4 to full throttle. Even though it's setup for 5 pounds, I don't think I've ever seen mine get over 4.5 lbs or so.

The main need for an intercooler arises from the temperature increase that occurs when the air is compressed by the blower. The amount of temperature increase from the hot turbo "thermal transfer" is negligible, since the air is moving pretty fast through the turbine. The increased heat of the compressed charge only becomes detrimental and in need of an intercooler on systems that generate over 8-10 pounds of boost.

Due to the design of the Alpine system, drivability both on and off road is not compromised one bit. After taking my truck out on the trail this past weekend, I can truthfully say that the the operation of the supercharger is transparent and didn't adversely effect the VX's performance off road at all. Most of the time the blower wasn't even working, being that most off road driving takes place just off idle. I think the only time I ran it into positive boost was after the trail, when I got to the graded dirt road back to the highway. There I punched it, and had some fun

I don't understand why anyone would want to try to create a turbo setup for the VehiCROSS, when there is a perfectly good S/C kit already specifically engineered for it. Other than just to say that they did it.

Just my 2 cents...

Kirk

[coachreed]

Kirk-
Thanks for your great reply. I am not familiar with the Alpine SC as I am just now arriving into the VX world. Sounds like an incredibly well designed system... and sounds like your right... probably NEVER see it in positive boost in the off road world... should NEVER be going that hard in the dirt... at least not often... maybe if I see myself slowing down in the mud when I don't wanna be slowing down. I guess when it comes time for forced induction... should that ever happen, its SC time. Thanks for the info.

Coach... aka Randy!

[Joe_Black]

Thanks Randy, I try to stay off the soapbox as much as possible. LOL! Thanks much Kirk for the boost figures on the SC. Still haven't got one yet, but the wife-to-be says it's on the other side of house construction. Woohoo!

John C., I hope your comparing the VX balance to the Eclipse. The Merkur has a 52/48 balance and, as you probably know, handles like on rails. There's a reason they were banned from virtually all European competitions. DOMINATING! I recently sold my mildly modded '89 and am currently working on an '86 shell that I'm building to European Works specifications. I will retain the 2.3 mill as importing the Cosworth unit isn't practical when looking at spares. I've spent about two years getting the necessary components and am about 60% there. With about 380HP at the rear wheels it'll cause some severe confusion and pucker-factor with the local ricer/tuner crowd. It'll take a lot of self control to keep from putting a "Honda Eater" sticker on it!

[Tone]

SC kits also offer up to a 3yr/36k warranty - turbo kits do not.

Warranty
All of our non-CARB approved applications carry a "1-Year / Unlimited Mileage" warranty against defects in materials and workmanship (unless otherwise specified). Any omission or addition of parts, deviation or modification to our kit from its original intent, design, and installation instructions, or any additional modifications that may affect the performance and reliability of our kit as intended, will void this warranty.

Here's the best part, and a "first" for this type of automotive aftermarket product. S.A. Alpine Developments Inc. is offering a "3-Year / 36,000-Mile Power Train Warranty" on all of the "CARB" approved applications backed by Dell Financial Services (largest underwriter of extended automotive warranties in the world). This supersedes_the factory power train warranty!_A Dell Financial representative_or an "Authorized Alpine Developments Installation Facility" will be the only ones who can sign off on this. This_will include and cover "official" performance upgrades from Alpine Developments. These kits can also easily be installed by most home mechanics and would need to be inspected by an authorized installer to qualify.

Even more good news...we will be offering an optional_"extended warranty" on the basic kit (no modifications at all). The consumer will have up to the full 3-years or 36,000-miles to decide if they wish to purchase this extended power train warranty, that will match, or "mirror" the remaining factory power train warranty (up to an additional 8-years) as long as the vehicle has less than 50,000 miles on it! (The price for this will vary depending on the length of the factory warranty being matched, but don't anticipate it being more than an extra $200-to-$500.) The details of this are not all set yet, but as with the other warranty, will have to be "signed off" by a Dell Financial representative, or "Authorized Alpine Developments Installation Facility". We should have all this in place by the_end of February, and_should be available to existing owners! Unfortunately, any upgrades (even our own "official" upgrades) will not be covered by this extended warranty package.