Originally posted by Stevers:
3) forced induction
[b]pros: low fuel consumption during cruise, very high amounts of power available on demand
cons: high power not readily avialable at off-idle engine speeds. somewhat lagged.
So in all of these, my choice would be the turbo (I don't care for superchargers).[/b]
I have to agree. The future is not in naturally aspirated engines. The future of quarter-miling may be electric or even steam-driven, actually, because they have more torque per horsepower, especially at the low end. But even with gasoline engines, I think the trend will continue to be towards more turbos, and toward more sophisticated forms of forced induction. For instance, one way you could get more boost per amount of wasted fuel than either a supercharger or a turbocharger is to have an electric supercharger powered by an alternator that runs off an exhaust turbine. You could let the turbine freewheel when you actually punch it, running the blower off of battery power. This could be incorporated into a hybrid-electric vehicle. A hybrid-electric with an exhaust turbine alternator could get the majority of its electric recharging power "for free" in normal driving.
A cruder idea for forced induction, which will probably never happen in a production car but might be a neat trick for a purpose-built quarter miler: have a low power pump that compresses air into a tank, and when you punch it, the tank dumps air into the intake at whatever pressure your heart desires.
Either of these techniques allows you to get tons of boost without either blocking the exhaust or draining power from the driveshaft.
Hybrid-electrics in general have a lot of potential for dragstrip use. Consider what would happen, for instance, if you took a front wheel drive hybrid-electric car and put a whole second giant electric motor on the back wheels, and replaced the batteries with some type that supports extremely high current discharge -- maybe even compact lithium cells if you have the budget. Practically any amount of torque you have the traction for, you could put into your car.
Pure electric cars are ideally suited for drag racing. In electric land there's no reason a 1000 lb car can't have 1000 horsepower... as long as it's only going a short distance.
