At this point in time, the system is for short burts of power. Just try to remember RC cars 25 years ago, when I raced them. Nicads lasted 5 minutes and took overnight to charge. Within a few years they lasted 15 minutes and took 15 minutes to charge.
Car batteries will be replaced by battery/Capacitor hybrids (I have some for my Drag car). They can recharge FASTER than discharge, and the limiting factor at this point is the alternator. I am having a 550 amp alternator built for me, and that will result in a 15 second discharge taking less than 20 seconds to recharge.
Capacitors have a 50 year life, with 20,000 recharging cycles. They never get hot, are impervious to heat or cold, and weigh 20% of a battery. My 350 farad batcap produces 300 amps for 8 seconds @ 72 volts. It weighs 28 lb. One is not quite enough for my high 9 low 10 second car and the burnout, so I am having several made (extremely expensive, but this is true with any new technology)
The Cougar you are thinking of was a Roush 3.0 with an Eaton SC. The one I did was Yellow with two stripes at the end of the trunk. It had a custom one-off body kit.
BTW, I also do R&D for Vortech--I stopped producing shaft type superchargers because of the high bearing failure rates.
If one of you can make a custom turbo kit, that is great. But 99% of car owners cant, or most definitively should NOT make their own--I think you understand why. The turbo failure rates are factual, regardles of who made them. Obviously the Garrett T3-T04 with it's wide bearings are the most durable, but even still, they have a 16% failure rate after two years--and that is for FACTORY installed cars with turbos and all driver types included. For those who do a lot of racing the numbers are over 90% within 18 months. That means anyone with a custom kit will have a 90% chance of replacing their turbo within two years. This is why I no longer build, design, or do ANYTHING turbo related with only a few exceptions. I still cut housings for several turbo builders as I designed and still own the CNC programs and carbide cutters for many hybrids.
Please dont assume that Contour owners would not like a kick every once in a while. I have always owned cars that handle as well as they look (like my Lotus Esprit with an SHO V8 and Porsche 944 transaxle) and I am installing versions of the ESC in all my cars.
