A new 'Super vs. Turbo' question
 

I know there are a number of threads on the pros and cons of each, but wanted to add a slight twist to the question.

Am thinking of going the FI route on my '13 L99, but I'm in CA and would like to stay CARB / 50-state legal. This limits my potential choice in a few ways:

1 - Can't add a CAI or LTs if going with an S/C

2 - I believe the only 50-state legal S/Cs are Maggie, Whipple and E-force (though not sure all have approval for '13 yet, Maggie does)

3 - Only 50-state legal turbo is the Turbnonetics T76

The car is a daily driver, and I'm hoping to get close to ~500 rwhp if possible at some point. Given no CAI or LTs, seems like I would be missing some of the best 'next mods' going with a supercharger.

Any thoughts would be welcome and appreciated!

Thanks :thumb:

With the turbo you should be able to keep turning up the boost until you hit the numbers you happy with. It probably won't be the off the shelf carb legal tune, but they won't know that.

Cali requires all mods to pass Carb testing and be certified. Anything that moves the cats is an automatic failure so long tubes/etc are not legal in CA.

My car puts down 499/557 at the wheels on jannettys heart breaker dyno the car went 11.98 on street tires and 121 trap times with the turbonetics t 76 set up, the part I love most is being able to adjust the boost for different situations. Car is very streetable.
It's 50 state legal as well.

Either way sc or turbo the car will be a lot of fun and reach your goals, good Luck

Get out of California throw a twin turbo setup at it and forget the legal crap.

I typically am all for a turbo setup but given your state's stupid restrictions I would have to say a tvs setup is best for you. If you really want longtubes do them and pull them off come inspection time and swap w/ your oem parts. Camaro headers are silly easy to do so it's worth it.

Interesting. Given there's a turbo option available for CA, in your opinion what makes the TVS the better of the two choices in this case?

I was actually leaving towards a T76 with shorty headers (since there a couple of legal ones, ARH, JBA).

A positive displacement blower won't make any power especially without supporting mods like headers etc so just do the turbo setup.

Shorties would be a waste of money and probably wouldn't add any power on that setup. Stock manifolds would probably be better.

Then why are CTS-V's running low 10's on stock manifolds and catback?

I don't like the kit to be honest. Not bashing it at all, but for your goals it doesn't seem like the best option.

They are honestly both bad options because cali is lame. I think moving is the best option.

Even worse options when you factor in the ~9% sales tax... :frusty:

Interesting point of view, thanks for sharing. Do others agree that if you can't do the supporting mods (LTs, etc) that a roots or twin-screw S/C wouldn't make as much sense as a turbo? :iono: