[DGthe3]

First and foremost, a turbocharger is a supercharger. A supercharger is a device which compresses the air charge and feeds it into the engine. A turbo is a specific type of supercharger which is exhaust driven, while supercharger generally refers to just the mechanically driven type.

There are generally 3 types of mechanically driven superchargers. There are centrifugal type, which work much like a turbocharger in that there is a very high speed impeller compressing the air. Next is the twin screw type. These feature long screws which intermesh to compress the air. These are often highly efficient, yet are also somewhat expensive compared to the similar 3rd type, the roots style. Roots, or 'twin lobe' design opperates like a gear pump and has two long intermeshing lobes. This is what most people think of when talking of superchargers.

Turbo systems also come in threee main varieties. Single and twin. Sounds like just two, but there are two types of twin turbo: parallel and sequential. Single turbo is pretty self explanatory. A parallel system could be thought of as a true twin turbo. Both turbos are identical and can either feed into a common intake, or can feed into individual banks on V-type engines. A sequential system uses one small turbo and one large one. The idea is to minimize turbo lag and maximize top end power.

What is better? Depends on what you are looking for. You can get more power out of a single gigantic turbo than any other setup. But this isn't going to have the best characteristics for a daily driver. A twin turbo setup might be considered ideal ... until you have to do the plumbing yourself. A roots type blower is practically a bolt on, but there is a bit of a fuel economy hit vs most other setups. Screw's are good, but somewhat expensive.