To supercharge or not to SC????

[Anonymous]

Byron I'm holding you and Neil responsible for this dilemma

Pros and cons?
455/550 and engine works required to allow engine to take any new stresses ?

30k engine and uber maintained oil and filter every 4k regardless

Input welcome

 

[markplant]

If you have the funds an enjoy the car why not

 

[Anonymous]

Seriously tempted just want an idea of all pros cons
Work involved and costs and any engine work in prep

 

[GuidoK]

Do you daily the car?

Dont forget that the ESS prices are ex VAT/import duty, so add a good 20% to that.
And always go with a kit that has additional cooling imho. (and bigger injectors, although that is standard at ess I think)
Compressed air coming off a supercharger is quite hot.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you daily the car?

No buddy 2/3times a week if lucky as 2soft tops for dry use and fun use only

 

[GuidoK]

Ok, so reliability is not a 100% demand.
(every supercharger install has some quirks at some point so although pretty reliable, its never OEM reliable)

If you go for ESS, only the VT2-525 kit for the z4m has additional cooling (FMIC) (be prepared for the £8k bill...)

 

[Bottom]

Another con you might not think of is insurance. I S/C'ed an MX5 once, found it a real PITA getting insurance for it. Not as straightforward as you may think and none of the "big" companies would touch it.
I assume you're going to mention it to the insurers

I personally felt it rather spoiled the car for me, I never had any actual problems with it, but a lot of the time while I was driving it, I was looking for a problem rather than just enjoying the drive. YMMV of course.

 

[firebobby]

Marc, as above, it's your car, which by the way is a mint M roadster and which is plenty quick enough. OK, you did struggle to keep pace with me on drives last year, but I would leave as is, but it's your car.

 

[Yorkie Z]

If you got the cash then I think it's a must, plus your car looks bloody stunning so why not treat it to more power

 

[Anonymous]

Im a 50/50 over this
As it isn't abused
It's just sometimes i feel like teaching a few new cars a lesson

And having more power on tap as it were
I'll read more thoroughly ofcourse as want to redo interior of mazzer too so it's split

And thanks for ref to car
And fred i think your whippy had the aero advantage

 

[mmm-five]

One of the reasons for me putting off my planned SC upgrade (5 year delay so far ) is the fact that I couldn't get anyone to insure it for a reasonable amount whilst using it as a 25k mile a year daily driver. Some of the 'lower' quotes I was getting were in the £2500 range (and those quotes were before my near-write-off accident in 2015) from 'specialists', and I didn't find one that would include business use.

To be fair, I only went to the well known modified car specialists that advertise in the performance magazine (Adrian Flux, Footman James, A-Plan, Performance Direct, MarkerStudy, Brentacre, etc.) - and haven't tried a bespoke policy with Hiscox or Locketts.

Now that I'm using it less, I'd probably be able to get it covered on a limited mileage, classic policy for £200/year - but then I'd hardly be able to use it for many longer trips, so it doesn't even make sense to upgrade it!

 

[Anonymous]

Good point well made m5
Instance is up on 7th i think
So I'll do some asking as with esure with m and flux with mazzer
Call time haha

 

[85genius]

If you only on 30k then its low usage insurance won't be too bad....

Do it!

911 turbo beater and a much cooler and better sound at a fraction of the cost

 

[Anonymous]

Hahaahh
Well my issue is
Have the mazzer of which I won't sell and this that I can't get arse out of!!

I want an r810+ or M4.

My cars are 2 extremes
Rare old school mazzer 1/4 in the world on last year build and of 158 ever built
14+years owned and love it and then some

My M of which has grown on me like a fat kid in a sweet shop the more i tweek the more I love it
Externally I'm done as with interior as all perfect imo

So to get m4 or r8 I'd have to sell my M and add alot of money to get one
Or both and make a big mistake

So, I'm thinking to bring M upto date
SC it not that I drive it hard for more than miles at any time nor would I track it
But, just to smile when a tool comes long side thinking they're gods gift in a sterile Audi or the like and wish them the best as leave for dead

Yes I'm a boy but in my head i keep my M i love and my mazzer

 

[Mister T]

sounds like you'd be better off going for nitrous rather than a supercharger.

 

[Anonymous]

I pity the fool

Heard alot of melted engines due to that
But Not heard of s54 using Nos?

 

[Dablk]

Does seem a shame to be to take a beauty of an N/A engine and change it.

 

[MACK]

I suppose on a positive note a supercharged Z4M would be uber rare/special and certainly more fun to drive than either of the others you've mentioned. Compared to what you would loose in depreciation on the alternatives the cost of the supercharger kit plus a hike in insurance seems the lesser of two evils. As has been said this sort of build always throws up a few issues but its all part of the fun/sense of achievement, although it doesn't always feel like it at the time.

 

[Anonymous]

I hear you dab
But not much you can do with N.A. without spending silly money for little gain

Mack you get my issue
As both cars would loose money until plateau
But this way I keep my cars and yes spend money but
Would be a weapon hahaha
An M sleeper if you will
As my brain wanted f10 m5 lump

 

[NavZ]

I'm in a similar position albeit a bit weirder.
I have a Vortech V3sci Supercharger kit sitting in my garage (for over a year)
Thing is I still have the dilemma of fitting it or not, I got it at a steal and can easily get my money back… but not sure I want to run into issues down the line.
My biggest issue is finding someone who can write some decent software for the Z4M as the M3 has an older ECU so it's not compatible.
Pretty sure I will install it in the next month or two but we shall see…
I don't plan on selling my Z4M EVER, so I want to make it (even more) special.
Resale doesn't affect me but I don't want to ruin an otherwise mint M

Pros: power, something special, power, noise? & you'll constantly find other things you want to upgrade aka money pit.
Cons: cost, resale, insurance, cost, fuel?, noise?, reliability, cost, heat & you'll constantly find SC things you want to upgrade aka money pit.