I'm gonna journal why I got back into the Supercharged set-up for a moment. Background is interesting!
I got very disapointed that there wasn't an x-flow kit around, but felt that things were rather difficult in the engine bay.
A while back, I looked at the AJ-6 Falcon in Street Machine and Modern Motor in 1997.
Tickford also previewed a gold EL Falcon Predator at the 1998 Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Motor Shows. So the AJ-6 had no chance of getting released just a few months before the AU was due.
Both AJ-6 and Predator articles were very positive about these supercharged cars which had compact underhood blowers.
Yet again, the compliance costs for less than 500 cars a year were too steep. Bryan Griggs of GTA Automotive had done a huge amout of development work in the mid 90's on these cars, with some work with Alan Moffat in 1995, but there was no progress on the six cylinder supercharged Falcon until Ford released a virtual copy at 1998 Sydney Motorshow.
Perhaps Ford may have had other issues with the impressive Sprintex Superchargers, and the Sprintex companies eventual sale to AEC , but the fact is the kit was previewed in 1997. It's sad that it never hit the streets.
Since Alan Jones failed to get the 1997 AJ-6 Signature Series Falcon on the road, there have been 6 years of non activity on the Sprintex Supercharged Falcon untill 2003, when Forced Air Technology at
http://www.forcedairtech.com.au/fordkit.htm previewd the same kit!
It had a Whipple 1600, which was soon replaced with a Yella Terracharger 1500.
www.perfordmag.com found that running on a piddly 5 psi of boost, it yielded about 227 rear wheel hp in a blue FAT BLOWN plated AU2, a 44% boost from 158 hp with the stock AU 2 4.0. All up, the flywheel figure is likely to be about 215 KW or 13% more than the latest BF Falcon XT in a far lighter car. It runs water injection rather than an intercooler, so things are easy to service.
Since 2003, FAT has been making kits for AU2 Falcons, and these can be made to fit EF and all AU Falcons, but are only ADR approved in the AU2.
The kit I'm building uses the same kind of set-up as the age old Norman blowers used in FJ Holden of 50 years ago and uses the modern mounting techniques displayed in the 1997 AJ-6. It isn't as trim as the more modern and compact low pressure superchargers FAT, but my kit is designed to run over twice the boost. I guess using a 50 year old Wade blower helps, but I still think the technology has been laying dormant for years.
Bryan Griggs said it best. "...we (
GTA) think that the supercharged six will have more appeal than a worked V8"
amen!