"Supercharged!" (new book by Corky Bell)

• Mar 13, 2002

• #2

Guest

Agreed, I had this book on order for a few months prior to its release and I have not been disappointed. It takes the information available in all the previous supercharger books and combines them into one valuable resources, along with supplementing the content with information on manifold design and helpful intercooling data.

Kai

 

• Apr 2, 2002

• #3

Whittey

Automotive

Jul 6, 2001

70

US

In one evening, I read Turbochargers, Maximum Boost and Superchargers. I didn't get very much out of Superchargers that wasn't said in Maximum Boost (in fact many a paragraph was copied verbatim). I found the only differences were in the supercharger-specific (mainly in bracing and drive mechanism) items which would have made a book 1/4 as thick. All in all i'm not disappointed to have it in my collection, though I do wish there were more info not available in the other books.


-=Whittey=-

 

• Oct 15, 2003

• #4

Gaz1

Mechanical

Oct 5, 2003

9

GB

im after a book to help on a turbocharging project im about to start. i idealy want something to help with deciding inlet and exhaust dimensions/configurations, and selecting a suitable turbocharger. you list a few books above. which would you recomend for me? (the engines a flat 6 if that makes a differance)

im also considering 'forced induction performance tuning' by Graham Bell. any comments on that book?

any help much appreciated, thanks,
Gareth.

 

• Oct 15, 2003

• #5

kradicke

Mechanical

Jun 19, 2002

24

US

The Graham Bell book is EXCELLENT! However, Corky's book are better for "quick reference" reading... when you only need to look up a formula quickly or need to find general information quickly. Grahams book is better digested by reading front to back entirely, in one sitting if possible.

Both are excellent resources and should be used together for their collective information.

 

• Oct 15, 2003

• #6

Gaz1

Mechanical

Oct 5, 2003

9

GB

so im guessing 'supercharged' and 'maximum boost' are very similar books, only 'supercharged' supercharger specific and maximum boost turbo specific. or does the new 'supercharged' have everything 'maximum boost' had and more? thats the impression im getting.

cheers,
gareth

 

• Oct 16, 2003

• #7

bvicknair

Automotive

Sep 5, 2003

9

US

I have the Graham Bell book, its the best I have in library. I like the fuels and water sections, also intake testing with cheap tools.

bruce v.

 

• Oct 31, 2003

• #8

turbododge

Automotive

Oct 30, 2003

22

US

Don't want to get down on something I haven't seen, but I hope the Superchargers book is better than Maximum Boost, in which Corky has some good information, but puts out a lot of opinion as fact, and has some very large mistakes (in my opinion).

 

• Oct 31, 2003

• #9

Warpspeed

Automotive

Jun 6, 2003

1,521

AU

They are both excellent books by the same author, on very similar subjects, so of course a lot of the content will be identical. If you had to write a chapter on intercooling a supercharged engine, and intercooling a turbocharged engine, what would be different?

I have both books, and would recommend them both, but a lot of the content is very similar if not identical in both books.

A lot of the basics on subjects such as selecting a compression ratio, engine building, fuels, manifold design, intercooling, detonation, instrumentation, testing, and so on are really the same in both books.

And it does contain a lot of personal opinion, but then the guy has the knowledge and experience, and I am all the wiser from hearing corky's views.

The big difference between these two books and others is that the information is recent. There are plenty of other really dated 1970's hot rodding books on how to fit a 6-71 GM blower onto your small block Chev. But these books discuss far more modern hardware available today.

 

• Nov 3, 2003

• #10

danimal

Automotive

Oct 27, 2001

1

US

'forced induction performance tuning' by Graham Bell is definitely superior to the corky bell turbo book... with a copyright of 2002, it's a lot more up to date... if you only get one book, that is it.

maximum boost has problems... corky spends too much time pimping his aerocharger, for instance, when he should have been sharing some worthwhile knowledge instead... after all, that is what i paid for... the turbo camshaft info is completely non-existant, with only one reference listed in the index, and it is worthless.

some of the formulas in maximum boost used to be of value, but nowdays most of the math in there is on the internet, in multiple websites, with downloadable xls files that you can run your own turbocharger calcs with.

the section on water injection is nothing short of ignorant... but i have seen that attitude before, on the part of some old-skool automotive performance engineers who aren't up to date with some of the new technologies for distributing water in automotive applications.

i'll never buy another corky bell book.