This guy ought to look into some wide tires.
In the Automotive Community we often have a lot of conversation surrounding forced induction and which methods are best to use in performance situations. Usually these conversations come down to turbocharging vs. supercharging, Roots blower vs. twin turbo, V8 versus forced induction 4 cylinder or something like that. You've probably heard them all but there is one modification which, despite relative popularity within the car world, gets very little attention in these debates. That of course Is nitrous, a fan favorite of anyone who likes the Fast and Furious movies and wants to go really scarily fast. With the addition of a NOS system, in your car it can add a few hundred horsepower at the click of a button essentially by just changing the oxygen levels. This particular race is a great example to show us the performance of nitrous when compared to a turbocharged engine in a straight head-to-head drag race between two cars with pretty similar power-to-weight ratios according to the owners.
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These competitors include a C5 Corvette that you might expect to see at a drag strip and a Nissan 240SX that looks like something straight out of Initial D. In the C5 you might be expecting something like a twin turbo, which would make sense as the engine was originally set up for that forced induction type. However this Beast is running a 200 shot of nitrous, of course adding to the engines overall horsepower output by 200 units. In comparison the 240SX is powered by a 2JZ with the turbocharger making somewhere around 800 horsepower. Both of these cars are extremely lightweight but the Corvette might have an advantage because it is built for straight-line Speed, though in a standing mile race rather than quarter mile. overall it might not be a perfect comparison of turbo vs Nitrous but it's pretty close and this should definitely be an interesting race.
It became pretty clear from the start who had an advantage with this race, especially when you look at round number one. As would soon become a recurring trend, 240 had a ton of trouble hooking up and actually putting its power to the ground. This won the Corvette not only the first race but all three of them, getting pretty close during the third one and nearly giving the 240 a win in what was supposed to have been Race 2. The reason the 240 failed on that particular round was that they both let off before they crossed the finish line because of some dust gathering on the track. Even though the car had massive drag slicks on the back it still wasn't capable of hooking up and as such couldn't catch up to the nitrous powered ‘Vette. Overall it is debatable whether this was an honest comparison of nitro versus turbocharging but it was still a very interesting race with a clear winner who definitely got to celebrate hard at the end.
