GT12207 said:
I did not read this thread, but I've read and researched my fair share of the centri VS twin screw war.
let me put it this way, just go to any classified section of any mustang forum or even on Ebay and look for a used mustang supercharger kit. you'll see that 98% the ones for sale are vortech/paxton/procharger.
very rarely will you see someone sell their Kenne Bell kit. and those who do, usually sell it to upgrade to an even bigger KB model or taking the twin turbo route.
that's the bottom line. i don't care the pro's and con's on each style bla bla bla this one is for racing that one is for street bla bla blad depends on gears bla!
No offence, but that statement proves nothing!
First off, Centrifugals kits for the most part are much cheaper than Kenne Bell kits. So selling them off and upgrading them to another blower, whether it be a Kenne Bell, or otherwise doesn't put that big of a dent in the wallet. Kenne Bells on the other hand are quite expensive (twice the price in some cases) and your average enthusiast more often than not can't afford to or can’t be bothered (and admittedly are usually content with the power they make) to upgrade beyond what they've got. So usually, when someone gets one, they keep it. Not to mention the cost and work involved in going from a centrifugal to a Positive Displacement supercharger is much less than doing it the other way around.
Secondly, Kenne Bell has pretty much cornered the market as far as the positive displacement superchargers concerned. Sure you've got a few others on the market now, but they're either
A) not very well known (Allen),
B) have terrible marketing, not to mention don't sell a true
complete kit (FRPP),
C) don't build their own kit specific to the Ford Modular (
Whipple) or
D) are far to expensive by comparison (Saleen and Roush). That puts Kenne Bell in a great position right off the bat with out even having to sell a kit.
Third....Kenne Bell has master story tellers working for them and writing their advertisements. Their adds read more like creative writing assignment than spec sheets and that type of
exaggeration certainly works in their favor. If someone didn’t know any better, why wouldn’t they believe what they had to say? Nobody said you had to be smart or mechanically inclined to own a fast car. If it’s in writing, it must be true, right? Not to mention Kenne Bell makes it a practice to badmouth and show up their competitors with their own brand of “controlled testing” and skewed results that somehow always work out in their favor, while the whole time neglecting to, or smoothing over their own products shortcomings. When was the last time you heard any other supercharger manufacturer refer to another’s product as “inferior” or “second rate” the way Kenne Bell does? You want to talk inferior….lets talk Kenne Bell customer service. But that’s a whole other ball of wax.
Finally and probably most importantly is the fact that you've got three major brands that actively sell centrifugal superchargers for the 4.6L line up, two of which have been around for going on 10-years now, where the Modular based Kenne Bell kits have only been around for less than half that time. A lot of owners are just plain and simply willing to try something different than what the other guy has. There's always a lot of hype associated with being the new kid on the block and Kenne Bell has capitalized on it. No, they're not new to supercharging, but as far as their modular life span goes, they're still babies compared to Paxton and Vortech, so why not put yourself out there.
What does this all mean…..absolutely nothing! Every one of them puts out a dud here and there, has good and bad experiences and has very satisfied or dissatisfied customers on both ends. The fact of the matter is, is that Kenne Bell puts out a great kit….but no any greater than anyone else in the supercharger game like they would like you to believe. The sooner the Kenne Bell nut huggers realize that and stop sucking up and regurgitating Kenne Bell propaganda like Parrots quoting gospel and come back down to a realistic plane of existance, the better off everyone will be.
:SNSign:
