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Horsepower
I was looking for some full exhaust systems for my 01 GTP and came across an interesting article regarding horsepower in general. The article was written by Alex Borla (Borla Exhaust). He was commenting on one of his exhaust systems and said " it doesn't add horsepower, it just takes away less horsepower than a stock system does".
How many people believe that a certain production motor has 'X' amount of potential but it is held back by restrictive part? Someone could say that a larger free flowing exhaust is just releasing the power that is already there, so are you really adding horsepower or just releasing the power that is already there?
With forced induction and/or nitrous, you are giving the motor a power adder that wasn't previously there. Hence 'ADDING'.
So are bolting on cold air intakes and exhaust systems really 'adding' horsepower or just freeing up horepower that was provided from the factory?
Here's my take on the question. I think what he's talking about is latent hp. A 100% efficient engine and drivetrain can put out a maximum amount of horsepower. Some of that is used to overcome friction and some is used in overcoming intake restrictions, head losses, and exhaust back pressure (pumping losses), some is used in the drive train getting it to the wheels. So we have a lot of opportunities to reduce friction, pumping losses and drivetrain losses. Now if you put in power adders into the equation such as nitrous or boost, you are only adding to the maximum possible hp the setup could make.
The power adders work only as well as the basic efficiency of the setup you start with. So you want to make the setup as efficient as possible (reduce friction and rotating mass etc). Then add power whichever way you choose whether it be nitrous, turbo, or a supercharger if you don't already have one.
Anyway since its snowing like hell and there is nothing to do, lets here some of your brains rationalize this.
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