Rich, this is one of those 'out of the box' ideas', that get me into trouble!
In my quest to find out how much more HP a centrifugal supercharger is capable of making, over a roots style huffer, I got side tracked!
I started thinking about how I could get the benefits of a supercharger, without losing the HP it takes to run one.
Since all a supercharger does is compress air, why not just carry compressed air on the car, and use it for boost? Obviously, it's not that simple, because of controlling and monitoring the boost, compressing the air, etc. but that's another story!
If 14lbs boost could be achieved from compressed air, the HP gain would be staggering. I approached Woody with the idea, and he sent me the attached pic
The car was designed and raced by Art Malone, even though the caption under the car reads: The "Air car" at Don Garlits' Drag Racing Museum. Concerned that he was losing too much power driving the blower, Garlits came up with this ingenious car, which featured a large tank of compressed air which was progressively fed into the engine during a run, instead of a blower.
This started a google search, where I found this:
Initial testing of various forms of the system was done on three different dragsters and one of Mickey Thompson's Ford Funny Cars, but in all instances, no full quarter-mile runs were attempted. Recently, however, Keane got together with Mickey Thompson and, utilizing Thompson's exotic dyno facility in Long Beach, accomplished an exhaustive testing program. The results were phenomenal. Where a 6-71 blown Boss 429 Ford engine on 20% nitro had produced 1360 horsepower, the same type of engine equipped with the bottled air system in place of the Rootes blower, burning only straight alcohol, produced 2400 horsepower at 6000 rpm! On gasoline, the system made about 1550 horsepower. This success was not easily achieved, as in one week of testing, Thompson reportedly ran 150 gallons of alcohol through the dyno engine.
So, long story short, is this a possibility? Can enough air be stored on board, with either bottles, or utilizing the frame, etc., to to run a 366 CID engine, at 14lbs boost, for 3 miles at WOT?
If not, why?