Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Tanks and Compressed Air

Sign up for The Drive Daily Email address Sign Up Thank you! Terms of Service & Privacy Policy. If there’s a way to add power to a car, you can bet it’s been tested on the drag strip. That’s the one place you’ll find more superstitions than on a baseball field—eating peanuts in the pits, wearing lucky underwear, that type of thing—but only because people are serious about going fast. They’re so serious that they’re willing to try anything that nets them a lower quarter-mile time and a higher trap speed, even if it means ditching the hardware that’s worked for generations. We’re seeing that right now as a small group of drag racers are shelving their turbos and belt-driven blowers for power adders that look like scuba tanks. It’s called Compressed Air Supercharging and folks who have been paying attention to the drag racing scene in recent years may have heard about it. That said, the community has been pretty skeptical of the tech despite its huge potential. Now, though, a batch of r ... Read full article.