Supercharger Styles
Popular vintage Superchargers broken down by style or family of which they belong.
Centrifugal Superchargers
The centrifugal-type supercharger is essentially a compressor driven by a engine accessory belt to increase the amount of air to the engine by compressing air that is entering the engine. This type of supercharger is nearly identical in operation to a turbocharger, with the exception that instead of exhaust gases driving the compressor via a turbine, the compressor is driven from the crankshaft by a belt, gear or chain drive.
Examples of vintage Centrifugal Superchargers:
McCulloch Supercharger
Paxton Supercharger
Positive Displacement or “Roots” style superchargers
Positive-displacement superchargers are also driven by an engine accessory belt and uses rotors to deliver the same volume of air per revolution at all speeds, so the more a Positive-displacement superchargers spins, the more compressed air is fed to the engine.
Examples of vintage Positive Displacement Superchargers:
GMC 71 series Superchargers
SCoT Superchargers
Axial Flow Superchargers
Latham’s “Axial Flow” supercharger is very similar to the fan compressor from a jet engine. Dozens of little blades on a cylindrical rotor spin inside a bladed housing to compress the incoming air in stages. Unfortunately, in order become an effective supercharging device the Axial Flow supercharger needed to spin incredible high RPMs, which may have contributed to its lack of popularity.
Examples of vintage Axial Flow Superchargers:
Latham Supercharger