TTS Rotrex kit (UK) vs SOS supercharger kit (USA)
- Antony Kouvelas
- Feb 28, 2020
- 3 min read
As with most tuning kits available on the market (for any car), there is always a debate on which kit is the best. And I am now in the position to compare two of the most popular supercharger kits available for the S2000.
So let's get down to business!
TTS KIT
The first one is the kit from TTS Performance (UK based) which I have been using for several years, initially only on the road and then on track also. You may find info for this kit here:
This kit is using a Rotrex centrifugal compressor which sits on an aluminium "main" plate.
This plate is secured to the engine with aluminium brackets and also holds the required belt tensioner and pulleys.
The kit also includes all the required peripherals (air to air intercooler, piping, fuel parts etc) as this is sold as a bolt-on solution.
The power figures one expects to see from this kit are more than enough (especially if you go with the latest C38-91 compressor). During the past few years we have seen from 410bhp (with the standard pulley that TTS provides and 0.75bar max boost) up to 515bhp (with 1.1bar of boost) on a Maha dynamometer.
Seen below, fitted on my car, with some mods on the piping, intake air filter and blow-off valve.
This kit has performed very well when solely used on the streets but not so well when used on track. The issues that we encountered were all related to the structural design / mounting of the kit on the vehicle. The aluminium brackets holding the main plate on the engine were cracking quite often. We even replaced a complete main plate due to deformation. Thankfully, they were mostly replaced under warranty by TTS. These brackets have been redesigned during the past few years but imo, are still not good enough for severe track use.
Science of Speed kit
The kit from SOS can be found here:
The word ιn the world of S2000 (and NSX) owners is that Science of Speed is one the best tuning companies out there and only produce top quality parts / kits. And it was only a matter of time until I got to verify this myself.
My first impression on the company was actually created before I even purchased the kit. The replies I got to my interrogative e-mails / phone calls were always to the point, satisfying and one might even say that they were on the verge of being rude! But I soon realized that this "attitude" was backed up by the deep knowledge on their products and the S2000 as a whole.
When the kit finally arrived to Athens, it was delivered directly to the workshop that was going to fit it and their impression on the kit can be summarized to: "wow, this is top quality".
The first thing that caught my attention (and the most important one) was the fact that the Paxton centrifugal compressor was attached to the "main" plate with the use of 4 hard rubber joints. (seen below).
This kit is also using a charge cooler (air to water heat exchanger) instead of the air to air that most FI (forced induction) kits use. The benefits from this setup are mainly 2. You do not need to have boost pipes taking up all the space in the engine area and most importantly, there is zero lag due to very short distance between the outlet of the compressor and the intake manifold.
Below you can see the front mount large heat exchanger (offered an an upgrade option from SOS), together with its water pump (fitted in place of the deleted air pump). And behind that, the new KOYO radiator.
The power figures one expects to see from this kit are also more than enough (especially if you go with the latest Novi 1200 compressor). With only 0.85 of max boost the car produced 400 hub hp on a Dynapack dynamometer (www.geartech.gr)
And fitted to my car (minor details pending to be fixed)
This setup will be tested in Serres (at the RX8 annual track day) next week and a full analysis will be done here.
Next up, weight reduction bro!
Stay tuned!
@giorgosgrts: If you have the supersport kit, you can replace the intercooler and piping with better (larger ones). This will give you a significant hp increase. One other tip is to remove the center bracket and bolt that holds the main plate (and use the oem bolt) as this allows the plate to have a bit of a "play" but greatly reduces the risk of cracked brackets. I haven't tried this myself but this info comes from a person with a lot of history in the S2k community.
Tell us what to do and what not to do for our tts kit :)