ANTONOV 2-SPEED SUPERCHARGER TECHNOLOGY
TORQUE TO ME
Research and Development specialists, Antonov has invested £28m since 1995 on engines and gearboxes – we now can prove testimony to their breakthrough products since driving one of their Ford Mustang demo cars equipped with a 2-Speed Supercharger.
The Antonov AR500 Mustang was unequivocally superior to its standard stablemate. Tireless, consistent, smooth in its delivery and agile to maneuver. Ford’s Racing Suspension and Baer brakes helped to endorse the whole experience and incase onlookers needed some further proof that this was a Muscle car with plenty to torque about the exterior gave them a bit of an appetizer. From the spoilers to the louvered C-pillars and crushed glass paintwork, it all has a unique input. However what we we’re dying to get to the bottom of is how this new supercharger works and why would we want one?
The big selling point of having a 2-speed charger as opposed to one speed is that you get savings in fuel. This is possible because the alternator, water and air-conditioning pumps don’t have to run faster than necessary. When required to work harder they are operated by a pulley system and driven twice as fast but once the engine has sped up enough the dual drive unit is closed off and the engine reverts to direct drive. Exactly how much fuel you save depends on the engine size of the car you are fitting it to but as an estimate it’s about 4-5%.
Up until recently the two main choices you had to maximize the potential of a more modest engine were a turbo or a Supercharger but you either had to grin and bare the lag or if you went down the charger route, the instant tug you got was good but there were issues with friction at high speeds which meant the results weren’t as good as they could have been. The solution then was to develop a device which could be equally efficient at low or high revs and one that would produce the least amount of wear and tear.
The Antonov unit therefore use two types of Rotrex superchargers which have been individually tuned, one to improve low-end torque and the other to allow the engine to keep pulling hard at the top end of its range. It can automatically switch between the two systems according to how fast the fly wheel is revolving. To avoid high costs and to allow outsiders to be able to work on it, Antonov has simplified the system as much as possible and kept most of the components contained in this single unit.
Initially Antonov hope to sell this performance accessory to Aftermarket stockists but we expect that certain manufacturers will be keen to use this technology as a standard feature on their flagship cars in the not too distant future. This comes at a crucial turning point in the Automotive world and whereas there is pressure to keep the displacement of engines small, everybody wants to see them used more efficiently.