A short bitch about boost controllers.... leading up to what I did today.


So basically screw MBC's. I've never run one and don't plan on it.

The electronic boost controller market is vast. You have everything from your basic Profec B Spec-S (which is pretty sweet) to shit no one has heard of. For most of you with a simple SR swap or small KA-T, a PBSS is more than you'll ever need. For people who have more than that, selecting a boost controller is more difficult.

So what I want is a controller that has at least 2 settings, real closed loop control, external pressure sensor, and boost by gear. You might think, hey, just get an Apexi AVC-R! Between buggy firmware and looking like a huge pile of F&F (even the black one), I'm not going to run it. So what else is there... World Performance TBC-1 for $1100? not so much. AMS-1000 for $850, errr no. I was also keen on the gameboy interfaced DTEC BC pro, but those seem to have disappeared off the face of the planet. Apparently they won't run the wastegate like I do and they're $550 or so.

So now I'm losing features. I went with a Gizzmo MS-iBC that's like $350 these day (was $600) that doesn't do boost by gear, but it does have 6 settings, external switch input, and really good closed loop setup. I do hate running a boost reference under the dash, though.

By the way, the closed loop feature is the FIRST thing you should look for if you're going to spend the money. Hate boost taper? A closed loop controller will adjust the duty cycle on it's own to compensate for it. All of the other open loop controllers will just run a fixed duty cycle and whatever happens (creep, taper), happens.

So here's where the problem comes in. The reason I want boost by gear is that once you have about 300ft-lbs, you can't hook 1st gear on the street with DR's. With boost by gear, it would sense that you're in 1st and you can then set that up for a lower boost level. Same thing for 2nd, until you're running full boost in 3rd or 4th. Since my EBC doesn't have this feature I need to trigger these different boost settings manually. With one hand on the wheel and one on the stick, that limits my options. So I decided to buy a Greddy RSS (remote steering switch) to trigger the EBC. No doubt this will look gay, but now I'll be able to go WOT in 1st and still point the right direction! It also get a signal off the wheel without having wires everywhere. The other option was to get a "go baby, go" shift knob and wire that to the boost controller, but I like my Z32 knob. and I'm a knob snob.

So to thread jack myself.... everyone who wants 1000whp cars needs to figure out how they're going to put that on the ground. The limit of acceleration then becomes the limit of traction, not the limit of power. That boils down to 2 solutions: gear it way the hell up so that you're doing 70mph in 1st (Z06, Viper), or boost by gear. ... or traction control like a Race Logic box, but they're you're talking about serious money.