One word—awesome! The 350Z world has been begging for forced induction since the 350 came out. We knew GReddy and Power Enterprise were working on twin turbos, but the wait seemed interminable. Individual small tuning shops began working on their own turbos, and many prototypes appeared.

Stillen took the supercharger route to forced induction, and fielded an Eaton roots-type blower. While the roots is great for huge low-end torque for the drag racing world, the drawback is heat, lots of heat. So heating and detonation become problematic. Stillen does a modest 6 psi boost which ends in about 305 rear wheel horsepower.

Shortly after Stillen's supercharger hit the market, ATI fielded their new C-2 centrifugal supercharger kit for the 350Z. Because of the included intercooler, intake air is cooled to 20-30 degrees above ambient (compared to 90-115 degrees above ambient with the roots blower). Running a 7psi boost, with an optional 9 psi boost pulley, the ProCharger delivers approximately 50% increase in horsepower, and the dyno charts show that to be true with 110-120 increase in horsepower to the wheels. Yes, it's averaging 355-365 rear wheel horsepower.

The ATI kit also includes an auxilliary fuel pump and an Aeromotive Electronic Fuel Management Unit (EFMU). The EFMU allows fuel flow to be more accurately managed with five sliders corresponding to various rpm ranges. Tuning should be done on a dyno with a wideband O2 meter to measure air/fuel ratios.

The ProCharger delivers an exponential increase in horsepower and torque all the way to redline with little to no drop-off at 6,000 rpm as characteristic of the stock dyno curves. Power is still very linear at the throttle, you just get more horsepower sooner.

Yes, the compressor does have a whine characteristic of a jet engine, so while that might be a detractant for some, most people with ProChargers love the sound—it's guaranteed to turn heads when driven through a crowded parking lot. At wide open throttle settings above 5,000 rpm, the ProCharger simply roars like a Force V tornado (well, that might be a bit of an overstatement). At relaxed open highway cruising with the windows up, the supercharger noise is only heard very faintly; not enough to be annoying, and certainly overcome with low volume of audio.

Now, for the good stuff! Do you want heart pounding power for a reasonable cost? ATI's ProCharger might be just what you're looking for!