Hmmmm.. I have to somewhat disagree.. afterall.. one needs to see the full "personality" of a turbo's sled and IF turbo lag is inherent to the turbo systems.. then that will always be a reality that has to be dealt with.. not hidden..
As for clutching and gearing.. These are ALWAYS players.. N/A or Turbo's.. again.. they need to be displayed for what they are...
Keep in mind, while neither you nor I give a hoot about a drag race.. MANY people are 100% interested in this part of snowmobiling (mainly people in the flatter areas) So, again.. drag racing is ALWAYS done from a dead stop.. so, if the turbo has undesireable charactristics in this sort of an application.. so be it.. But put it out there for all to see..
As far as a rolling start proving that one has more power over the other.. Not true at all IMO.. You hit on some of the reasons why a dead stop effects the drag race results.. same goes for a rolling start.. If the winner of the race is suppose to have the most power (which , hopefully, you know this is not the case most of the time.. think... grass dragging) then you can not distinguish between races. For example. if the winner of the race has the most HP, then the winner of the drag race from the dead stop will also have the most HP as well.. again.. ALL the factors EXCEPT turbo lag, come in to play with EITHER race style.. So, the idea that the winner of the race has the most power is simply not a valid statement..
Keep in mind the rolling start favors the turbo sled in one very big way.. The N/A sled has to rely HEAVILY on pipe temp.. the turbo sled is not as effected by pipe temp... So, the turbo sled will lauch with more power than the N/A sled because until the N/A sled's pipe temp is optimum it is further down(more effected) on power than the turbo sled would be with the same pipe temp.. ie the pipe temp is not as critcal for the turbo sled when trying to make build HP
quickly..
So you can not have race that favors one sled over another and come to the conclusion that the race "Winner is making more power...
On that same note.. I don't ever think anybody claimed that the N/A sled will match the Horse power of the turbo sled.. I think what was claimed is that they can climb with and race with a pump gas turbo......so, matching on the snow performance and matching HP are two seperate things.. Agreed?
Afterall,
when it all comes down to it.. the performance on the hill is what the rider likes to compare.. not the HP ratings... If I wanted to simply out HP the other N/A sleds.. I would be running a triple engine.. of course, this would not fair well in overall performance but would surely have the HP edge over any twin.
The Bottom line is, while the turbo sled MAY be making more power than its N/A counter-part.. there are more factors in play the limit how much of that power gets put to the ground in drag racing, roll on racing, and straight powder pulling.. Of course there are limits with the N/A sled as well...but not so many...
So, at the end of the day... it is not about who has the most HP, but, rather about who has the best performance in a given situation... Getting hung up on the result of any one particular competition is crazy... The truth is.. different situations favor different set-ups and types of power delivery..
This is why some prefer turbos and other prefer BB's...
It is all good..
Kelsey