Pony Wars: Unboxing the ProCharger Kits for the Camaro & Mustang

You knew it was coming. After concluding our $5K in bolt-on upgrades in Episode Three, and the testing of said parts in Episode Four, Horsepower Wars: Pony Wars is moving onto the $15K in upgrades challenge, and both of our 2017 pony cars are receiving big boost for this part of the competition. We’re throwing identical ProCharger tuner kits on both our 2017 Chevrolet Camaro SS and our 2017 Ford Mustang GT to keep the playing field even during the next phase of Pony Wars; but we still have a long ways to go before this battle is over.

Remember, both cars will be competing again in the same series of events as before; the chassis dyno, road course and dragstrip. Now that we’re throwing boost at both cars, who will win the competition?

ProCharger offers the most comprehensive line of supercharger kits, parts, and accessories made right here in the USA. – David Turner, ProCharger

Before we can answer that question, let’s take a more in-depth look at the ProCharger Stage II H.O. tuner kits that were provided for both cars. While we did choose a Stage II kit, there are some notable differences in our specific package that enthusiasts may want to know before ordering their own.

“ProCharger offers the most comprehensive line of supercharger kits, parts, and accessories made right here in the USA,” said David Turner, Marketing Director for ProCharger. The company optioned our kit somewhat custom for our specific horsepower goals in mind, but rest assured, any enthusiast should be able to replicate our specific power-goals on their own pony cars with no issues, as detailed below.

What’s In The Box?

ProCharger Stage II H.O. Intercooled Tuner Kit

  • D-1X head unit featuring a self-contained oiling system
  • 8-rib dedicated belt drive system
  • Billet mounting bracket for larger head unit
  • Patented 8-inch supercharger crank pulley
  • “Big Red” Race bypass valve
  • Stage II H.O. Race intercooler (upgraded from standard intercooler)
As mentioned above, our Stage II H.O. kit from ProCharger differs from the company’s off-the-shelf kits for sixth-gen Camaro and Mustang owners. For our pony cars, we plan to run north of 15 pounds (or more) of boost on multiple fuels (91-grade octane and MS109 racing fuel from VP Racing). With those goals in mind, we reached out to ProCharger for identical kits for both cars, and let the experts in boost recommend our setup.

Because we plan to make near four-digit horsepower, ProCharger recommended we upgrade our head unit to a D-1X in lieu of the standard P-1SC-1 that is included in the off-the-shelf Stage II kit.

“The P-1X is rated for 875 horsepower, while the D-1X is rated for more than 1,000 horsepower,” David entailed. “Since the plan is to push the pony cars to their maximum limit, we felt this would give more upside potential for seeing who comes out the winner.”

According to ProCharger, our new D-1X head unit will flow more than 1,500 cfm of air and is rated up to 1,000 horsepower and 32 pounds of boost. The D-1X features a max impeller speed of 62,000 rpm and an internal step-up ratio of 4.10:1, making our D-1X a most favorable head unit for maximum efficiency when it comes to boost on our pony cars.

Big Boost, Reliable Results

As Chase points out in the video above, our specific ProCharger kit included a handful of different sized pulleys and belts for our needs. Albeit this isn’t the norm for ProCharger to include in its kits, David says, it can be done.

“Our kits come with only one pulley already installed on the supercharger,” he explained.

“However, customers can purchase additional pulleys for additional boost options. By design, centrifugal superchargers have a greater operating range than a comparable roots or screw style blower; allowing the customer to increase boost with a simple pulley change, where as a screw or roots could require changing the entire supercharger. The Pony Wars Camaro and Mustang are equipped with our Stage II supercharger kits, which have our 8 rib dedicated drive to make sure there is maximum power transfer between the supercharger and the engine, especially as power levels approach 1,000 horsepower.”

Check out our trick billet mounting bracket. David says the billet construction helps with any deflection in the supercharger and belt system from the mass amount of air we’ll be pushing in both cars.

Included in our kit is ProCharger’s Stage II H.O. Race intercooler for both cars, which is not the standard intercooler for this system. For the Mustang in this case for reference, the Stage II H.O. air-to-air intercooler boasts more than 1,296ci of displacement in regards to its core size, which is more than twice the amount of cooling capability (and size) in comparison to ProCharger’s standard 630ci air-to-air intercooler. The benefit of having more cooling capacity is greatly needed once we push into the teens of boost pressure for both cars.

Now that both of our pony cars are rocking a near-identical ProCharger Stage II H.O. tuner kit, the $15K challenge is about to begin. Episode Five will commence with the breakdown of the $15K parts on our Mustang, while Episode Six will cover the Camaro before we kick off the testing of those parts as mentioned above.

Stay tuned to find out just how much horsepower our pony cars make in the next episodes to come!

Backed by some of the biggest names in the automotive aftermarket —including ARP BoltsBMR SuspensionCOMP CamsCovercraftDiablosportDyna-BattE3 Spark PlugsFragola Performance PartsHolley Performance ProductsMahle North AmericaMahle MotorsportsMickey Thompson Tires & WheelsProCharger SuperchargersPRWQA1 SuspensionRoyal Purple Synthetic OilSummit RacingTCI AutomotiveWeld Racing, and others — this competition will get crazy over the next month as these pony cars wage war toward the final battle.

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About the author

Harrison Noble

Living in San Diego for most of his life, Harrison was exposed to a variety of cars at an early age. His passion for anything that is fast, or has a V8, brought him to Power Automedia.
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