Earlier this year KraftWerks was invited to participate in DSPORT magazine’s S2000 Forced Induction Challenge. It was a noble endeavor that pitted five different forced induction kits installed in identically prepared S2000s in a head-to-head match-up, each featuring spec wheels, tires, brakes, chassis components, and alignments performed by one of the most respected chassis guys in the business, RobiSpec’s Robert Fuller. A playing field this level is rare, and I applaud DSPORT for its efforts.

The challenge focused on several key areas, awarding points for individual categories, which together led to the overall winner. Points were awarded for highest horsepower, highest torque output, best average horsepower, and best overall track speed just to name a few. The number of categories, “double points” that were awarded for some categories but not for others, as well as the final editing and points tallying made things confusing, but overall we were pleased with the challenge.

But let’s be clear, who scored what points will never be as important as who had the fastest, cleanest-burning, most dependable S2000 there. Do you really care about peak horsepower figures if power delivery’s so poor that you can’t get around a race track? In the end, KraftWerks was the fastest on track, had the cleanest emissions, and was awarded “The most fun to drive” S2000 of the test. What more could you ask for?

As RobiSpec’s Robert Fuller says, “The KraftWerks car was punished more laps in brutal conditions than any of the other competitors and never had any overheating or mechanical issues. This is a testament to the quality of the KraftWerks kit.”

DSPORT wanted to give its readers an honest comparison of the many choices within the S2000 forced induction marketplace. Each manufacturer was given a set of rules and an overall scenario of which tests would be conducted and how they would be governed. The rules were strict but easy to understand: Bring a “stock” S2000 with your production-version forced induction kit in place and let DSPORT do the testing. No tuning, no special chassis parts, no special aero pieces were to be allowed, just an off-the-showroom-floor ’04-’09 AP2 S2000 with the manufacturer’s boost kit installed. According to DSPORT’s rules, “Teams caught cheating will be deducted 10 points per infraction and will not be allowed to compete until the item in question is corrected.”

Unfortunately for KraftWerks, we only have one S2000 in the shop. It’s our show car. It has a stereo, amps, speakers, and ASM front and rear bumpers, ASM front winglets, and an ASM dry carbon-fiber rear wing. We informed Choo that we’d need to bow out of the competition since we couldn’t meet the no-aero guidelines, but instead he told us we could simply remove the front winglets and rear wing as it would upset the aero balance of our car, which would actually hurt handling—not help it (something Choo repeats in the article). After all was said and done, we would be allowed to participate without penalties. It was a fair compromise, but after the test was completed we were, in fact, penalized 10 points for the bumper that, even Choo admits in the article, actually hurt our car’s performance. If we’d been told we would have been penalized 10 points, we would have just left the aero parts on the car and accepted the penalty. But at least Choo allowed us in the test and we thank him for that.

Following the release of DSPORT’s article we began to hear complaints regarding how exactly these tests were scored. Yes, there are issues with the way the rules were enforced, but we don’t believe any of this had anything to do with bending the rules for certain companies in trade for monetary rewards for DSPORT but rather a simple lack of follow-through regarding the rules.

The test consisted of five great companies: GReddy, Ulitimate Performance, Science of Speed, Vortech, and KraftWerks, all of which battled head to head to earn the title of Best Forced Induction S2000 Product. The comparison of the two turbo cars’ mid-range torque as they spooled against the high-end power of the supercharged cars was great. Additionally, the comparison between the three centrifugal-compressor-driven supercharged cars was also interesting. Of course, it also would’ve been nice if the competition arrived with the amount of boost they advertise but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen either. One competitor in particular decided to bring a bit more to the test than the rest—43 percent more to be specific. But that’s okay. The Science of Speed S2000 needed all the help it could get to chase down the KraftWerks S2000. And despite the extra boost, it was still slower.

In the end, once the dust settled, no other forced induction kit—regardless of boost level or horsepower—could produce a lap time better than KraftWerks. Even our supercharged competition—one of which ran nearly 4 psi more boost than the KraftWerks S2000—still couldn’t compete with the power delivery of the Rotrex-powered S2000 on the track.

We thank DSPORT magazine for working hard to bring these cars together and for such a comprehensive test.

If you’re simply looking for a dyno number or for peak horsepower bragging rights for your S2000, then KraftWerks might not be your final answer. But if you want the fastest boosted S2000, look no further than Kraftwerks.