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Has anyone looked into this?

The scope of use is limited to instant power at WOT and you can't do that continuously. So probably only suitable for track cars since we can't go WOT more than 30 secs or so. Many GT86 owners have fitted it on their cars and they're seeing about 40 whp increase (dyno proven).

I think Valeo is going mainstrem with this with Volvo, and Kia is also going to use this technology.

Universal kits here are sold for about $1.8K. Not cheap but not bad either, almost plug and play. If you can get 40 whp with no intercooling, piping, expensive accessories, that is a good deal! Although you need to tune your maps.

I'm thinking of getting a rotrex. Although it only cost $2.5K for the basic kit, with all the other custom stuff, $5K is more realistic.

For a race car when all you need is a short burst of power, then the current generation of electricc supercharger is a possible alternative. Some of these kits are still using gel batteries. Lighter than lead acid, but still heavy!

Won't be long before these kits will come with 56V Li-On batteries, super big brushless motors, and we can see real big boost with these babies.Run out of batteries? Just pop a spare Li-On cell from your home charger. Heck even my lawn mower is a 40V cordless Li-On unit. Some leaf blowers are 56V Li-On.

It may take a few more years before these ESCs fully replace mechanical units, but as battery \ and motor technolgy improve, they will surely do it.

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.ph ... ost7336642

This ESC makes a lot of sense if you live in places like Cali which fail your emission tests right away for having something foreign in your engine bay. These things take 1hr to install, so for some applications it makes a lot of sense if all you want is bursts of power for 30-60 secs. Kind of like Nitrous without the risk of explosion. For continuous power if you live on the autobahn, the ESC makes no sense. Wont last more than 30-60 minutes of continuous use.

So the run time limiting factor will be available electrical energy in the battery?
The question is, for a track car anyways, can the system recharge sufficiently thru the slower off boost parts of the track?
Can a typical alternator handle it?
I like the idea, I reckon it has merrit. But perhaps also look a a big luxury car alternator while you're at it. Like a water cooled BMW unit or something.

Or if the ESC's power supply can wok with it, convert to a 24 volt system and use step down power supplie(s) to run conventional car stuff like the ECU.

According to the miata and GT86 guys, there is no problem with the charging system. The Phantom ESC has been out for over 2 years.

The newer battery pack used can also handle high amperage discharge rates. But the battery packs they used aren't exactly the most advanced. Still using those AGM batteries. Although they do claim the latest AGM packs' ability to cope with high discharge rate and lower internal resistance nets them 6-10 whp. That's impressive! All proven on the dyno.