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Chapters 7 through 9 are where Kojima really hits his stride. They cover, in order of appearance, nitrous oxide, supercharging, and turbocharging. These three power adders are often the source of confusion, misinformation and frequently misapplication (with disastrous results) in the Honda community.

The nitrous oxide chapter covers a useful range of information, from general theory, to specific applications. In particular, Kojima gives a short, but insightful, layman's terms lecture on why a nitrous only car is difficult to make competitive vs. a forced induction car. He also provides good tips on timing and fuel considerations for nitrous and provides what I feel to be a proper attitude towards the use of the juice - cautious, but not scare mongering.

The chapter on supercharging, while short, is more fair than what you'll see from most turbo proponents, which I think Mike would admit that he is if you asked him :-). Once again, theory and general applications are discussed and then Kojima gets specific. Efficiency numbers, advantages and disadvantages, even specific application notes are provided. I strongly recommend this chapter, and the following treatise on turbocharging as recommended reading for those asking "which is better" or "which one is for me".

And speaking of turbocharging, Kojima's coverage of the topic is a real gem. While sections of this chapter remind me of some of his Sport Compact Car articles (and perhaps he has rehashed some of his previous work), he combines concise, easily understandable explanations with useful calculations and rules of thumb. A book covering purely turbos might have more information in it, but I am hard pressed to think of anyone who has covered this subject with Kojima's blend of thoroughness and clarity of explanation. If you are at all interested in turbos, this chapter makes a great primer, and may be worth the price of admission by itself.

The last chapter in the book is entitled "All-Out All Motor". As this is my area of interest and specialization, I was keen to see what Mike had to offer. Unfortunately, this chapter appears to be an almost exact copy of a similar article Mike did for Sport Compact Car nearly 2 years ago. This doesn't make the chapter inherently bad, but if I'd read the SCC piece, I'd feel a bit cheated having to pay for it again. Repurposing issues aside, the chapter essentially covers the approaches of R&D Racing and AEBS in building all motor race engines for drag racing. This is interesting info, as R&D held the record for the world's quickest all-motor Honda (FWD) for a while. However, the engines covered don't resemble much of what you'll find under the typical enthusiast's (or racer's) hood. Furthermore, all-motor development seems to be moving at a tremendous pace, thus much of the info is outdated now. While turbo cars have always had the power to run fast (just not traction), the all-motor guys need every last hp to win. I would have liked to see more theory of all-motor performance in this chapter and less coverage of specific engines - but it doesn't diminish the value of the rest of the book by any means.

If this book interests you, click this link to buy it.

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