Quote Originally Posted by Nuul View Post
Agreed, that's generally the case. A turbo or supercharger is basically adding displacement by forcing more air/fuel into the cylinder. So for them to be roughly equivalent you need more displacement on the NA engine. Not counting the 818, where space and weight are at a premium, I'll take a NA engine over a turbo every time.
And that's exactly what I just did. A couple of hours ago, I made my "official" selection of an 2004 NA Donor Palette from AJW Performance over a 2002 WRX. While the WRX donor palette was more expensive than the 04 NA Outback Sport, the modifications I will need to make (Cams and Springs, intake mods, Equal Length Headers, ECU tuning) will ultimately make my NA selection at least $1000 more costly than if I had gone with building my 818 with a box-stock WRX donor. And the NA will come up about 30 horsepower short of the stock WRX, even with the mods. But I like the relative simplicity of the NA application, and believe that the end product will be eminently more drivable. And it will still approach being stupid fast......

It might have something to do with my age/generation -- but for some reason making power without the benefit of a turbocharger just has more panache to me. Different strokes for different folks, I guess........