History Oberhausen Ray-Gun Supercharger

Hey guys,
I’m new here. I am writing a short piece on the history of the Oberhausen supercharger company, including tear-down of an original Ray-gun style W2000A centrifugal supercharger. I am curious if anyone has knowledge to share or access to literature on Oberhausen. I am particularly interested in the connection between Oberhausen and Turbonique (appears Turbonique may have absorbed Oberhausen at some point).

I’d also like to know if there are any other surviving Belt-driven Oberhausen superchargers in the wild (not the electric-only models, there’s a few of those still floating around).
Thank You!
Aaron

 

Wild!

 

Crazy, man crazy, with 336 ways to do it.





https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-electric-superchargers.1055709/

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/strange-but-very-cool-blower.213319/

 

The company made some crazy claims, not a huge surprise considering some of the advertising of the 1950’s... but 16PSI with 65% gains for this model? Mr. Oberhausen must have been huffing glue. List price was $590, close to $6000 in today’s money.

 

Seems like they were way ahead of their time with the electric motor depending on its function. The modern
Formula 1 turbocharged 92 cu. in. v-6 race motors all use an electric drive turbo to eliminate low speed turbo
lag and poor throttle response. Was Mr. Oberhausen trying to achieve a similar result?

 

Flash Gordon’s maintenance guys could probably help you with information.

 

probably, but the math does not work out. ***uming 100% efficiency from a low RPM Flathead ford starter motor, that’s only 4hp to the fan which is designed like a flood pump impeller with almost 1/4” Of impeller wall clearance. I’m guessing it was a marketing **** like X-Ray specs. I could be wrong though. I’ll get this unit on my blower test engine soon and see if it generates any boost at all. 16lbs of boost is quite generous even for a modern supercharger.

 

Interesting, but...the electric motor seems counter productive, unless there's some sort of one way clutch or bearing in the system, so the electric motor can freewheel as the engine rpm increases and decreases.

Mike

 

The electric motor probably provides a greater torque boost to the engine via the belt than the compressor (using the term loosely) does.

Phil

 

That thing is insane looking.

 

Love to find one.

 

Unique SC.

 

I can give you the smallest of leads of the existance of another, There was always one for sale at one of the big flathead collector/vendor/sellers sites at either Hershey or Carlisle swap meets,a****st a site of other flathead goodies.it was also tri carb but without the large tapered ray gun. It always made magazine coverage,It had red painted highlights .It was always something that caught my eye. Someone with savy magazine historical knowledge or search capability should be able to find the images, Last i remember price was $1500 from memory Johnny

 

I know the one you’re talking about at Hershey. That one was an Oberhausen 500 electric model. There’s a handful of those still floating around. Thankyou though!

 

Yes, I have it resting like that because it is a pain in the neck to press on/off.

 

Here’s a photo of it loosely mocked up on my Supercharger test-engine.

 

It sits way back and up high! would that model foul on most engine bay firewalls? could it be for boats,I noticed in one of the adds above its mounted in reverse on the intake?

 

I was thinking the same

 

lf anybody is interested I saw that it's now being auctioned on the BAT website with no reserve. Wild looking supercharger.

 

I have never seen or heard of them. They are wild looking. Probably not very effective though.

 

saw that on BaT .. crazy set up... wonder how well works ? interesting set up for sure.. Currently $2200..

 

I guess it was a little more than a display piece. It sold for $8500.

 

Electric superchargers require more power than that starter motor can provide. A buddy and I tried to supercharge his golf cart with a high end leaf blower. It didn't work out well at all, so I started doing a little research and was actually surprised at how much power it would take.

We sure had a lot of fun that weekend, though!

 

I have an Oberhausen 500 with a tripower and Oberhausen y-block valve covers. A gentleman recently sold me all of the factory literature and a dealer demonstration kit. The manual is 150 pages!!

 

GM claimed that it took over 100 HP to just spin the supercharger on the last front engined, wonder vette they built. Superchargers take a lot of power to twist them, they need to deliver to make it worth while or all you bought is a fancy air cleaner.

The "raygun" is cool looking but as a performance item? Let's just say I have my doubts...8500 of them.