About S400SX

The employees working on the AirWerks team have been asked on several occasions, why do you call them S400SX’s? Well, there’s a story behind the madness as always… The formal S400SX turbocharger program came to life in 2004 as a project that teamed the aftermarket team of BorgWarner with GM Racing. The objective of AirWerks program was to help create reliable and consistent boost for GM’s Pro FWD sport compact race cars. After several meetings with the GM Racing team, the basic design and performance targets were established. With the information in hand, the AirWerks engineers were off to the drawing board, R&D headquarters, and the prototype model shop to make what was soon to be history. The S400SX turbochargers were constructed under the supervision of the BorgWarner Turbo Systems Aftermarket product development team and select members of the North American Technical- Center Headquarters. The units were built as prototypes and the suffix “X” was added to the standard model nomenclature to help distinguish this unique motorsport component from the standard commercial product assembled at the same location. The S400SX was off and running and applied to some of the fastest cars sport compact racing had ever seen. By the end of 2005 race season, the S400SX had begun to create a presence in the sport compact arena. The GM Racing Cobalt was the first and only front-wheel-drive/four-cylinder to surpass 200mph in the quarter mile. The Cobalt also ran the quickest and fastest FWD pass ever with 7.292s @ 201.61. The very same year, Brent Rau pushed his Mitsubishi Eclipse to a new ET record of 6.976 and established a new Pro Outlaw RWD MPH record of 198.29. The introduction of the S400SX with these initial race teams proved to form lasting relationships which are still honored today. Brian Ballard, another BorgWarner-AirWerks sponsored racer, has been testing the S400SX line of turbochargers for the past two years in his CSI Racing Chevy Cobalt. Ballard has repeatedly won multiple races, in part, due to boost from the BorgWarner-AirWerks units. Ballard, who has title championships in 2004, 2005, and 2006, added to his laundry list of accolades to become the 2007 NOPI/NDRA Turbo Street champion, while spooling up with the S400SX and helping to introduce the line-up to the motor sports world… AirWerks involvement in the sport compact arena created a BorgWarner first… a purpose built, engineered for performance only, production turbocharger. While all BorgWarner turbochargers, including the “SX”, receive a full nomenclature designating content detail of the unit; the AirWerks team decided to construct these units differently and retain the “SX” suffix, which is fitting for a unit with racing heritage and designed for excitement. The S400SX is a serviceable twin hydrodynamic journal bearing turbocharger that excels due to a high-pressure ratio compressor stage utilizing extended-tip technology and a high efficiency turbine stage. This specialized turbocharger configuration provides ultra-fast response and more than 70 PSI of boost and if the AirWerks team has anything to do with it, it will continue to well into the future. A new series of the S400SX turbochargers were designed specifically to bolt-into existing high performance applications and offer numerous unique turbine housing configurations for a variety of application requirements. Although the BorgWarner sponsored race teams still receive special attention and unique combinations, please know that the units which are now available and known as the “SX” series have a racing heritage in their oil galleries and owe their existence to the sport.