Re: Performance king: EFI vs. Carbs (RJetta8V)
Simply put, carbs are direcly affected by airflow as the air itself is what determines how much fuel to pull (assuming jetting, venturi, etc...are all in spec). FI on the other hand, uses an indirect method, via a sensor which sends a signal to a controller which then based upon certain values, assigns a voltage and a period to a certain actuator (a injector in this case) to meter the proper amount of fuel for a given air flow reading (feedback loop). Direct measuring methods are always considered superior to indirect measuring under any circumstance, but the problem here lies that carbs can only provide optimum fuel delivery under optimum conditions. Change any outside parameter (temperature, altitude, etc...) and carbs can not readily adapt, and thus lose thier advantage. This in effect makes them less ideal in real world driving conditions, even with the direct measuring advantage.
The difference here really is that FI is more user friendly, in that there's nothing to really tinker with, coupled with the fact that it can compensate for differences in altitude, temperature, etc...without the user even realizing.
With all that said, I'm a big fan of carbs. Of course, I don't drive my car during the winter months, and I don't take it up in the mountains or anything, so my settings can remain what they are which makes my use of them all the easier. Besides the fact that the sight of six 45mm DCOE carbs hanging off the side of a straight six is almost pure s*x to some people and you can begin to see the reasoning.
In an ideal situation, where all parameters were strictly controlled, I would bet that carbs would be even if not superior to FI as the FI advantage would be removed from the equation and it would all boil back down to direct vs. indirect measurement.
Just my .02
