Voltage Stabilizers Can Increase Power And Torque - Raizin, Buddy Club, Sun Auto - Fact Or Fiction

First up was the Raizin Pivot, whose Japanese-based manufacturer boasts the confidence to construct the product with transparent casing. Its design is simple: four capacitors to charge and discharge rogue electrical current faster than a car battery, some small-gauge positive and negative wiring, two replaceable fuses, and an LED to signify correct installation.

Next up was Buddy Club's Racing Spec Condenser. From what we could see through the window in its casing, it's constructed much like the Raizin, but with larger capacitors and the addition of supplemental grounding straps.

Our third and final Japanese contender was Sun Auto's venerable Hyper Voltage System, one of the first such kits on the market. It featured stainless covered copper wiring larger than any of the other systems, and a fully sealed module-great for keeping contaminants out, but not so great for serviceability or seeing how it works. Still, it returned the best peak numbers of the bunch.

Our "mystery stabilizer" (so named because it was donated for testing with no labeling of any sort), was the last to go under the microscope. Its aluminum heat-sink body is common to several brands, as is its Home Depot-esque black and red wiring. We won't speculate which brand we think it to be.

The Verdict:

Each stabi-lizer brought slight increases to power and torque throughout the rev-range, and with the exception of the Raizin that lost a fraction of a horse up top, each system bumped up peak power and torque. But the amount by which power and torque increased-0.5 whp and 1.5 lb-ft of torque, on average-is low enough to be considered standard variance in back-to-back testing a 15-year-old car with an impressive history of check-engine lights. Still, based on the all-around performance of the Sun Auto unit and the low-end performance of the Buddy Club piece, and the fact that Elliott swears the Sun Auto unit actually makes his scratched, yellow headlights brighter, we have to concede that these things might be of some benefit after all.