Does a compressor improve the accelerator of a car and not just horsepower?

A compressor (or supercharger for the US folks) increases horsepower by increasing the amount of air volume in the engine, at a rapid rate. Natural air pressure (on average) on the earth is 14.7psi (1 bar). When someone says that they are running “7 pounds of boost”, or a half bar, they are actually running that amount in excess of the normal air pressure. Gasoline has an ideal combustion mixture of around 14 to 1, so when running a naturally aspirated engine, for each 14 parts of air, 1 part of fuel is introduced to create combustion. When you can increase the amount of air from 14 to say, 21, you can now insert 50% more fuel, thus making that much more power. the same is true of a turbocharger.

which is better, is a long running debate. a turbocharger does not use any of the engines power to create power, but due to the nature of the setup, there is a “lag” as the turbo reaches its peak internal rpm. there is little to no lag with a supercharger, but since it is belt driven, horsepower is used to create power. i friend of mine has a supercharged corvette, and at 3psi, he was making stock horsepower…so to turn that compressor, the amount of power generated was being used by the compressor until he was over 3psi.

technically, neither item saves fuel, although there is potential to make the same amount of power with less fuel, which is why you see more turbo and compressor cars geared for performance, but if you look at vehicles like diesel trucks, they are typically turbocharged to assist the engine in making power on less fuel. also, diesel engines work strictly from compression, but that is a whole seperate discussion.

hope this helps.

The previous answer is very good with one exception. These power adding devices never save fuel. They give you the ability to burn more fuel which is how you end up making more power. The only devices that MAY help save fuel are those that help the engine run more efficiently like high flow air intakes, ignition boosters, and free flowing exhausts.
Any sort of forced induction will wind up using more fuel than your engine would use otherwise, even with a turbocharger. A turbo is best in terms of how much fuel economy you lose, but you will still lose fuel economy due to the added exahaust restriction that it causes.

Yes. Forced induction on any engine will increase the amount of torque in the engine, not just the horsepower. And, yes, turbochargers will save fuel compared to a normally aspirated or supercharged engine of the same horsepower as the peak HP of the turbocharged model. The fuel savings will only occur when the turbocharged engine is operated in the RPM range below where the turbo begins to substantially add power.

The turbo model is better than the non-turbo.