Air-Con Sapping power....alot

[Aus E30]

I have an 88' bmw 320i (auto) and When I have my air-con on it completely sucks all power from the car, from a stop eg red lights, its almost to the point where I Have to turn it off till I get up to speed because It lags the car SO much!
So I was wondering, is there anyway to prevent that power loss? Is is something to do with the actual engine power, is it electronic, I have no idea. Basically I want to know if anyone has ever altered/tuned there car differently to override this power loss..if possible at all.

Lol im almost thinking about replacing the air con button with a NOS button! because when you press it to the 'off' the power comes back!

btw that last part was a joke...maybe.

[jlevie]

The first thing to do is to have a pro check the A/C system for proper operation. If over charged or the compressor has bad valves it will put more load on the engine than it should. Also if the aux fan isn't working the head pressure will climb and load the engine more than normal.

If the A/C checks out okay, you need to find out if the engine is operating as it should.