... with someone about turbocharging the ST220.
A bit of background first:
A good friend of mine bought a turbo MR2 a fair while ago. There's an independent Toyota specialist just down the road from him who specialises in importing and tuning FI Toyota's, especially MR2's. The garage is owned and run by a guy, Peter, who really knows his stuff and always has lots of MR2's in many little pieces strewn over his workshop floor. It's an untidy place, reeking of organised chaos but it's clear from talking to him for five minutes he's a fantastically enthusiastic, helpful and knowledgable chap.
So, where does a Toyota specialist come into the picture with my ST220?
Well, he owns an Noble M400, and not only is he great with MR2's, he's as genned up and technically expert with all things Noble, and the 3.0l Duratec V6 that the Noble and the ST220 share. His is currently stock, but he has plans for well over 500bhp. He's recently returned from Le Mans in it so it was a bit, bug-ridden and mucky from the long motorway miles but those things are awesome just to see sat in a garage.
I went to see him today fully expecting him to say that it just wasn't worth even considering sticking a turbo on the ST as there's nowhere near enough room to work with, getting the whole thing installed, set up and running right would be a massive job and far too tricky and then keeping it running right would be more work than reward.
However, his eyes lit up when he saw the ST and before I even spoke to him, he said 'I've thought about doing this quite a few times!'.
So he began to talk, and a full 90 minutes later, with a certain amount of his more technical knowledge going straight over my head, but still making sense in relation to what the final result would be, he'd convinced himself it was a very viable, if complicated project. The good thing being he's got loads of Noble bits and bobs knocking around in his workshop that could be used on the ST, and he knows exactly what is required down to the smallest details to get the job done. He also seems to have a plethora of contacts who can do the tricky bits he can't, companies he uses and trusts for his MR2 creations.
So what am I looking at....
the main things to sort first are the internals. Forged pistons and uprated fuel pump and injectors. He has all these bits from another M400 engine that's sat in his workshop. The camshaft, rods and driveshaft in the M400 are all exactly the same as the ST220, just the cam timing is slightly different.
A new programmable ECU and loom.
The turbo would be a straight off the shelf Garrett T35.
The trickiest part would be the pipework and exhaust. He reckon's I'm looking at a thousand quid's worth here. There's very little room in the ST220 engine bay, even with the battery relocated to the boot. And getting the gases back up and in in that limited space wouldn't be an easy job. However, the turbo would be running at relatively moderate boost so there'd be no need for anything remarkably trick to keep everything flowing super fast.
Change of clutch and dumping the DMF.
Quaife LSD.
Brakes. He has another set of AP racing calipers for his Noble that are sat around doing nothing which he reckons may fit the ST220.
Suspension. Completely my choice. It's a very composed and competent car handling wise to begin with, more power wouldn't necessarily dictate a change here.
I'm sure there's a few things I've missed out from the above list, but those are the main points we discussed.
Lastly he had a good gander under the bonnet of the ST and spent all that time nodding his head and murmuring positive things. I could see the cogs ticking over and the last thing he said was 'that would make a really awesome motor'.
So.... what do YOU think?
A bit of background first:
A good friend of mine bought a turbo MR2 a fair while ago. There's an independent Toyota specialist just down the road from him who specialises in importing and tuning FI Toyota's, especially MR2's. The garage is owned and run by a guy, Peter, who really knows his stuff and always has lots of MR2's in many little pieces strewn over his workshop floor. It's an untidy place, reeking of organised chaos but it's clear from talking to him for five minutes he's a fantastically enthusiastic, helpful and knowledgable chap.
So, where does a Toyota specialist come into the picture with my ST220?
Well, he owns an Noble M400, and not only is he great with MR2's, he's as genned up and technically expert with all things Noble, and the 3.0l Duratec V6 that the Noble and the ST220 share. His is currently stock, but he has plans for well over 500bhp. He's recently returned from Le Mans in it so it was a bit, bug-ridden and mucky from the long motorway miles but those things are awesome just to see sat in a garage.
I went to see him today fully expecting him to say that it just wasn't worth even considering sticking a turbo on the ST as there's nowhere near enough room to work with, getting the whole thing installed, set up and running right would be a massive job and far too tricky and then keeping it running right would be more work than reward.
However, his eyes lit up when he saw the ST and before I even spoke to him, he said 'I've thought about doing this quite a few times!'.
So he began to talk, and a full 90 minutes later, with a certain amount of his more technical knowledge going straight over my head, but still making sense in relation to what the final result would be, he'd convinced himself it was a very viable, if complicated project. The good thing being he's got loads of Noble bits and bobs knocking around in his workshop that could be used on the ST, and he knows exactly what is required down to the smallest details to get the job done. He also seems to have a plethora of contacts who can do the tricky bits he can't, companies he uses and trusts for his MR2 creations.
So what am I looking at....
the main things to sort first are the internals. Forged pistons and uprated fuel pump and injectors. He has all these bits from another M400 engine that's sat in his workshop. The camshaft, rods and driveshaft in the M400 are all exactly the same as the ST220, just the cam timing is slightly different.
A new programmable ECU and loom.
The turbo would be a straight off the shelf Garrett T35.
The trickiest part would be the pipework and exhaust. He reckon's I'm looking at a thousand quid's worth here. There's very little room in the ST220 engine bay, even with the battery relocated to the boot. And getting the gases back up and in in that limited space wouldn't be an easy job. However, the turbo would be running at relatively moderate boost so there'd be no need for anything remarkably trick to keep everything flowing super fast.
Change of clutch and dumping the DMF.
Quaife LSD.
Brakes. He has another set of AP racing calipers for his Noble that are sat around doing nothing which he reckons may fit the ST220.
Suspension. Completely my choice. It's a very composed and competent car handling wise to begin with, more power wouldn't necessarily dictate a change here.
I'm sure there's a few things I've missed out from the above list, but those are the main points we discussed.
Lastly he had a good gander under the bonnet of the ST and spent all that time nodding his head and murmuring positive things. I could see the cogs ticking over and the last thing he said was 'that would make a really awesome motor'.
So.... what do YOU think?
