During the old days back in 1997, the car costs me $179k. Hence
$100k is not more than the value of the car. It is a Ver 3 Japan
Spec 280 PS model. The list is very long. Basically, the engine was
blueprinted overseas. In Sg no one can do it locally. The engine
block was crack tested, even the gearbox bell housing. Pistons were
all done up and strengthened. Molydenum coated and later HPC
coated. The conrods were from Carillo and they are Titanium with
additional bearings oil galleries. The gundgeon, conrod and head
pins are ARP made, aircraft grade. The piston rings are chrome moly
and gapless. All combustion chambers are ported and polished
leaving no casting marks. Chambers are all cc flowed. The engine is
a close decked one. The heads are also cc:ed. The valves are 3
angled grinded. The valve springs are all changed. Head gaskets are
metal ones with CR at 8.0:1. The cams were retained as they are the
highest lift available for a street driveable car. Flywheel is also
chrome moly and light at 6kg plus. Anything lower, you can forget
about going up slope.
The clutch is a 3 puck one with copper linings, unsprung. Can take
up to 3600lbs of pressure. Gearbox is retained at 4.1 final drive
to ensure have top speed. Turbo is a 360 thrust bearing, double fin
TD05 20G. The reason for not going to TD06 is the driveablility.
You don't want a car which is only good at 40 tiang in LCK. You
also want it fast on the roads, b roads, track etc. Body is seam
welded to take the twisting force of the engine. All driveshafts
were upgraded. ECU is an Autronic SM2 which initially, I was
running Apexi Power FC. At 1 bar, the car produces 350HP and 500nm
of torque. at 1.7 bar, it is like close to 490HP with 610nm of
torque. You also need a FMIC which cooler air is needed to keep
pinging down to a minimum. Was using Trust. 0-100 was tested at
4.2s which is modest when compared to a Spec C out of factory which
can do 4.3s. Rims were 16" Compomotive Rally Spec which were later
upgraded to Speedlines. All components are dynamically balanced
right up to the nut securing the flywheel and clutch. Mind you, the
car is only 1200kg full tank.
The turbo lag was minimum because of the choice of turbo. Was not
aiming for all right HP claims but more on driveability. The GTTi
conversion, is still running on a mechanical turbo. Lean it out in
between gear changes, check injector duty cycles etc. It will help
with an after market ECU. Not all turbo cars have lag unless they
are running on a ridiculously large turbo. Even the Merc Diesel
Turbo taxi will have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I did not keep the car for long as the COE and OMV was too high.
Now I think it is in NZ as the next owner crashed it big time.
Right now, I don't even mod much as the money can be used for other
better purposes. The money spent previously can be used to buy
property. So my advice to would be modsters, stay clear of this
hobby else you will never know where your money go to. Best if to
buy a car which is already fast out of factory.
Hope this helps.
