The POWER .. think of it.. the same power to weight ratio as a TVR Chimmera but with the convenience of a car that has working electrics, stays in one piece and has a roof that works (and does not smell of a plastic bath-tub still after 2 years). I looked at the various options but once you get into the technical side of fuel and ignition control you realise that you need a new engine ECU to turbo or supercharge any car; anything less is a compromise that works but is not optimal. So having researched Sebrings, Aerodynes, Gereddy and BEGI options I went with US Dealer Alternative’s FM2 which is a developed BEGI IV turbo kit. This is the top power kit you can buy outside Japan in a box; there are others which have less market presence and may make more power but they are hard to find out about. The FM2 has a strong backing of owners who help each other so most problems are resolved quickly; Bill Cardell of Dealer Alternative is also just a ‘phone call away and knows his way around problems. The kit is based on a Garret AR T28 turbo which is water and oil cooled so should give a long life; the sizing of the turbo is done for fast response not ultimate power

This consists of a full kit of parts; I was missing maybe 3 items in the list of 200 odd bits (BEGI bits, not DA bits); they were not critical bits so I sourced them locally (a hose, jubilee clip and heat wrapping). Since then Flying Miata (DA new name) have taken over the whole kit from BEGI so that the kits should be even more complete.The main components are;

Turbocharger

Exhaust manifold and downpipe

Intercooler (large air to air one to make Sierra Cosworth drivers weep..)

Inlet piping including CAI fed K&N air filter

Recirculating BOV (Blow Off Valve)

New bigger fuel injectors with new plugs

Replacement programmable Link ECU (Engine management) with Display/Programming unit

MAP sensor to replace original air flow sensor

Drain kit including tap and dill for adding turbo oil drain to sump

Miscellaneous hoses, brackets, bonnet prop, gauge etc

To fit a turbocharger you need to replace the front exhaust section. So first everything that was not needed was stripped out; this means the exhaust manifold and downpipe, all the inlet ducting up to the throttle and the engine bay bottom tray. Now you have a nice uncluttered engine compartment; time to fill it back up! The worse bit was the drilling, tapping and adding pipe to the sump for the turbo oil drain line. This was best done by unbolting the air conditioning pump and holding it up by 1" (if fitted). This allowed you to get in with a normal power drill. You really want a compressor at this point as the procedure is to pressurise the engine and then drill a hole – the theory is that all the chips are blown out by the air. This sounds really scary but it does work and if you follow the instructions you get a secure turbo drain point. The turbo is built up on the exhaust manifold and some of the Mazda studs reused – it is fitted after adding the water and oil feed/return lines for the turbo. The whole turbo/manifold goes in in one. Next is fitting the intercooler in front of the radiator + A/C – again pre-assembled and it gave me my only problem as the top bracket was 15mm too thick – a variable feature due to car builds. A hacksaw and file soon sorted that and it was onto fitting the inlet piping which are all red powder coated steel pipes with silicon hoses to join them. The fuel injectors need replaced and new ends grafted onto the wiring loom. This can be done in a totally undetectable way using soldered joints and wiring loom tape (another item required) and when done this way it can be returned to standard. While doing this you can see quite how roughly the original wiring loom is made and be assured that the soldered joints with heat shrink are better than original! The final bit was the ECU replacement; in my car this is under the passengers feet. The new board supplied fits straight in but there are some resistors that need added and I also modified the earths to improve the tuning. A lead comes out of the ECU box – I slotted the box to stop pinching this with the cover and this lead attaches to the ECU display/programmer. I added a knock sensor to my kit as an option; this is easy enough but the lead was not long enough so I had to extend it with a single phono lead from my new domestic CD player! The final addition was the electronic boost control solenoid that lets you run anything from 9 psi upwards.

All the wiring and small vacuum hoses were tie wrapped into place in to provide that clean finish. The boost gauge was fitted in the left central air vent; the kit comes with a windscreen pillar mounting cup but this is for LHD cars so is no good. I eventually replaced this with a smaller UK version below the stereo with a matching clock from CAI / Demon Tweaks. I straightened and rebent the original bonnet stay as the supplied replacement required holes and did not have securing points so now the bonnet stay looks original. I bought heat shielding from Demon Tweaks to cover the A/C return pipe, water pipes and washer reservoir; basically anything within 3" of the turbo needs heat protection. I had to bend up the A/C return pipe but this is the first FM2 kit fitted to a RHD or an Eunos so I was on new territory. I have had lots of compliments from tuning people on the kit as it looks so nicely done (mostly down to the kit and the heat shield over the turbo).

Electronic boost control

Knock sensor

Software upgrade (new ECU software chips as they are developed)

…. And because of the 100% extra power I changed some bits in the car like;

New DA Kevlar clutch (flywheel needs skimmed and 500 miles run in)

Synethic Redline gearbox oil

Radiator water consisting of distilled water, 20% antifreeze and Redline Water wetter to improve cooling.. added FM race radiator as it overheats at 140mph (continental driving only).

New 8mm Magnecore spark plug leads

New exhaust (custom built 2.5" Stainless one allowing the spare wheel under the car)

New FM high flow catalytic converter (old one was shot anyway)

LSD … oh this is standard for my car .. but you need it.

Tyres – 215 width required really (I used 215/40-16)

Suspension; anti-roll bars, springs and shock absorbers to tighten the car’s handling

Brakes; initially just pads but after eating them on track days FM big brakes.

The kit comes with a program on the ECU that will run the car; you just turn the key and it will start. However you need to reset the idle and the timing to original numbers and adjust the ECU for good idle and starting qualities. Once these are right you drive the car around in a learning mode where it monitors the Lambda/oxygen probe and adds/subtracts fuel as required. The ECU quickly learns and after about 6 stores the engine is running at 97% full power. To do the final tuning it is best to data log the engine while driving and analyse what is happening afterwards. I did do some tuning by observing the ECU display but at full power this is a bit difficult; I ended up putting 6 bags of cement in the boot and driving up the steepest hill I could find. This just about slowed it down enough so that manual tuning could be done. I then bought a Palm III personal organiser and serial link for the ECU; this allowed me to data log automatically and then analyse the data on the Palm or on my home PC. (Note current software is PC compatible only). Doing this allowed me to optimise the timing and fueling in relation to knocking/pinging. All this messing about may sound a lot but some owners do not get past those 6 self learning runs and still enjoy most of the power. The process teaches you a lot about how engines run and allows you to radically change the engine later with no on cost from getting a new ECU chip made up at the cost of several hundred pounds. The final thing to be done was a rolling road test; this revealed a disappointing 200 hp at the rear wheels but the driver had lifted off at 6,000 rpm when peak power is normally 6,500 rpm on these cars. This should extrapolate to 210 rwhp which equates to 235 hp at the flywheel but no run down was done to estimate drive train loss. In the US they normally get 235-250 rwhp from a similar 1.8 which equates to 260-275 hp. The trouble with rolling road testing is that they vary a lot; a TVR that should be rated at 240hp only produced 180hp on that rolling road so the figures need to be taken with care. What really matters is real world testing . The car certainly is as fast a 4.2 litre 240hp TVR Chimmera but not quite as fast as a 280hp Suburu Sti; this puts it at about 220 hp/ton (track day testing). This is up to about 100mph; above this the poor aerodynamics start to tell but then at 50mph 135 Lotus Elises really get in the way!

The power changes the car, no longer do you worry about overtaking, in fact you can now overtake 3 to 4 cars where before you could only manage one; the trouble is after 3 cars you are really going too fast for a public road and need to stop accelerating. The power below 2,000 rpm is just about like the original engine so that wet weather driving is not a problem; by 3,700 rpm you have the full 14.5 psi boost pressure and are going places fast. This does mean that on wet roads you have to think about hard acceleration, even on dry roads you can spin the wheels at 40mph at times. The power is controlled by the accelerator – it is just that 25% is adequate where 95% was required before. The fuel economy will suffer if pushed (20mpg is possible) but in normal driving I can achieve the same figures that I did before and on club runs I normally better every average (rather than careful) driver. Best was 39.5mpg in Norway, worst about 8mpg on a track day. The best part is no longer worrying about other drivers deciding you should be behind them, before the kit a couple of cars that were just slower than me would not easily let me past because of the car .. now no problems .. in fact it is tempting to annoy superbikes .. you know they will win but it is interesting to give them the sensation of something hanging on their rear wheel for a change! The only thing that would be nice is the ability to turn off the power so that you can get back to the original pedal travel to power relationship; a less powerful car is normally more controllable and hence more enjoyable at times. This should be possible with a bit of trickery (currently I can turn it down to 9psi with the push of a button) but it has not been done yet …. yet more power seems more interesting at the moment! A final note is that I broke my first engine, this happened on lift off throttle over run at 6,200 rpm. When investigated I found a flawed con rod that would have broken at some point anyway and when on over run the turbo does not exert any more force than an ordinary engine so this cannot be really attributed to the turbo kit .. however I have to include the information for fairness. I have since then driven to and from the South of France; the heat shield over the turbo broke a bolt after too many hours cruising in excess of 3 figures (not too much in excess) and this vibrated the exhaust off the cat – not that you notice at that sort of speed but anyway it is still a useable car not a precious TVR!