Tim had a goal of 300 wheel horsepower in mind as he started his build. He settled on a Garret ball bearing Gt28rs turbo as its more than capable of producing those figures. So on it went in its wheel spin glory with nothing below 5200rpm on a standard fte as to be expected, but obviously the plan was no where near finished as this was the start.

Danny West Autos based in Cairns forged the engine, Danny used to build engines for the v8 supercars so had a few tricks up his sleeve when working on the head with a 3 angle valve job with big ports. The exhaust ports where opened up between 3 to 5 mil and Tim chose Scat Rods and Wisco pistons as the guts of the engine, a popular choice to our friends over there. Gasses are vented away down a three inch decat pipe with an aftermarket cat and custom can.

With all the extensive headwork and exhaust improvements carried out drivability improved greatly making the car allot more usable by spreading the power down from 4700rpm and upward, pretty good for a tiny 1.3 with a massive inhaler delivering its boost medication.

All of this fettling has been taken care of by the simple yet effective work of a fuel pressure regulator and fuel pump and boost cut defender.The car has been currently dynoed on a prehistoric dyno at approximately 230@ fly at 22psi. He stresses he has an emanage ultimate and larger injectors to take him on his hungry goal.

A few setbacks have hampered him slightly in his eight months of ownership, he fitted a used trd lsd, this subsequently spat out two gears. He then sourced what he thought was another gt gearbox, fitted it only for it to destroy itself a few months later. Some heavy quarter mile use might have been to blame plus the fact it was an na box, but now Tim is onto his therd gearbox which is a genuine gt item, hopefully it will last abit longer.

The handling of this lush ep was formerly taken care of by a set of D2 coilovers but they were soon ditched for some munro shox and king springs to make the car more compliant for the roads he uses, but as the starlet is now running an open diff a quarter mile time of 14.53 at 103 is his best currently, he still has traction issues to work on so a few more items are on the way including a few products from Australias Whiteline. Once sorted though he is hoping to refine his technique and maybe brake into the hi twelve's with some very sticky tires.