The awesome duo at Speed Academy had me along for the ride on their “Abandoned STI” project build which spanned 20 videos with about 200k views, detailing the work involved in building the car and the multiple tuning sessions I performed on various setups. While some of the tuning was performed in person, I performed this tuning session on the first Garrett turbo (G25-660) remotely from Texas while the car was in Canada. The goal was a 400 wheel horsepower setup that was still enjoyable day to day, and performed well for lapping and a head to head race around Toronto Motorsports Park. Here’s that dyno session and Pete’s driving impressions.
While I believe a 2.5 liter would made this setup even more fun, happily the goals were still achieved. I had a great time working with Pete and Dave as always, and the car ended up going sub 1:20 around TMP’s road course on Dave’s first time out. In this next video you’ll see the hot laps, and how the STI did against a Ferrari F430:
Along the way, we also performed a back to back test of two different turbine housings, and I review how this caused the change in engine performance. I also had the opportunity to showcase differential fuel pressure compensation preventing engine failure during a brief loss of fuel pressure.
Later, the boys trusted my suggestion to swap to Garrett’s G30-660 which I felt was a better fit for their setup, and dreams of holding power at higher RPM. We got exactly what they were hoping for. The new power curve was a dramatic improvement because the turbine side was a much better match for the rest of this engine system.
You can check out the complete “Abandoned STI” series and other great content from Speed Academy here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp8FsoRYWYK4hYTrr8HwYWTJ1oh1G9M5f