Quality vs Quantity

A friend asked me today whether do I read the locally produced Hypertune magazine as he is a big fan of it.

My answer to him was a simple NO.

"But why?", he asked.

I had lots of thoughts going through my mind at that time but at the end I decided to be nice so I just shrugged my shoulders and said:

"I just prefer something that has a lot less pages but with a lot more substance, that's all."

"So what car magazines do you read then?", he asked.

And I told him if he really wanted to know he could read up my blog when he gets home tonight.

Just some of the car magazines that I read

So my dear friends and readers, if you ever have time to pick up one of those magazines that is shown here, I guarantee it will open up your eyes and horizon and you'll never want to pick up one of those local copies again.

A little pricey maybe? Yes, but you get what you paid for.

Its all about the quality, not quantity.

Stage 2 Turbo Project - Ceramic Coating

The items are finally back from Ceramico this morning, its about time as I had them sent over for ceramic coating last week.

This form of thermal barrier coating is used commonly in automotive applications where they are specifically designed to reduce heat loss from the exhaust systems.

Ceramic coating also has a positive effect of reducing engine bay temperatures when applied to the exhaust manifolds, turbo housing, turbo down pipe etc.

Another positive side effect would be the hotter gas trapped within the manifold will have a faster flow and it helps in the spooling of the turbine.

Even if your ride isn't turbocharged, ceramic coating your exhaust manifolds will still help in a great degree as you will notice a drop in the engine bay temperature and your intake air temperature will be colder, thus reducing power loss.

Definitely a must item in my lists of mods.

Turbo manifold, turbo housing, down pipe, screamer pipe etc

Turbo manifold

Turbo housing

Down pipe

GT Auto Stage 1 Special Turbo Kit

Back in December 2009, GT Auto installed their Stage 1 Turbo Kit into this NCP42 Toyota Vios where I posted up the teaser pictures here.

The car produced an impressive 145 PS and 18.26 kg-m of torque to the wheels. But the story doesn't end here.

Fast forward 6 months, this car is now fitted with GT Auto's Stage 1 Special Turbo kit which produces 201.79 PS and 23.91 kg-m of torque on the wheels!

And this is achieved while both the engine and automatic transmission is still in stock form.

This turbo kit is certainly the strongest kit currently available in the market today for Toyota Vios.

If you would like to know more about the car, you may contact the owner directly at hadi@viosturbo.com or just drop me an email.

Alternatively, you could inquire GT Auto directly by sending them an email at inquiries@gt-auto.net if you prefer.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

If you ever wondered why is there a gap in the dyno chart, that is because the Okada Project Plasma Direct ignition coils were interfering with the RPM signal of the Dynojet.

Stage 2 Turbo Project - Quaife ATB Helical LSD

The Quaife LSD finally arrived this morning thanks to David, I quickly took a couple of shots before I pass it over to GT Auto for installation.

ATB stands for automatic torque biasing, which means the LSD unit is constantly diverting torque between the two front wheels at all time.

Made from CNC billet steel, the LSD unit is maintenance free and they backed it up with a life time warranty. Yup, no kidding.

If you so happen to be able to break it, just send the unit back to Quaife and they will replace it with another one no questions asked.

Click here if you want to find out more about it, meanwhile here are some pictures of the LSD unit for your viewing pleasure.

Stage 2 Turbo Project - Garrett GT2871R

If you're wondering whether I'm ditching the previous GT2560R turbo again after the GT2554R, the answer is yes.

This just arrived today and like a kid in a candy store I can't stop playing around with it.

Rated up to 460 horsepower, we are planning to sacrifice some power in the low end in exchange for massive mid to high acceleration.

So what about the low end then?

This is where the two bottles of nitrous oxide comes in to the picture. We'll be spraying at the low range RPM to help build boost just in case I need to launch from standstill.

And yes there will definitely be issues with the traction and therefore this the reason why the Quaife ATB Helical LSD should be on its way now from United Kingdom.

When the LSD reaches I will post it up here, until then here are some pictures of the turbo.