Drove a Turbo BRZ today

[evoto86]

I think it was a 2014, now my car is a 2016 MY17 86 with the fancy intake manifold etc, I have had headers & Over pipe put on it recently and with a Road Tune done its really come a long way compared to dead stock.Now I was very excited to drive a Turbo BRZ/86 because apparently every person and their dog says it should have come like this. But after driving it I get what the guys at Toyota meant about upsetting balance and that this car does not need a turbo. It was fun boosting it and hearing the Turbo spool and flutter, I drove a bunch of Evo's for a few years so its not anything new. However I honestly think my NA tuned 86 felt better to drive than a BRZ with a $6000 dollar turbo kit. I got back in my car and it wasn't day and night and now I'm contemplating a different route to take my 86 then boost.

[Joveen]

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[BigTuna]

I had a similar experience with a supercharged FRS. Sure it was fun, but it didn't knock my socks off like everyone clams it does.

[Lantanafrs2]

Turbo would be for wow factor and something else journalists could complain about. Not needed. I still want a turbo though!

[8RZ]

Cool story

-Bro

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by 8RZ

Cool story

-Bro

Tell it again

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

That's my main source of anxiety. I would like to turbo my car and kept bouncing from SC to turbo and finally settled on the turbo but now I don't know. Will it be a completely different car? Cause I don't want it to be. I just want whatever's there to be turned up to 11

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by evoto86

I think it was a 2014, now my car is a 2016 MY17 86 with the fancy intake manifold etc, I have had headers & Over pipe put on it recently and with a Road Tune done its really come a long way compared to dead stock.Now I was very excited to drive a Turbo BRZ/86 because apparently every person and their dog says it should have come like this. But after driving it I get what the guys at Toyota meant about upsetting balance and that this car does not need a turbo. It was fun boosting it and hearing the Turbo spool and flutter, I drove a bunch of Evo's for a few years so its not anything new. However I honestly think my NA tuned 86 felt better to drive than a BRZ with a $6000 dollar turbo kit. I got back in my car and it wasn't day and night and now I'm contemplating a different route to take my 86 then boost.

Why?

There's many less-than-optimal running boosted BRZs out there.

[DarkPira7e]

Turbos can be tuned to be linear, most just aren't done that way. Look at dyno graphs to see the area under the curve- this is a recipe for how a car can be expected to behave. Depending on your tuning solution, boost by gear can help keep an otherwise unmanageable car straight and predictable in lower gears as well.

[gtengr]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

That's my main source of anxiety. I would like to turbo my car and kept bouncing from SC to turbo and finally settled on the turbo but now I don't know. Will it be a completely different car? Cause I don't want it to be. I just want whatever's there to be turned up to 11

I think completely different is a bit of an exaggeration. The added power only brings the car up to around late 90's/early-2000 levels of factory performance car acceleration. IMO, if this car had an STI version with 300 bhp, no one would bat an eye at whether extra power can transform the car into a better version of itself. The trick is incorporating the power increase and supporting mods into a package that still feels OEM. My motivation for going with a TVS-based kit was to get something where the charger is used for OEM applications, so it should be pretty close to set-and-forget after dialing out the gremlins. So far I'm pretty happy. That said, I agree that it's not actually that much of an increase, and I do see a lot of value in just going Ace header/E85/lightweight mods if you're going to limit yourself to ~270-280 rwhp anyway for mechanical concerns.

[evoto86]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Why?

There's many less-than-optimal running boosted BRZs out there.

Im used to the Response of the NA motor when driving backroads and when I was driving this BRZ I had to change how I drive the car, maybe I just needed more seat time and it would have grown on me, but first impression's it doesn't justify the cost of going turbo in my mind. Perhaps this Brz wasn't a good example but it was a greddy bolt on which is similar to a lot of Turbo kits for this car.

[Lantanafrs2]

Horses for courses. A nice, long on-ramp might have felt better.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by evoto86

Im used to the Response of the NA motor when driving backroads and when I was driving this BRZ I had to change how I drive the car, maybe I just needed more seat time and it would have grown on me, but first impression's it doesn't justify the cost of going turbo in my mind. Perhaps this Brz wasn't a good example but it was a greddy bolt on which is similar to a lot of Turbo kits for this car.

If you're constantly on-off with the throttle, then you won't like any turbo setup unless it's done very specifically to accommodate that type of rapid transient input.

Sounds like you need to drive something with a supercharger.

[bfrank1972]

I get it though - the car is great without FI. Good header, tune, and maybe final drive makes for a very responsive car that can be driven angry without achieving warp speeds. With a good suspension setup you can carry more speed through the corners and keep the car on boil. Frankly for street driving, my lightly modded NA 86 will exceed just about any speed limit pretty quickly. Just depends on what you're looking for in the car.