Well my turbo valver was kind of BBs customer test car after I blew my engine on nitrous. I was gonna go for a full-on throttle body conversion with a bulletproof bottom end, a proper wild head etc, but I was convinced by the fact that running a turbo Clio didnt really involve much in the way of compromise, seeing as this is also my everyday car, ie, no idling problems, itll pass the MOT with the cat on, doesnt need to be kept in tune or anything.
Of course, turbocharging a valver was a bit of a leap in the dark, so by me thrashing my newly turbocharged valver around and basically driving like a loon for a couple of months, most of the problems that hadnt turned up on BBs prototype happened on mine instead. So far its had serious transmission problems, been through two or three different clutches (think the first was a Helix, then it was a kevlar road clutch then a semi-paddle kevlar job which is in at the moment) and onto its second gearbox. The WIlliams that was in there already had been in throughout the previous year, so I reckon its more likely that all my nitrous-enhanced, full-throttle-gearchanging quarter miling that year had knackered it, not the turbo.
Heat management seemed to be a bit of a problem from my point of view, for some reason it didnt seem to be dumping heat as well as it should, even with an oil cooler and charge cooler rad up front. This problem has been solved with a slight redesign of the front bumper and a copper-cored water rad and for good measure I got a load of louvres punched into the bonnet over the inlet manifold, chargecooler and to the rear of the radiators. The idea was to draw some of the frontal airflow through the rads up and out through the bonnet, rather than all of it going under the engine bay, as well as doubling up as simple heat release mechanism at standstill in traffic as a bit of testing revealed a lot of heat building up very quickly around the chargecooler and filter which took some time to disperse once on the move again.
Some of the problems I had with it cutting out etc when I got back from the Ring after burning the clutch were down to the ECU shutting things down due to either the charge temps getting too high or the fuelling being inadequate for the boost level / charge temp it was running. This was solved with a different fuel pump that still fitted in the original position but had a much better continuous flow rate. I think it was originally destined for Group N Imprezas. The original pump had a good peak flow and was good for momentary bursts of acceleration, but not for continuous on-boost demands.
So there you have it. All the problems are pretty much ironed out now, but the reason I havent quarter miled it yet is because after it was sorted out back at BB last year, I had to immediately snatch it away and get it into the bodyshop for the other mods I wanted doing. It should be back in the next couple of weeks in time for Scotland and the Donny show.
Ive done a lot of quarter miling in my valver over the last few years, and (bearing in mind I havent even driven it myself for almost a year LOL!) when I do run it, Im expecting something a 1/4 mile ET somewhere comfortably in the 13s, hopefully low 13s although Im not sure how much better than that it will run mainly down to traction problems. Terminal speed I estimate would be around 105-115mph. Straight 0-100 probably around 11 or 12 seconds. 0-60 is difficult to say because its so dependent on the driver, and FWD is the worst possible thing for short sprints, but at a guess it runs easy 5.5-6.5 sec without much effort. To get a lot below that would need work, something like slicks would be handy, although at least its naturally a front-heavy car anyway and there isnt the mental trans loss that you get with 4wd and to a lesser extent, RWD.
Power/weight stands at at least 250bhp/ton, seeing as the standard valver only weighs around 980 kg and mine is a lot less than that - I have only two kevlar seats up front that weigh about 5-6kg each, no other interior except carpet and door cards, no spare wheel or cage, and the original wheels are ditched in favour of a set of OZ Chrono Evos which weight around 8-9kg each. WHen I get it on a weighbridge Im hoping for around 930kg.
Once its rolling its very quick, theres a lot of torque there. Obviously standing starts are a problem but unless youre very low down in the revs there is no noticeable turbo lag, the T28 is spinning by 3500 revs anyway, and who drives at less than that in a valver anyway?
As Ben said, and hes one of the few people whos had a ride in it, it struggled round the Nurburgring because of a badly slipping clutch. 911s were going past me fairly easily as I was limping round, but I am absolutely certain that if it had been performing like it did after all the problems were ironed out, it would have destroyed all those 911s easily.
The fastest we got out of it on the autobahn heading into Germany was 140 on the clock which comes out at around 145mph using my GPS speedo on my Snooper. This is on a Williams gearbox with the longer 5th gear and if I remember right, around 6000-6500 revs showing on the counter. In theory I think it could hit a true 150mph on that gearing, but would then run out of revs and hit the limiter.
I love my turbo valver, but if theres one thing that I think needs addressing its the transmission. In its current spec it should hold, but Im aware that it would need only a little rough treatment and it would probably blow. Any more questions?
