Right ! It's almost been 12 months of boost and I'm still loving every second of it.
Bits of feedback of the HKS turbo so far:
Noise is immense
Power delivery is so smooth, boost comes in gradually and really takes off towards the top end of the rev range. The boost doesn't suddenly come in aggressively like a bigger or older turbo.
Turbo spools up very qickly
Mid corner boost can catch you off guard but the car doesn't kick out aggressively, still very easy to tell when you're about to pass that level of grip
Fuel economy for every day driving (not eco!) is roughly 26 - 28mpg and when you keep out of boost I was averaging 30mpg. It still gets 40+mpg on motorway though!
It's now absolutely rapid!
Still very much a daily friendly car
Since my last update, the only difference I've made has been a set of new wider wheels. The 17x7's with the turbo still held a lot of the handling characteristics of when the car was naturally aspirated. Like I mentioned above, the only real difference was that mid corner boost would break traction on the rear which would promote mid to corner exit oversteer. So I got myself a set of Rota Grid's because I can't afford a real set of TE37's yet haha. They are 17x9 and the grip levels have dramatically increased! The car from a standing start is much more planted now and has less tendency to break grip when shifting from 1st to 2nd. The mid corner boost doesn't break the traction as much as before, it can still slightly unsettle the rear if you're not paying attention. But overall the car feels sharper with the new wheels and looks much better that the skinny little bicycle wheels they come with from the factory!
I will be taking the car on track for its first track day in August at Bedford at the How Fast event. It's not a full day of tracking which I actually think isn't a bad idea for me getting used to the car and turbo on track. The car will be going into Abbey to get a more track focused alignment now that I've finally got lower control arms. Absolutely excited to get back out on track since the last time was 2015!
Here is the car in it's most current state
Finally, mega pleased for Toyota winning the 24!