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Hi All, Back at the start of the lockdown I decided I needed a project to look forward to whilst working from home and I'd been toying with the idea fitting a turbo/supercharger for a while. Only problem was a i really fancied doing the installation work myself, so after some research (and a test drive in the Abbey demo car) I settled on ordering the Harrop supercharger kit from @Mark@Abbey M/S . Now it turns out that Abbey don't sell many of these kits for DIY fitment, so i figured I'd write up a bit of a review in the hope others might find it useful and may even have a go themselves in the future. Existing mods Prior to fitting the supercharger I'd had a TD manifold fitted and a remap by Abbey which took the car up to about 180bhp at the hubs and around 140ibft of torque. I’ve also fitted several cat backs ultimately settling on the TD super res. What's included? So for the money you get Harrops custom built manifold mated to an Eaton TVS1320 blower plus all the bits and pieces required to make it work on the car (including a special tool for reforming the A/C pipe around the supercharger). I have to say on unboxing the kit i was really quite impressed, it includes just about everything you need to get the job done. Complete with a signed off opy of the picking sheet when the kit was put together at Harrop so you can see someone's taken the time to put it all together and you can easily check it's all there. The only bit that wasn't included was the coolant for the charge cooler but that's not the end of the world as it's a standard GM coolant so you can get the anywhere. In addition Mark also provided; the loan of an EcuTEK programming cable and dongle, a base map to get the car running, distance mapping (more on that later) and a session on the dyno for final map tuning and a power run. The fitting process This is the bit i'd imagine will be most of interest to other as there's not an awful lot of info online about it. Now the first thing I must stress is much in the style of the Pirates code (see one of the Pirates of the Caribean films for the full reference), the instructions are really for guidance only. They'll point you in the right direction (usually getting you 95% of the way there) but there will be times where a little bit of thinking is required. Most of those moments centred more around the removal of the OEM items rather than the refitting of the new bits, which in all honest I kinda expected and it wasn't really that difficult. That being said Mark was always at the end of phone when I had bits i wasn't sure of. In terms of what was required to fit the kit, i did it over the course of a week with the front end in the air on a set of drive on ramps. If you're going to this way it's worth considering fitting the chargecooler/chargecooler pump/pipe work first (the instructions have it last). That way all the work from underneath is done before you start removing things like the fuel rails. Also it's worth following a bit of advice from one of the American forums and remove the undertray all the way back to the footwell, it's sods law you'll drop something and it will almost certainly land on that under tray. As for tools, the only specialist tools required were the former for bending the A/C pipe out of the way and that was included in the kit (it's worth making sure you have a substantial G clamp though as bending that pipe is hard work). Just about everything else can be done using a socket set and the odd screwdriver/allan key. The only minor issue i did find was that clearance between the TD manifold and the crank pulley was a bit tight, so we had to grind a little bit off the flange to fit the auxilliary belt. That and getting the fusebox apart to fit the chargecooler pump wiring but that's simply a case of trusting that it's more solid than you think. Once you're happy leavering things knowing what you can get away it comes apart fairly easily. Mapping Now the mapping process is something I've never really been involved in before so it was quite interesting. So Mark talked me through the initial process of connecting the EcuTEK software to the car and querying the ECU. He then sent over a base map which allowed me to get the car running and. From there it was a case of going out taking data logs starting keeping the car at low load/rpm initially then gradually increasing load/rpm as Mark tweaked the mapping till we got to a point where i could run it all through the rev range. This was the first point where the supercharger relay began to put a smile on my face, running it all the way through the rev range in third is really quite addictive. The way the torque just builds and builds is fantastic. After that i got the car booked in on the dyno for the final tune and a power run (the results of which are attached), the headline figures being approximately 240bhp (up 60bhp) and 200ibft or torque (also up around 60ibft). Conclusions to wrap up, i have to say i don't regret going down the DIY fitment route and i'd highly reccomend it to anyone that's half decent with a set of spanners. Fitting this kit really isn't all that complicated and the feeling of pride when you fire it up for the first time is just fantastic. That and of course you get a car at the end of it with some serious performance, the bit where it really comes alive is the the way it pulls through third/fourth/fifth. Where it used to run out of steam the car now just pulls like a train. With the added bonus that the fuel consumption hasn't taken to much of a hit, granted if you really press on then it drops quite quickly but on a gentle cruise i can still get 32-33mpg. I'd also just like to say a big thanks to Mark and the team at Abbey Motorsport. They were really helpful through out the process (Mark even delivered the kit personally after Parcel Force decided it was to heavy but didn't bother calling him to say so) and it was good to know that Mark was at the end of the phone should i need some advice. If anyone has any questions then fire away, i'm more than happy to help.

Forgot all about this, checking the work dairy and hope to book a ticket tonight. It is usually a good day out at the brands show

hold on a sec while i just pick my jaw off the floor......k. OMG this looks so tidy. I love seeing when people put a lot of time and effort (and money) into the small details and this has really paid off. Nice work!

Cool vid, i actually learned stuff! When it comes to alignment and what not I'm always on the side of 'better let a professional do this' because I've never quite understood it and had the space or equipment to do it...also I cant afford to be killing tyres every few 1000 miles 😮. I'm surprised you could stand driving that distance though with alignment this messed up, when I got my 86 it was all out by around 1-1.2 degrees and it was like driving a 4wd with a bust diff, car kept sort of skating side to side at anything over 40mph. Glad you got it sorted now, hope that's all your steering issues ironed out!👍

This week I managed to find time to fit my STi front lip that came from Japan. It was a bit nerve-racking drilling my freshly painted, brand new front bumper, but needs must. I have to say I am glad I went for the genuine product over the replica pieces as the fit and finish was perfect. No need to paint/refinish the item, all the holes lined up perfectly with the existing holes and the stick on templates made it so easy to line up where to drill the new holes. It uses a couple of clips and rubber well nuts along the bumper to fit, I was really pleased how secure it is. I have the STi sideskirts and rear lips to go on in the next couple of weeks: STi lip by James Baker, on Flickr STi lip by James Baker, on Flickr

So another silly tale in the saga of the 86 - It failed it's MOT last week! Nothing seriously.. only the fact it burnt through it's front set of tyres in 3000 miles.. How? you ask? Well simple.. the alignment was screwed. It's all my own fault ofcourse! I put such an emphasis in to the rear alignment after a load of toe totally scrubbed my rear tyres clean last year that I went about carrying out a string alignment on them which went pretty well but I totally neglected the front end after doing the recent steering arm and bushing replacements, that along with the fact i've never truly done an alignment on this cae meant it was totally out of wack! So after having the tyres replaced and the alignment sorted the car drives a thousand times better, it's night and day with pretty much any and all bumpsteer/tramlining totally gone it feels so much nicer to drive and more importantly safer. Here's a look at my before/after alignment settings, but you've been warned the front is a train wreck! (This isn't the print out i received from the alignment shop, i just simplified it for my video and the original bit of paper has a coffee stain on it now thanks to me!) I go in to much more depth in to this in my latest youtube video where I talk about the effects of Caster, Camber and Toe on a RWD car - I do know these things, I'm just stubborn and tight when it comes to paying people to work on my car. Don't be like me, get your alignment sorted!

Bought some new wheel nuts for when the tyres were swapped. I was really impressed by these - they are open ended nuts which the red piece screws into using a special tool they provide. They've even gone to the effort of sealing it with a rubber o-ring. Took the car to Rogue Motorsport to swap the new track tyres on and give the car a quick check over before the two trackdays I have coming up next week