Pearl White 86

Hi All, Just thought i'd share my experiences of the excellent Tuning Developments and their Stage 1 turbo kit. First of all about me. I've had my 86 since 2013 (it's a Peal White limited edition with the red cross hatched stitching on the leather for the interested) and been lightly modifying it for the last couple of years. So far i'm running, Valenti sequential tail lights, trd spoiler, beatsonic antenna, stop tech disks and pads front and rear, tuning developments brake cooling fins, ate super blue brake fluid, P3 multigauge, Scorpion cat back and decat with a miltek overpipe. So, naughtier but still well behaved. Normally driving wise my trips consist of pootles around town mostly, some hard A road driving and long motorway jaunts. I track it once or twice a year, usually at Brands or Silverstone as they are closest to me. I'll start by saying i loved the stock car, great balance, surprising nippy on track and quite rewarding to wring it's neck. Gripes? Well the god damn squealing stock brakes and needing to wring its neck to get it shifting. As i said earlier, i do a fair chunk of long motorway drives and that ability to shift lanes and blow past something that was always missing. Or was.... I missed the first TD black friday sale but caught it this time round. If they do it again, definitely jump on it. I went for stage 1 turbo with UEL headers for the bass and the wub wub wub, knowing i may drop a couple of ponies for the pleasure but gain a little low down torque. The guys at TD did an excellent job turning it around in a week with no dramas what so ever. The new car (because i can't really refer to it as the old one anymore) is a completely different animal. Soundwise, there's probably 3 distinct phases. It's quieter than it was at idle, startup and when running round on 0-25% throttle. My exhaust was probably a little on the loud side especially when pulling under load and that has just lost a few dB and hit a sweet spot now. 25-50% throttle there's a little turbo whoosh from under the bonnet and a little grumble from the exhaust but pretty tasteful, hitting that little boost is probably my favorite of the sounds. At full chat, there's a lovely spooling sound followed by a dump of pure power. It sounds awesome! Balance wise, I've not driven it on track yet but i have taken it down a few A roads. Word to the wise, get an oil cooler before going on track, mine runs a few degrees hotter now and it wasn't exactly a cold running car to start with. Bearing in mind that i'm still on the stock primacy's (damn tires are harder than rock) traction is surprisingly good. One can't stand on the power out of a corner anymore but that adds to the enjoyment in my book and suits my driving style. Hopefully this'll speed the death of my tires and I can legit throw on an upgrade. The power, my god, the power. That's why we are all here right? Well i'll probably split this into everyday and pressing on. For everyday driving it's the perfect solution. I'm sure you've all done it, lent on the accelerator, felt the revs and torque build to a crescendo but been a little disappointed that it never really came. Well, now that crescendo is there, the one after that, and the one after that is there too. It pulls... well...everywhere. Mine makes more power and torque pretty much everywhere on the band vs stock. After the upgrade peak torque was 230ish with peak HP at 277.7 (check out the dyno below) the stock car was probably putting out something in the 180s. What's more important is that the torque is pretty flat across the band and is massive so it just hammers home. Driving down the motorway now, 6th used to pull better at 90 than at 70 and required a bit of a run up at 70 too. Now you can leave it where it is in 6th, lean on 50% throttle and you've departed and left everything behind. Pushing on, the sheer power as it punches through the gears is unbelievable. After my first couple full throttle blasts i was left giggling at the steering wheel saying "jesus christ, yeah f***ing right" to myself. If it wasn't playing my bluetooth, i would have sworn they swapped the car. It's always hard to compare apples with apples though with just how much quicker it has got however I was lucky enough to be given a direct competitor to measure against. At a number of track days I've caught but struggled to pass Caymans, just too quick on the straights with reasonable brakes. Well i was served one with a willing driver on the way home. A Cayman S PDK (last generation) no less and thought here's a good benchmark. He looked at me, i looked at him, we both knew it was on. We did a couple of drags from 65 north...significantly north (kph or mph i couldn't say). I did mine purely in 6th just to see what she could do, the answer was to pull a gap and keep pulling a gap, higher in the rev range the gap stabilized but the initial gap was decent. We did this a few times, the result the same and then the Cayman S departed with a confused shake of the head and a look of bewilderment. Well there you have it, in short, just get one, it is simply incredible. If i had to describe it in one word, for me the delivery is just so progressive and smooth it would have to be "creamy." Downside, if there is one is that it now takes only Super. I know, i know i should have been doing this anyway and not just for track days but hey. Hope this helps guide some people, trust me you won't regret it!

I did go full decat as Mike recommends. Finding a friendly MOT tester is not always the easiest but then again changing the mid pipe is the work of a short afternoon if you have the space. Some people have gone with something like the Berk HFC but I've seen those fail before. Small sacrifice for the go to match the show though!

Hi Mike, These deals are just too good to miss. I've decided to ask for forgiveness rather than permission! Can you PM me over the details for Option 2? Thanks, Colin