Great you have got a decent result should hopefully make all the waiting worth it!

Just enjoy now! or tomorrow anyway!

Sweet

Does that mean I win your car now? :-). Have a great drive home... Be careful in the damp conditions. I bet it feels insane..

So I'm back home now after collecting her today. I'll post some more up in more detail on Monday (when I have a computer and a phone to write on). For now, here are the headline figures:
Power 416bhp
Torque 328lbs/ft
Wheel power 368bhp

Great fun and looking even more standard than before!

Fantastic just need to update your post signature now!

Impressive

nice

It's impressive to be able to get 70hp more from the same turbo, all be it Flead! Nice result and I would imagine a big step change in performance. I would love to know what the torque figure could have been.

Well done Trappy. Must be a great feeling after so much effort and time.

Welcome to the 400+ club

I know it would already have been pretty swift with 340-ish, but that extra 70 will make an amazing difference on the road

With 340, you'd be beaten by a late M3 or 911 - now you'll give them something to think about and probably even edge away at certain points

You mention it looks "more standard than ever" - have you been trying to keep it stock-looking?

It's not as exclusive as it once was but thanks



Funny you should mention the 911. There appeared to be once of those certain points on the M25 earlier...



Yes, I have. It's starting to become a thing with everything I modify now.

The only exterior change here was the exhaust exit and it's now more discreet. Still a rolled 3" but now without the lip. It doesn't protrude as far either. I'd say it's quieter also. Of course being stainless, that might change but I'd say it nicer to be able to hear the induction, engine and turbo again rather than just the exhaust.

Indeed it is! Leighton went through a number of maintenance items that will need to be addressed quite quickly but on the whole, it's definitely in better condition than it ever has in my hands now!

Glad to hear you're going for the standard look - I've been working hard to make mine look near-standard, even down to keeping a standard air box and intake piping (even though they aren't plumbed in). I also have all the additional cables threaded through OE plastic trunking, a black Forge dump valve, and my boost control unit hidden inside the false intake piping

I have a feeling that when I have it resprayed, I will probably have a set of standard wheels put back on

Are we mad?

Trappy's car is really looking good now, very tidy throughout and solid underneath. I'll wait for his full feedback before I add my tuppence!

Haha, loving the surplus plumbing under the bonnet. I must confess, I haven't gone for the standard look under the bonnet. It's got a lot of blue now! That reminds me, Leighton cleaned my engine while it was in. I can remember cleaning once and that was years ago. I got told off for that! It's looking great now!

My idea of 'standard look' is more making it how it should / could have been from the factory. I like to change / improved things but so that a casual onlooker wouldn't know it wasn't meant to be like that. Some modifications (led lights, spoilers, body kits, gear knobs, wheels etc.) clearly look out of place.

Considering how much time we've had these cars and how much time and effort has gone in, I'd say being mad is a given!

Full report

The drive over
First of all, I’d like to give a big thanks to my buddy Jim (RockSteadyEddie on here) for taking the best part of Saturday to drive me up there in the loan car. He saved my bacon there and although he was well fed and watered all l day, I’m sure he had better things he could have been getting on with.

Arrival
I naturally had a quick nose around the car. I’d quite forgotten how good it looked actually. It was a bit grubby but then it hasn’t been washed for a while. I’ll get on that next weekend. A quick call to the wizard himself and he appeared in a puff of smoke (or rather he hobbled over) and started walking me around the car so I could see what he’d been up to.

The walk-around
The exhaust looked incredible. Really nicely made and still very shiny! Leighton told me that they’d spent a lot of time and effort building it to minimise the boomy nature of a poorly made 3” system at this point. The short route piping for the FMIC looks very professionally done. Opening the bonnet, it was obvious that a fair amount of work had occurred here too; looks of shiny metal on the turbo, diverter valve and new SIP, a new APex’i Power Intake and lots of blue stuff. In fairness it should have been before – it was just filthy! He’d cleaned it all up and told me off for leaving it in such a state. I’ll try to keep on top of this now!

Next was the interior where the new missile switch was fitted. It now has three channels:

• High boost (which is the default down setting). 1.5 bar trailing to 1.4 bar
• Low boost 1.2bar right through
• ‘Supercharger’ setting. This is something that you simply cannot manage with a traditional boost controller. This starts out at around 1.1bar and ramps up to 1.3bar at the redline (if memory serves), the boost increasing with rpms like a supercharger. The idea is an even more progressive delivery for wet weather. I haven’t used it yet but it will be interesting and, I’m sure, very useful in the coming months. I’ll report back on this when I’ve put it to use.

Feedback from Leighton
At this point, Leighton took me through some of the problems he faced in tuning my car. It is good to know that it isn’t just me that this car hates! He will be sending me a list of those problems that he couldn’t / didn’t need to fix so I can start working through them, but the ‘highlights’ included a dodgy air-con system that was always ‘on’, some of my dodgy attempts at wiring, brakes pads that were almost gone (new Pagid Grey RS15s already on now!) and a number of engine mount bolts that were missing. He did say that the cockpit did receive a fair amount of vibration from the Vibra-Technics fast road mounts. So much in fact, that he’s made the decision to not fit them to his based on this experience (I think this is just age related though…).

On a more positive note, he did say that mine appears to be in particularly good condition underneath and that, overall, it’s becoming of the better examples he’s seen /smug.

Driving away
Having parted with some money, I trundled off with Jim now in the passenger seat. Off the bat, I couldn’t believe just how coarse the car felt. Around the hilly roads of that part of Bristol, it was creaking and groaning and everything was rattling. As it turned out when I got home, this was all due to the old parts – it was lovely and quiet when cleared out! The car did feel a lot more raw in terms of engine vibration also but this was due to me having been in the Alfa loan car and Emily’s 350Z for the last 4 weeks. Now I’m using the Coop again, it feels great again!

What did it feel like to drive?
After pootling through Bristol and then finally getting some fuel in her for the drive home, we pulled onto the motorway. Before opening it up, I just gave it a little squirt and… not much happened. I said to Jim “this doesn’t feel much faster at all?”. A few minutes later, traffic cleared and I tried again, with a little more throttle. It was only at this point that I realised that the throttle pedal now has an analogue function! The old digital 10% throttle = 85% power has no gone. I hadn’t appreciated how long the pedal travel is before! Full throttle in third gear and it was off! Into fourth and it just kept pulling. This was more like it.

So it clearly goes in a straight line and the rest of the mostly Motorway drive home was pretty clear and it was just trundling along. At motorway speeds / revs it felt so smooth and refined managing motorways speeds without apparent effort. And no boomy drone at all – very impressive!

Back home where I now on low speed roads I know well, I quickly noticed another huge improvement. The now analogue boost delivery seems to work in reverse also. Where before a slight lift off would result in a jolt as the turbo stopped spinning, now it winds down progressively. I can now lift off mid bend without the car bucking around. Mid corner and this was a recipe for lift-off over steer. I haven’t really pressed on as the brakes were either shot or so new I can’t yet use them in anger, but I expect it will be a lot sweeter to play with.

What does it sound like?
This was of course something I was going to be paying careful attention to. For me, these cars are first about looks and then noise, and I’m very impressed with how it sounds now. To a certain extent the grumbly 5 pot warble and flat out rumble has largely gone. It’s no-where near as ‘angry’ as it was before instead sounding for more mature and… potent. You somehow get a sense of a huge volume of air being processed – it’s all sucking induction, whooshing turbo and jet engine exhaust. It sounds like a piece of machinery that just does the job it needs to without any needless fuss. It also doesn’t pop and fart at all. Has it lost some of the previous character? Possibly, but it’s adopted a much more OE, refined and serious personality. I’m falling in love with it already. The new Synapse Synchronic Diverter Valve should really have a mention here. Leighton said it worked very well in its primary function of aiding the turbo while holding boost. It isn’t ‘dumping’ as crisply as it should yet and I will be tweaking it to this end, but it too generates a much more serious noise. A higher pitched faster psst! Rather than a rattle snake of a thing like the Forge DV007 did. Again, this is very much to my liking!

Hot start
If there is one thing that isn’t ‘perfect’, Leighton said it can take a bit of throttle sometimes to get it started when hot but, in my hands, it’s only done it once so far and that was at the services on the way home. Another 10 or so hot starts since and it’s been perfect. Honestly, if he hadn’t said it might do that occasionally, I wouldn’t really have noticed! It also settles on a rock solid idle from the get-go which it never used to. Yet another example of moving away from that modified feel to OE that can be lost when upping the power.

The ultimate test
I’m really looking forward to the misses trying it out. When she used to drive it and wasn’t used to having to constantly blip the throttle to stop it stalling, it would always stall. She would get annoyed with it and we’d end up swapping over. Now it’ll be lot easier for her to drive, the throttle controlled boost will stop it being on/off power, it won’t keep stalling and it won’t get away from her on the low boost setting t 377bhp. She drives a rev-up 350Z (296bhp) so is used to a fair amount of grunt but it is a complete pussycat compared to my Coop’s previous lag…lag/full boost delivery before.

Summary
Overall it is a much more polished and complete package. Aside from the sometimes awkward hot start (that I’m not even sure really is a problem), it is just better in every conceivable way. Oh, and it goes like the flaming clappers!

In closing, I’ll get Leighton to post up the dyno charts. He has one showing all three boost channels and another showing the before and after chart. This will put things in persective!

Over to you then Leighton!!

I think the only thing our coupes have in common is the Exhaust Trappy,although yours may be de cated.

I have heat wrapped the down pipe and is generally run at very high revs.

Its now a bit louder from when it was new but still not boomy. I like to get close to the pit wall as i am going up through the box,it sounds great. or as a French pal said its very melodical.

Glad your enjoying it.

Not sure I can add too much more, just a few technical details and some good old pics




Standard and looking very nice.



Spot the missile boost switch, that’s where the party starts!



Now looking clean and dandy, no charge either!



Business end, this FC turbo deliver’s on both ends. Fast spool and big top end. It could go to 450bhp no problem…





The exhaust is critical for performance, but it needs to look and sound right for each customer’s requirements. A full FC 3” 5-stud exhaust with twin silencers and a roled 3” tip.



FC Cambelt guard! A lot of investment into this engine, not going to let a £12 belt cause problems…


So to the power, well the brief was 400bhp+ and this was no problem despite being dictated to by the set-up. Ryan has forged pistons so good for boost, but standard rods (shot peened for extra strength) limit the torque and revs. The standard rod bolts were my biggest concern, so I have capped the torque and peak revs, but while limited we can still make it sing with good tuning.



1.5bar - 1.4bar
416bhp @ 7133rpm
328lbs/ft @ 5638rpm
368 wheel power @ 7029rpm


We have introduced full 3D boost control on a 3-stage boost switch. Unlike a traditional electronic boost controller, we now have full control according to throttle position and rpm. This means the right foot has full control when driving, and it allows very specific control over torque and power when mapping the car. We can take this further with the boost switch maps, one for full on power, one for lower power, and the other that gives maximum traction as it comes on boost (no torque to overwhelm the tyres), but power and torque builds fully to the redline. Even in wet conditions this setting will give good traction and allow maximum return from the engine.



A quick comparison to the old set-up. Ryan thought he had a 0.86 exhaust housing, but it was actually the smaller 0.64. The smaller the housing the quicker the turbo spool, although depending on set-up there can be a trade of at the top end for power. The previous graph was from 2009, and since that time the old turbo housing suffered with a significant crack through the scroll and wastegate seat. This was causing boost problems, so part of the turbo upgrade was to replace with a new 0.64 housing. The rest of the turbo is much bigger in real terms compared to the GT28RS, but it is much more efficient and very little is lost low down compared to the gains above 3500rpm to the redline. No surge despite the fast spool, this is what makes a car driveable and powerful. The new set-up on the road is giving more from just over 3000 and it is still making peak power at the limiter! If we could raise the revs (and boost!) further then power would keep climbing, but as it is there is a massive powerband with torque being controlled all the way.

Ryan contacted me quite a few months back with his ideas, I let him know what we could achieve with various set-ups, and then shaped them into the result we have now. I am glad he made certain decisions, because the older I get the more I am looking to achieve maximum driveability with power. Bolting on a “big” turbo is easy, but big power with response/good low torque and control is much more difficult.

It’s great to see a Coupe growing and getting better with the owner, go get ‘em Trappy!

Sounds like a very nice set up, missing my old coop when I read things like this!