Turbo system

[ChinoCharles]

In the past few months, I have been to a few speed shops with my car. At each one I have mentioned that I wanted to turbo or supercharge my car. At each one, other cars were in the shop which had received custom forced induction systems... I've seen RX-8's, Civics, 5.0's, DSM's, Chargers, Darts, Datsuns, you name it. At every shop I have been to, I was told that a custom setup could be built for my car.

You immediately think that a custom job will automatically be more expensive, but this often isn't the case for a couple of reasons.

1) Shops that specialize in high performance modifications often get prices on forced induction accessories that would make your head explode.
2) Since there are few kits on the market for the Yaris, you can often try and weasel out a deal with the shop that leaves you paying less for the kit and leaves them introducing your new custom kit for retail sale.

Also, these guys take pride in what they do. They want your car to perform and be reliable just as bad as you do. With their system, your car carries their name, and there is nothing that brings a garage down to hell faster than blowing up a car.

A speed shop will often take a more wholistic approach to forcing induction. When I was talking to Don Yuse at the Race Car Factory about a supercharged Yaris, the first thing he said was "I'll want to take your engine apart." I mean, is your internet-purchased turbo kit going to look at your piston rods and make sure they're strong enough to handle the 8-10 (or more) pounds of boost you're about to bolt on? I don't think so.

Something to think about...

Oh, and about the ECU thing, it isn't hard to crack persay. You just need a piggyback system in these cars... ie: GReddy's E-manage. They go for $300-500 or so depending on what you get, but they work wonders. It would be a good investment for a Yaris that might be making 15-20% more power than stock. It would be an absolutely necessary investment for a yaris that is sprayed/tc/sc.

The GReddy E-manage Ultimate is out now, so the original E-manage should plummet in price.