| My Turbo Baleno featured in the Quartermile plus magazine in the May 2011 issue
Just a quick FYI here!
The May 2011 issue of Quartermile plus magazine has a write-up on my ride!
I was contacted sometime in late Jan and asked if I'd like to have my Turbo Baleno appear as a feature in “Quarter mile plus” Performance Magazine. The Quartermile team including Editor (Vivek) and photographer (Vinod) came over to Bangalore sometime in March for the photo shoot. Later, I got confirmation that the article on my car will be published in the May issue of the QM plus magazine. I got an email from him in late April that the magazine was about to hit the stands and that he would send me a copy to my address. Unfortunately, I was out of the country to see it in flesh at that time. I just got back from my trip, and found out that Quartermile plus magazine was out already.
The title of the article is "Not your average Joe" & the Headline of the editorial "Bling is out. Sleeper is in".
So yes, this is my first car to have been featured or published in a good automotive performance magazine. What I've done to deserve that - I do not know, but I am quite honored...and humbled.
I am now able to post some of the pictures as I am allowed to use them once the magazine is out. I’ve got a many pics but will only bore you guys with these images.
It was a wonderful experience working with people at Quartermile magazine, my special thanks to Vivek ~ the editor of Quartermile magazine, Vinod ~ Photographer.
I have to thank a few more people for my turbo Baleno build –My good friend Karthik (Race Dynamics) for being a patient listener and encouraging me to explore their ECUs RD601 & RD901 and also tweaking the software besides making some hardware changes to get it to perform the way I wanted it to. My friend Joe (not me) to have offered me to use his facility and tools for the build. And my friend Ajith to help me locate and source the TRD turbo kit in UAE.
Here's an excerpt from the editor at Quartermile plus magazine pulled directly from the May 2011 magazine issue.
Bling is out. Sleeper is in.
Tuned cars that look standard are slowly but surely becoming the trend.
Look at the three cars we featured in this issue. They are all turboed and bloody quick, yet they are so staid and demure in their attire, they are easily passed off as standard cars. Of course, they wear upsized alloy wheels - a necessity - but again these are inished in a subtle gun metal/copper inish so as to avoid unwanted attention. Minor details like some extra grills or non standard badges have been added, but it always takes a trained eye to spot these. They may be serious power houses on wheels, but they are all cleverly conceived to run under the cop’s noses without getting noticed. Welcome to the world of sleepers.
Sleepers are cars that are literally wolfs in sheep’s clothing. They are often hard to tell from their stock counterparts and carry the most amount of surprise element. Owners of these sleepers think there is nothing more rewarding than the shock and dismay on the faces of drivers of fast expensive cars when you leave them behind in a cloud of smoke. Loud paint schemes, body vinyls and chrome wheels are so yesterdays now, a lot of car enthusiasts are ditching their snazzy body kits and ‘talk of the town’ spoilers for a cleaner, more understated look. There are others who have grown up from their racy tuner cars and want something more socially acceptable but don’t want to lose out on performance. Now everyone has realized that the ‘show’ is in the ‘go’. An increasing number of sleeper cars in the country is a testimony for this. And it’s interesting to note that even those who blow loads of cash on performance and audio side are refraining themselves from going berserk on the lashy side.
However, we have to give it to the cash starved enthusiast who spent all his savings on the performance side and didn’t have any left to spend on cosmetic mods, who started the Sleeper trend. And we dedicate this issue to one such person who did a turbo build on his own.
Vivek Venugopal
Editor
NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE
May 2011 Quarter Mile Plus
This is not your everyday turbo build. You see, it is not a big deal going to a tuner and getting him to do a turbo for you. Of course you need to pick a good tuner, but that aside, all you need is money, sometimes loads and loads of it. But building your own turbo set-up from mix and match parts takes a lot of skill, determination and patience. Running it reliably for year, takes all of that in bucketfuls.
Meet Mr. Joe. Having converted more than three cars to run on forced induction, he isn’t your average Joe. He is an enthusiast with the ability and knowledge to do something certain tuners aren’t conident about. Joe remembers his time in Michigan when his Volkswagen Corrado’s supercharger packed up all of a sudden. After giving it some thought, he successfully converted it to run on a turbo set-up and pretty soon he began his next project on a Swift GTi. The GTi he remembers was fun and cheap, running merrily on a T25 which he bought used.
As he got back to India, Joe settled down with a family and bought himself a brand new Zen. It remained untouched, but things were about to pick up speed when he got himself a clean, single owner Baleno. A Race Dynamics ECU was installed and Joe played around making the low rpm more stable and was soon able to make mild changes to the ignition timing while on the move. The idea had always been to go for forced induction. He picked up a ball-bearing TRD turbocharger & TRD manifold and some hardware including blow off valve, hoses etc on a trip abroad. They remained in boxes for a time till finally, Joe decided to take a break from work for couple of weeks and started the Baleno turbo build. His goal was set – to make a low boost turbo build that works as a reliable daily driver.
However ambitious it looks now, Joe wanted to fabricate intake and exhaust plumbing that’s capable of handling over 250-300 bhp. He knew his would help him to quickly upgrade to a larger turbo, bigger injectors, etc with stronger internals whenever he decides to go to the next stage without having to start all over again. Although it doesn’t low quite as well as custom turbo manifolds, Joe decided to have an adapter plate sandwiched between the Baleno and TRD manifold, just for ease. He also wanted the turbo set up to run acceptably (when not pushed hard) on factory ECU without depending on aftermarket ECU. He got 3” thick gauge MS pipes (bends) for the dump pipe, 2.5” MS pipe for the exhaust, four sets of 2.5” and two sets of 3” flanges cut and surface finished. After the mock set up was done in the engine bay, the whole thing was TIG welded. The build started sometime in 2008and continued for about 10-12 days and finally the basic turbo setup was ready. Joe said he was very eager to get it on the road and my patience was running out. So he slapped on few rubber hoses to do a shoddy intake plumbing without an intercooler. It cranked up and revved just fine. Very soon, a boost sensor was installed in the RD ECU to enable boost compensation while tuning. The engine was completely stock and ran non-intercooled for about 6 months. The inlet air temperature would shoot up to around 80 degrees real quick, so he had to aggressively retard ignition with boost while also being liberal on fuel.
Finally he got the intercooler plumbing done and secured the intercooler on the right corner of the front bumper. That sorted out the inlet air temperature issue. The turbo is internally waste gated for 8psi. Pretty soon, Joe found his stock clutch was getting overwhelmed and had to upgrade to a Suzuki racing clutch. The injectors were quite close full duty cycle at the higher RPM/boost – so a brand new fuel pressure regulator was in order. In its present state, it is a fun car to drive with quick spool & ample torque though it runs out of steam in the higher revs. Joe says it provides him with good fuel efficiency and has been reliable for well over a year now. It is very lively now (and even more on 12psi setting), very nice to drive without the traction issues and extra torque steer. Joe might decide to go for a phase two of the upgrade which would be upgrading the G16 internals and the turbocharger simultaneously. But right now he is happy with the way it drives and is enjoying the fruits of his labor. | 
9th June 2011, 16:17
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