ive gotta say,im still not into the sound of the turbo's there i cant hear anything while theyre on throttle apart from sucky sucky noises i prefer to listen to air being scared to death as its consumed (at its own pace) and compressed. everything you can hear on the turbo's isnt coming from the engine but again,all personal preference anyway! so ill shut up!
just going a diffarent route,i prefer one over the other thats all. ive driven plenty big power turbo cars. mate has a 450brake 2wd sierra cosworth,it is absolutely feckin meantal! but i prefer driving his 230brake mk2 escort on twin 48's.
Around Lydden my Mk2 49 second lap Mk1 20vt 55 second lap. It all depends on what the car is being used for, Track days or Competition sprints.
but steved that would be down to setup.....a 20vt would kill yours down the straight due to the torque....
Like Steve D says, its horses for courses. A big bad turbo would be quicker down a quarter mile or on a big circuit. On a sprint track or hill climb it would get wrung out off a good n/a car.
remember Nick Manns minor, that did quite well with a hooooooooge turbo, up the hills. [only winding... i agree really] For track work, you'd be better starting with an NA car, unless you are already a fantastic driver. Bill, how would you describe the difference between beeza and jetta, in terms of how easy it is to drive?
WRC cars are 1230kg and therefore need turbo torque to drag them up the road. In Corsica a few years back the WRC cars got their butts kicked off the 2 litre Xsara and 306 kit cars, even in the damp. Big boy turbos are great, but they aren't the best ALL the time. Like I said, it's horses for courses.
i love the turbo push of me fiat, but the off boost lethargy is pants, probably easy fixed with a decent turbo/downpipe and a straighter shot in and out of the turbo. However it's less "fun" than wringing the neck of my old valver. Also the valver is loads easier to drive due to a more linear power delivery
Not really needed is it We all know that a turbo can produce more power from a engine than a n/a one. But it seems alot of people seem to prefer n/a, due is drivability and cost. This is of course the opposite if you own a turbo car. I would go down the route of the turbo, if and when my engine gives up the ghost. Just because i could get more power from it. But i would miss my roar from the tb's. But if you have more than 200bhp in a front wheel drive car, to get the best out of it a LSD, and good tryes are a must. just my 2p
As far as track work goes I think the NA car/driver needs to be a lot more commited and carry the corner speed where as the big woooshhhhhh pop turbo boys can use the straight line speed to their advantage. Not saying all the big turbo boys are point and squirt merchants,but you know what I mean. Edited by: GVK
This is'nt a right wrong thing tho.. I like both of em personally. 20VT from sheer performance available is what I like. valver on t'bodies is ACE. but noise is'nt something which is so popular these days on tracks so much as I luv the full on, filterless induction sound, the officials dont [:^(] nice valver-but loud
Jetta was easier to drive for sure. more user friendly. couple of reasons why tho.. 1. It was slower so more time to do things. 2. Steering car on very responsive throttle was so much easier than turbo which is never as on-off or quick in throttle response terms. RobT and I went round Anglesey circuit earlier this year and in a comple of corners, on his in-car camera, he pulled away from me out of the corners. Instant engine response and poke vs turbo lag, then wooosh down the road. Some 100-150bhp difference between our respective engine outputs, soem weight advantage for RobT's Mk2 ibiza over mine, but engine response made for a pokey responding engine. My felt like elastic power delivery, progressively winding into ballistic levels, but not instantly. We have joked that it would be a good crack to run that sort of track with me on road tyres and him on stickies... and I suspect the end result would be evens if not him in front & me struggling to keep up. You cant beat a good valver for track fun and hopefully reliability. Push things on 1.8T and valver and yea reliability is something to think about. That said, my std engined 350bhp 1.8T ibiza has run very reliably (not 100%) but impressed me none the less considering the abuse it put up with & 37K miles IHI'd on track a lot. I broke more g'boxes on the Jetta than on the ibiza too.
