The power plant.

The WRX lays down some pretty respectable lap times for a mostly stock road car! One thing I knew from the beginning was that if I were to build a dedicated track car - it had to be faster than the WRX around the track or I wasnt going to be satisfied.

The AE86's major strength is its weight, with a bit of weight reduction I figured I could get the car down to ~800kg? The WRX weighs in at over 1200kg's. The WRX has a 2.0 litre turbo engine putting out about 130-140kw atw and all wheel drive. The AE86 (in jap spec) has a 1.6 n/a engine putting out <90kw atw and just RWD. The weight reduction wouldnt be enough, I needed more power! It is possible to build a naturally aspirated 4AGE up to put out similar power to the WRX but it costs big $$$$! I decided to go turbo - cheap horse power! Some investigation revealed that by slapping a T28 turbo from an S14-S15 Silvia onto the 4AGE with some aftermarket management I should be able to cheaply get similar power to the WRX. Then we are in business!

As it happens the 4AGE came out in a factory supercharged version, the 4AGZE. This engine had strengthened block and forged pistons from the factory and is the best base to turbo charge. My dilemma was that I was on a budget and I already had an engine - the basic 4AGE that came spare with the car. I figured I could just turbo that to begin with, keep the boost low and tuning conservative and hope it lasts a few meets before it popped!?