Toyota turbo kit close to completion
MR2 and Elise are among potential beneficiaries
Toyota's in-house tuning arm has almost finished developing a turbocharging kit for the Toyota MR2. The kit may also fit similarly-engined cars such as the Lotus Elise 111R.
If the project leaps all the hurdles ahead of it, it could bring some 200bhp to the four-pot 1.8-litre VVTL-i Toyota engine, whose stock figures are 138bhp at 6,400rpm and 125 lb-ft of torque at 4,400 rpm in the MR2 (top right). In the Elise 111R however, Lotus' tuning team already wrings 189bhp at 7,800rpm out of it (bottom right).
According to the MR2 Roadster Owners Club (MR2-ROC -- link below), the turbo project has been running for one and a half years under the control of Bonengel, principal engineer for Team Toyota Europe (TTE).
The search for more power originally looked both supercharging and a V6, though both were discounted at an early stage: the V6 was both too expensive and not available to existing owners, while the supercharger was dismissed simply because turbo sounds so much better than supercharger.
The MR2-ROC reckons that, "The outcome of all this development will be a kit, suitable for installation on existing cars. Although recommended as a dealer fit option, it will not currently be a requirement. As per all of TTE's parts, a full three year warranty will be provided, including any consequential damage if, in the unhappy event it can be shown the kit caused the problem.
"The exact contents of the kit are still under discussion and so no price has yet been set. Friedel pointed to the turbo and supercharger kits available for the Corolla and Yaris respectively, suggesting that the price point could be around €5,000 (about £3,450), possibly reaching €5,800 (about £4,000) including fitting.
"TTE distributes worldwide, and this kit would be no exception. When asked about emissions, the target is that once fitted, the kit will meet the same Euro-3 environmental standard as the stock car currently does. This will mean that it should have no problem in passing CARB Certification, although there was no explicit answer that this will be applied for."
However, it still has to go through Toyota's internal approval process, about which Bonengel is confident, and it could be on sale by summer next year.
About Team Toyota Europe
The Team Toyota Europe (TTE) name started life back in 1972 when Ove Andersson partnered with Toyota to compete in the RAC Rally the following year. Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) bought out Andersson Motorsport in 1993, renaming the company Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) but retained the successful TTE livery. After a successful year of rallying in 1999, TMC boldly chose to move out of the Rally arena and embark in the top level of motorsports: Formula 1. TMG still supports some sixty rally teams using Toyota cars as well as twenty-five GT4s.
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