RGT Project Starlet Part One

The Toyota Starlet GT Turbo is somewhat of an unknown in the UK. We bought the car not only because of its rarity, but also because of our love for light weight performance, with the cheap running costs and Japanese reliability a good bonus to throw into the mix, especially with that peachy 1.3 turbocharged twin cam 16v engine.

Obviously the tunable nature of a small turbocharged hot hatch had not escaped us when purchasing the car, and inevitably soon after purchasing we decided it could do with a boost over the standard, which was already quite capable. So in went Sparco Bucket seats and an interior strip-down, induction kit and exhaust including de-cat pipe. Stage one done, and I received a noticable boost in power from 133bhp to 150bhp, made more noticable when coupled with a 20kg diet, which is not inconsiderable in an 860kg hatch.

This ran nicely for a while, however as we got busier and more involved in track days and driving events there was only so long the car could stay at this spec. We were struggling to keep up during events and this simply would not do. We had been looking into the correct modifications to bring the power to around 200bhp, and aiming to get somewhere in the region of 230-250 bhp per tonne to take on 911's in the traffic light grand prix.

Weeks of ebay searching and chatroom stalking later, something happened which proved the catalyst for a major change. in a routine checkup prior to a Nurburgring Naughtiness trip, we discovered that the head gasket was on the way out. On top of this the turbo seals on the standard factory CT9 Toyota unit were, indeed, also on the way to hot hatch heaven.

With our desire not to miss our forthcoming Nurburgring trip, we had a new head gasket set ordered, so a complete head refresh with new valve-stem oil seals was on the cards. We then found a 'used' Hybrid Turbo for sale online, and despite always knowing the risk of buying used equipment, the quality of the turbo meant we took a gamble that it would be in good condition.

So we bought the turbo, and to make sure it was as efficient as possible, we bought a custom free flowing manifold, front mounted intercooler to prevent heat soak and improve cooling efficiency, a new front mounted air intake, adjustable fuel pressure regulator to manually increase fueling, and a new dump valve unit as the standard one had to be ditched due to the new intercooler and intake setup. All the work was undertaken by Stef of SB Autostation, who is hugely experienced in engine building and japanese car tuning, particularly with Toyota's.

A few days, a few very fun drives and a lot of blue exhaust smoke later, whilst driving around some of our favourite local roads there was an mighty yelp from the engine and the car immediately lost all power, quickly replaced by a horiffic tapping noise. Finally our engine had decided to take a stand against the abuse it has suffered at our very own, 'enthusiastic' hands. We took this new development in a way that could be described as 'unfavourable', but at least it was an excuse to go back to the workshop and actually get our hands dirty this time.

It became apparent the problem was with the new head gasket; it simply was not up to the job of withstanding all the increased pressures, so it was back in to the workshop, rolled up sleeves, spanners and cups of tea at the ready for a hardcore week of getting dirty and re-building an engine that is going to form the basis of a wonderfully sprightly road and track car.