How does your turbo/car feel?

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jlspec

New member
Alright, last night my cousin who owns an alltrac ST185, said thier was something wrong with my car after taking it for a test drive. He said that my didn't have that punch like what which you would of feel with a regular turbo (Supra/eclispe) like his did. Then again his ST185 is the lightest of ST185, no ABS, no Sun roof, no System 10, and currently the AC has been remove. It is true that my car doesnt have the suck in your seat feel, but I always that it was normal. The car just pick up and you'll feel the and know when the turbo kicks in as you'll feel the speed increase. Checking too see how others ST185 felt. Oh my car is stock by the way, and it ran the 1/8 in 9.7 with bad plugs/wires,cap, and rotor. So with those replaced I estimated my car should be able to do 9.6 stock :D .
 
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Corey

Active member
I have only ever driven 2 other turbo cars besides mine.

A '90 skyline 4wd (not GTR) and an RC.

When i first hopped in mine last year, I thought it was pretty quick, not knowing any better.

Over the past year, i had become accustomed to the power the car had, and sorta thought "meh". It never really had that "butt in seat" feeling that my dad's new charger had.


As soon as a DP went on the car, i noticed a good improvement over stock. The turbo spooled quicker, and was louder too.

Then came an intercooler. That probably made the most difference. The turbo spools up quicker i found, and it added 2 PSI of pressure to the car, without a boost controller. (Went from 8 psi to 10 psi)

Then came a home made boost controller. Set to 10-12 psi in all gears. (its a pretty ghetto controller, i need to get a better spring and BB). At 14 PSI, HOLY CRAP lol. Then it hits fuel cut :(

Now the car is really flying. As soon as 1st and 2nd gear became un-restricted by the stock controlller... :D



Also, i found that the car feels faster when I'm in the passenger seat. When I'm driving, i know when to expect the surge of power - cause my foot floored it - but you dont know that when your a passenger.

For weight, my car is roughly 1460 kg with half tank of fuel. (ABS, System 10, 12 disk changer, sunroof, power stuff, A/C)
 
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gpmarzan

New member
Not an st185, but my car never really felt all that quick with the stock turbo. When I first had it running with the 2nd gen motor and a single entry combo it hauled ass at 12psi. I then changed to a freshly rebuilt twin entry ct26 and it seemed like the car lost its balls. It might be that I have just gotten use to the power, but it sure felt like an 'ehh' type of feeling. With the 50 trim compressor upgrade, it sure brought back memories of when I first had the car running. Although, the car does have mood swings like a girl that it will feel fast one day and slow as hell the next day. It could just be a combination of air temp and how I expect her to run for that day. My alltrac is a douche bag.
 
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smog7

Moderator
hahahah^ well said. on special days my stock st185 slams me into the seat, on others its more of an ehhh was that it? 2nd and 3rd gears are usually the warp speed gears...
 
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BayAreaAT

Active member
How many mile on the car??? Its no match stock for stock VS EVO,SUbies or even eclipes 95 up.., our turbo really chockes when reaching high RPM while the others, EVO for example, their turbo spools up ALOT faster than our turbo, thats the "punch" we dont have..
 
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jlspec

New member
My car currently has 120K miles. My car doesn't do that which I am fine with, but since my cousin mentioning that his does it just got me worried. I understand that due to the weight of the car and design of the turbo; stock I won't feel it much other then the slight increase in G force in the mid range power as it drops off in the high rev range. I've read a couple of articles reviewing the car when it came out, and they always mention that the car doesn't have that push you the seat feeling. I guess to ease my worries, I'll do a full tune up and try the 1/8 mile time again to see if I still hit the same numbers or if my car is truly getting slower. I might just go ahead and finally install my midpipe which has been laying in the garge for awhile now.
 
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TheNubkins

New member
I also find that my car feels quick on some days and other days it feels like it's nursing a hangover. In stock form my wife even commented how slow the Trac was and how it makes a lot of noise but doesn't really go anywhere very fast. I suppose most people are used to driving new or newer cars and compare them to the ST165/185s. Anyone who keeps up with the car scene knows that horsepower ratings have been going up and up and up for the new cars. I think for it's time it was seen as a quick car, but not by todays standards unless you spend some good coin on power modifications. My family car(Hyundai Sonata) kicks the crap outta my Trac. Even after installing 3inch exhaust the Hyundai beat the Trac to 100mph 5 seconds quicker(mind you this was a rough test done using a camera aimed at the speedos). Now that I'm running 13psi, have the 3inch exhaust done, and BayArea TMIC on I can keep up nicely with the Hyundai...still have to do another video run to 100mph to see if it's quicker yet. In stock form my Trac felt about as quick as the '92 Laser RS Turbo FWD I had years ago.

As a note my AllTrac is a 1990, compression test had amazing results, new plugs, rotor, cap, wires, no oil leaks(fixed any seals that were leaking)and it currently has 67,000 miles on it.

Even though it's not super fast(yet) it's still nice to drive through the corners and definately in the winter. I think most people who drive these cars don't think they are the fastest things out there and probably don't drive like it either, but rather enjoy driving something unique/rare.
 
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Qlynxer

New member
You guys are doing it wrong, My 165 is always fast! 8) .
Just kidding guys. Going from my 89 celica gt to the alltrac, i thought i was fast. Then i got utterly smoked by my freinds newly swapped turbo mr2. Talk about being put in your place. So I slowly just kept modding the trac untill I'm where i am today, which is pretty quick but still not that fast.
Guess the moral of the story is you can rest easy knowing most of the new family sedans will leave you of the line, let them have their stoplight victories. How many wrc titles does the accord hold. Or you can just mod the crap outta your car taking advantage of an overbuilt and underutilized engine and tranny. Either way it's better then driving a honda. :D


Quan L
 
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Wicked Toys

New member
Well since I don't drive my st185 much, I can say each and everytime I do it feels great. I get or make people thrown back in there seats and definately still feel some nice pull for it's age plus knowing it's a tank.

And ever since owning my WRX since January I have to say my 185 is faster from 0-80, but after that it's no comparison. My stock WRX is smooth and pulls up to 130+.
 
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tissimo

New member
how much boost is your car running? What mods do you have? When I first got my alltrac, it felt pretty quick and had quiet a bit of kick. It just had a 3" exhaust (turbo back), and a fcd. But it was running quiet a bit of boost later I found. After bypassing the TVSV it was running 7-8 psi like normal, and man it doesn't have any kick.
 
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silverarrow

New member
If you're going out to the 1/8th, why don't you drag your cousin along with his and compare times?

Fast car + bad driver = slow car
slow car + good driver = decent

That comes from experience from California Dragway.
 
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BayAreaAT

Active member
I finally test drove my car last weekend with all these mods:

Race port head
JE piston
Eagle rods
Knife edge crank
3" Turbo back exhaust

only boost to 4psi (for now) With stock fuel system and no EMS. All the mods above are totally useless, I feel like i was driving an old Civic. :doh:
 
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turbo4wd

Moderator
BayAreaAT®":35zhbgav said:
only boost to 4psi (for now) With stock fuel system and no EMS. All the mods above are totally useless, I feel like i was driving an old Civic. :doh:
Click to expand...

Break-in period?

As for the original post - I've been in 2 stock 185s, both with approx 100k miles and one was always driven "carefully", while the other was always boosted.. the car that was driven harder felt MUCH faster than the one that had been driven conservatively..

Have you driven your cousins 185 to compare?
 
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jlspec

New member
I have heard of stories like that where one that has been driven hard remains faster then a one that hasn't. My alltrac has always been driven easly and only once in awhile I'll give the boost treatment. Then again, even though my car doesn't feel like his I am able to still beat GSR, 200 Celica GT-S, etc. Good thought, maybe more people can answer that too; the difference in a driven hard car vs. one that is not.
 
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WarTowels

Active member
My car was owned by an older gentleman since 96... or 98 either way, it wasn't beat on boost wise. How else can you get 211,000 miles on a stock turbo. 8)

With 12psi, 3" DP, straight intake, and minimal weight reduction I can take down a few cars. MR2-Spyder being the fastest so far.

But I would not call my Alltrac fast by any means. 1st gear has the best kick in the pants from a stand still because of the lag, other than that I'm always itching for more power.

Someways she feels faster than others.

Oh, and with other people in the car- the decrease in her quickness is easily noticeable.

-Towels
 
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88CelicaPhil

New member
I don't know about you guys but i think my 165 is pretty quick! I haven't done much just full 3" exhaust and upgraded ct26 but it can pull pretty hard.

It's weird though somedays I smoke STI's and Porsche's....I kept right up with a 911 Turbo once, but some days Scion TC's and BMW M3's beat me.

Car runs awesome though javascript:emoticon('8)')
 
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