Well after a few delays for various reasons that Harvey wasnt aware of until I went to collect the car, I managed to get the train up to Darlington and collect my car in the deep snow up there.
After collecting the car I then had to drive down to Milton Keynes to get it mapped by Duncan. The car had the following done by Harvey:
600 injectors
3" RCM exhaust
RCM Induction Kit
TD05 20G Turbo
Turbo Blanket
Headers
Exedy Clutch
Harvey said it should do an easy 400bhp with that spec and his special headers/uppipe combination although im sceptical and estimated 360-380.
On the way down to MK for the mapping session I had to keep the car off boost at 60mph all the way. The car would stall when ever idle as it was running very rich having had new injectors. Every time I changed gear there was a bang/crack/pop from the exhaust and the car did 88miles to the tank on the way down to MK. Had to fill up on the M1 and got charged 138p for vpower - was robbed!
Anyway once down in MK Duncan came and mapped the car and got it ticking over without stalling which was the first bonus. We then did various power runs and got the car pulling really well in 2nd/3rd/4th. However when in 5th or 6th the car would judder/surge quite a lot. Duncan needs to speak to Harvey about the spec and update the firmware of the ecu that he has mapped the car with so that he has wastegate control in the higher gears. Duncan will be able to expand on the technical side of things. So for now he backed the power off in the gears to limit the surge as much as possible. He will then generate a new map and come and see me again in a while and we can try and remap the car again with the updated firmware ecu. Hopefully then it will sort out the surge issues and get it pulling hard again.
One thing he noticed was that the gearbox neutral positioning sensor was on the way out so I might have get that changed before he next pops up.
First impressions of how the car has changed are that the car still has its burble on tickover but turns into a raw power blatt when under full power which i really like the sound of. The car isnt too loud or droney which is a bonus and was a worry when getting the exhaust. When driving under 3.3k rpm the car drives incredibly smoothly and freely and is really easy to drive. Before it felt like i was working the car to get the speed up around town where as now it feels to drive a lot easier and free-er if that makes sense.
The next thing I noticed when it had been mapped and I could boost it for the first time was that the noise the turbo/induction kit makes is completely different to standard. It sounds like the car is really sucking air into the engine when you boot it and the turbo spooling up and down is a lot louder now. It almost sounds like the car has a boy racer style dump valve fitted when you change gear which is cool.
Downsides - there is a smell of exhaust fumes that fills the car when idle at the lights. Some people have said this is normal and will go after a while so will have to see. Leg is also aching due to slightly heavier clutch. Other than that really impressed