Here's my guide to Soarer modification after an email I received when Bill wanted to know the path to righteousnes... eg.. 400+bhp on a Twin Turbo Soarer. These mods are Standard Turbo mods. 

First off... I'm of the opinion that anything can be done with the right conditions. You can get craploads of power from any car as long as it's cool. Keep the engine cool and it will last longer and handle more stress than it normally should. 

- Good spark plugs. They make a world of difference. NGK all the way baby

- Use good quality petrol. As close or higher than 100 octane is good. Jap fuel is 100RON.

- Fully Synthetic Motor Oil. Read my other reference for more details.

- Trackday Settings on GT Soarers. Turn the car off, open the diagnostics panel (inside engine bay) and jumper "Ts" and "E1" with a wire. Turn car back on and go for a small drive for the ECU to realign. after 5-10 mins. Turn car off and back and on and have a bit of fun. The difference is more noticeable on Soarer with TEMS suspension as this also stiffens the suspension past "sport" mode into "hard" mode. 

- New headers, cat, exhaust. 3" straight thru design, splitting into 2 x 2.5" tips. This apparently gives you a bucketload of power.

- Air filer. K&N or Apexi. 
Dont go cheap. I've seen cheap ass AUS$40 Simota ones being used... and then you see bits of metal coming out when you change the oil.... not good. Also dont go crazy either... Spend maximum AUS$100... anything over that is a waste... and shop around. Get a cone filter and a heat sheild. Now's a good time for a cold air intake duct as well. 

- Boost Gauge.
This has a trinket value, but it is useful... so when you up the boost, you know where it's going at. I prefer the Apexi EL boost gauge. It glows blue at nite... ohhhh.... ahhh.... matches my Nokia 8250

- Fuel cut defender.
Choose wisely. I havent done that much research on which on to get yet, since I'm currenly unemployed and have no money :P. (dammn Ericsson restructuring)

- Bleeder valve with push button boost control.
A simple bleeder valve and a solenoid to control boost from within the car. it will be like... push off = normal standard settings. push on = hold on... :P  solenoid cost AUS$15 and bleeder + T peieces shouldnt cost more than AUS$10. strangely enough the hoses cost the most...

- Intercooler.
No doubt about it... get the biggest baddest intercooler that will fit at the front of the car. You can get a nice large custom unit for about AUS$1000, but if you go the cheap way like me, I'm just getting a truck core... (Turbo Diesal trucks have big intercoolers). Truck cores cost about AUS$300 depending on condition and where you get them. Intercoolers serve a dual purpose in giving you more hp whilst also extending the life of your engine. It keeps inlet temperatures cool and usually adds more flow than the stock unit. (This equates to more boost). Once you have the new intercooler fitted, its a good idea to make sure the boost is under 17PSI. 

- Bonnet vent.
By this time you're propably runing about 17PSI of boost and the engine bay is cooking more than it usually does. Get a negative scoop bonnet vent to relase all that hot air and your engine will last longer and it will give you more continuous power as well as the visual attractiveness. When people see a bonnet scoop they're either thinking. RICE ALERT! but when they see a negative bonnet scoop... It gets them thinking. WTF is under the hood. 

- Oil Cooler.
Gearbox needs to survive.

- Replacement ECU.
Get a fully reprogrammable replacement ecu. Brands mean nothing if you dont have a good tuner. check your local and not so local garages to reputation of good tuners. Note that once the replacement ECU is installed, the fuel cut defender can be taken off and sold... or used on another one of your cars.


That should give you close to 440bhp considering the Soarer starts at 280bhp.
With Exhaust, air filter, Spark plugs, 12PSI boost, high octane fuel and Trackday settings you should be getting about 340hp depending on overall setup.

Costwise... (All in Australian dollars... 1 pound = AUS$2, so cut the cost in half)
Exhaust - about $1200
Airfiler -$100 + heat sheild (DIY) $20
Fuel Cut Defender - $160 installed
Boost Gauge - $300 for the Apexi unit, but if you dont care how it looks, $60.
Bleeder Valve + switch - $40
Intercooler - Truck Core + pipes + fitting $600
            - If you want a real intercooler, a HKS GT will cost $2700.
Replacement ECU. - $1300-$1600. includes dyno tuning.
Bonnet Vent - $400? including colour matching
Oil Cooler - $50? I've seen some for $30. But I recommend a good (more expensive one)

All this and all you've done is made the engine more efficient with intake and outake mods. 


And now to Audio.... 
It again comes to how much you are willing to spend and what you want. For me, I'm after sound quality with a bit of punch. Head units for a reasonable price range would be Clarion/Alpine/Pioneer units. Clarion make some of the best sound quality units in the market at a reasonable price. My preference is to go with 2 single din units instead of a single double din unit. I'd go for a Clarion/Alpine TV single din pop out unit and a probaby a clarion or alpine single DIN MD unit (since I have a MD unit at home, CD if all you use is CD's :)) Get a matching 6-12 CD stacker that is VCD capable and you have a nice entertainment unit. Most new head units will pump out 4x45w per channel. This is more than enough for treble and midrange which dont really require massive amounts of power. Bass on the other hand... :P My amp recommendation goes strongly to Rockford Fosgate. It's all sound quality at a reasonable price. Match that to some Boston Acoustics 12" subs and you have competition grade stereo. This means you have a medium chance of winning a trophy!! yay!!. But that may be an expensive path since Boston Acoustics Speakers cost a fair bit...  I would still go for boston's for the front speakers, but you can get some JL subs which although arent as clear as the Boston's, they do their job good for their price. As for mating the stereo to the soarer interior... have you thought of spraying the centre console metallic silver? I've done my ash tray lid and transmission cover, and I think it looks mad. Match that with a silver faced stereo and all's well. A custom surround may need to be made to fill in the gaps, but it shouldnt pose an obstacle. This is for a sound quality stereo setup, so if you like your music with pure SPL then another setup is needed. 

Also... about sub sizes... 8" wont give you the depth you want. 10" will give you depth but not enough power for the price. 12" subs only cost a fraction more than 10" subs and provide a substantial increase in power. I'd go for either 1 or 2 12" subs in a custom box. Free air subs were made for people who dont appreciate real heart stopping bass. My preference is sealed enclosure (sound quality) but if you like your sound loud, then ported enclosure is ok as well. The only problem with ported enclosures is that you need to measure the frequency of the ports to get the right sound. This requires a pro which means more cash. You can make a sealed enclosure at home for very little money. 

Anyways.... I hope this sort of helps you out. There's just too much garbage in my head :P

Cheers,

Toan Nguyen
Soarer_GT@hotmail.com
Melbourne, VIC. 
Australia