Turbo convertors type 85

[Stpndsmnn at aol.com]

At the end of last summer I did the half conversion (callaway style) on my
'83 CGT.  I used an UrQ K26 and a 5kt downpipe.  When I first bought the car
it was running on 4 cylinders but after some head work and a bump in
compression (approx 9.0:1) everything was fine and I was able to run a 15.9
1/4 mile still naturally aspirated.

After doing the conversion the difference is night and day, the car feels
twice as fast even just at half throttle and I am only running 10-12 psig.
With the traction limits of FWD I can cause serious traction loss into third
gear accompanied by copious amounts of VR rated smoke.   If I take off a
little slower then that doesn't happen and I can easily hang with mildly
modified Eagle Talons, Mustangs, and even showed a Corvette my tail lights
once but I think only cause it was wet.

With my higher than normal compression ratio the power band and throttle
response is very linear, to the point that most people familiar with turbos
don't notice when I start building boost.  It's a nice feeling to be able to
press down on the go pedal and have the car really GO.

The only problem I have had is blowing out the head gasket during an 18 psig
experiment but I think that is a problem only for the earlier solid lifter
head/gasket/bolt set-up.   At 18 psi I was getting wheel spin in 4th gear and
the car was really flying but it didn't last long ;-)  ....

With Quattro you shouldn't have any traction issues and I kind of envy that
but without Quattro I can run my car over the scale drag ready at 2500lbs.

For anyone that wants a fast Type 85 or 89,  going turbo is really the only
option.  If you do everything you can to a N/A motor you can probably get to
the point that the turbo motor starts at and it will probably cost as much or
more than doing a swap.

HTH
Matt Kramer
'83 CGTt