The Toyobaru GT86/BRZ/FR-S rumor mills have long suggested that a turbocharged Subaru BRZ STI was in the cards but after months without confirmation, aftermarket tuner garage Accelerated Performance of Toledo, Ohio, has decided to take matters into their own hands.
Last month, Jalopnik first reported that Accelerated Performance had fitted a custom turbocharging kit onto a Subaru BRZ, effectively posting an impressive 54.5-hp gain in performance, from 161-hp at the wheel (as opposed to 200-hp at the crank) to 213-hp at the wheel.
At the time, development of the turbocharger was still in its preliminary stages and the cautious engineers at Accelerated Performance only ran the turbocharger at a modest boost pressure no stronger than 4 psi so as to not excessively disturb Subaru's finely tuned ECU.
After a short month of considerable trial and error, John Visconti of Accelerated Performance is excited to share with us some of the progress the team has made.
A new EcuTek RaceRom software for the BRZ as well as an Omni 4 Bar MAP Sensor is now fitted along with the custom turbo from Accelerated Performance. Finally, boost pressure has also been raised from 4 psi all the way to 10 psi, providing Accelerated Performance with exactly what it needs to deliver a whopping 278-hp at the wheel. In fact, one particular run even posted a peak horsepower rating of 286-hp. However, Visconti emphasized that the tests "weren't looking for peak numbers - just reliability."
From the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club (NASIOC) forums, John Visconti announced that the turbo setup will eventually be available for sale as the 'BRZ/FRS-300' turbo kit for the price of approximately $5,000.
Naturally, R&D at Accelerated Performance doesn't end here. Visconti confirms that the engineers are looking at solutions for bigger turbochargers as well.
Accelerated Performance's incredible performance gains in such a short period of time certainly bodes well for the Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT86/Scion FR-S's aftermarket potential. We can't wait to see what other ideas tuning companies will think of next!
Check out the turbocharged Subaru BRZ dyno pull in the video below. That BRZ certainly makes a mean noise:
[Source: Jalopnik]
