GT86Jay 202 Report post Posted January 17, 2014 Last weekend Maz from HKS Europe was kind enough to come up to Norwich for a little meet and to let me take his newly supercharged GT86 out for a drive. Over the Christmas period Maz (which some of you probably met at the UK Meet) supercharged his GT86 using the HKS Kit. First look at the kit is that it’s very impressive to look at and definitely show-off material! Pipes are nice and shiny. The charger sits right up top in front of the throttle body and is the main focus on the engine bay. Lots of nice looking pipe work and all looks very clean. Far from an OEM look though! … Maz has this kit coupled up with the HKS High-Flow Exhaust and also fitted an oil cooler. On initial thoughts driving out of a busy crowded city there was little to experience. Whilst pottering around and maybe getting to a top speed of 25mph there's not much difference to an oem car, still drives very well at low speeds. A subtle little air rush sound on over-run. But nothing exciting yet. We get out on to the dual carriageway, up the slip road I was following a 40 tonne lorry! Soon as I could see clear lane I pulled out and booted it. Initial thought was ‘hmm not much going on’ couldn’t see the £5k improvement over my remapped car. But then we hit 4k rpm! The car just lifted the torque came and we flew. It was smooth, fast and a little surprising. The amount of speed it picks up whilst being very unassuming was amazing. No fuss just speed. It was different to the turbo where you can really feel the speed building and the acceleration. The supercharger you looked down as was just going quicker. Which was a unique feeling! It was particularly good when overtaking. Dropping down a gear and hitting the 3500rpm range the car just pulls and you get past in no time! But again you don’t really feel anything going on. You’re just going quick! This is obviously a first stage initial install HKS SC with not much UK development yet! But for first impressions I was impressed! Currently the HKS kit comes with a piggy back ECU which Maz thinks is limiting the system. But development is being carried out for the kit to work with EcuTek. Being a first install this isn't producing it’s peak power and not producing anything near the Avo Turbo kit, it doesn't seem to have any problem being installed with the stock clutch. This is apparent but it’s still quick and is going to have some serious potential. Definitely an increase in Torque. Patches the Torque dip well and outputs smooth NA feel power. The one downside for me with this kit was the sound. On over run when you lift of the throttle the extra boost gets diverted around a series of tubes. Which makes a loud whooshing sound constantly inside the cabin. Almost like metal grinding together. This is good when you’re going on a mad run and driving hard and want that feedback. But I imagine it could get annoying after a while on a long journey cruising up to roundabouts on the motorway etc. But Maz has said that can be toned down and probably hidden. Some people may love it! Overall it’s a good solid install and producing a good amount of power. Estimated at around 240bhp on the initial base map. It’s pretty to look at has potential of being a great system. Backed by HKS it should see some good improvements and development on it! I’ll be following this closely once its been mapped with the EcuTek maps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted January 17, 2014 Sounds good. I'm interested to see how a centrifugal supercharger performs compared with the twin screw. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted January 17, 2014 Awesome stuff Jay.....where was our invites? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GT86Jay 202 Report post Posted January 19, 2014 It was all a little bit sudden and just a saturday morning 'wanna go for a drive' kind of thing. Nothing of a meet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
