ok im new to the whole turbo talk and power of the turbo focus, but would it be crazy to turbo my spi? I have an automatic 2001 spi and was wondering is there a diff in the power of a car that is auto w/turbo than a man w/turbo? And has anyone ever heard of a auto w/turbo or a turbo spi?
No, it would not be CRAZY to turbo your SPI, in fact there are a couple turbo SPI's out there. That being said, it would be IMPRACTICLE to turbo your SPI. You would never see the same kind of power as an equally-boosted Zetec or SVT-Zetec.
As far as the auto trans goes... your trans WILL NOT handle boost. You will destroy it. It is only rated for 140ft/lb of torque- not much more than bolt-ons are safe. Unless you have a few grand to blow on beefing up the trans, you should not spend the money on turboing your car.
And if you DO have the money to beef up the trans, then your best bet would be to buy a 5-speed Zetec car for about the same price as the trans parts.
Now, all that being said, as far as the power differences go between auto/manual, I use a general rule- you lose ~10% of your engine's HP through a manual trans, and about 20% through an automatic. So if you made 200hp at the crank, your wheels would see about 180hp with a manual, or about 160hp with an automatic.
BUT- the upside to an automatic with a turbo is that you won't lose boost during shifts (since you don't lose engine load), and you can brake-torque off the line, which will allow you to launch under boost. Of course, this is assuming the trans can handle it (which the Focus trans cannot).
SO- to sum it all up- if you have the money to turbo your car, spend it on getting a manual-trans'd Zetec Focus. Mod for mod, you will always make more power, plus there are actually mods available- which there really aren't for the SPI. For a cool 3 grand (or less) you could have a decent manual-trans Zetec Focus... which is actually a solid base for a boosted Civic-eater.
____________________ Project FocusFast
'06 ZX3- Intake, exhaust, mount
'01 ZX3- Salvaged, SOLD
'01 ZX3- Repo'd several years ago
'80 RX7- RB Intake, RB header. Loud, slow, fun.
thanks i think i will just do the basic headers, intake and exhaust and slap on a body kit and drop it. just go for sound and show ive seen some nice 4 doors out there
