Having recently destroyed my turbo and had to replace it I did a little bit of research into this...
I thought ideal opportunity to upgrade my turbo, maybe put a bigger one on. I spoke to several friends in the industry including engine designers for Mitsubishi Motors (who design and build the WRC cars) and design engineers from HKS so I think my finding have some validity! Basically the later Rev3+ turbos (CT20) are (size wise) more than capable of destroying your engine, if you are planning on building an out and out drag engine with lots of lag then a bigger turbo will be necessary, but the standard one is pretty big, its much bigger than for example a Subaru turbo, and virtually identical in size to the Evo turbo, which incidentally I've seen produce a genuine 550bhp on a dyno. So if your building a street or even track car its plenty big enough.
I looked at several companies when deciding what and where to buy including Fensport, HKS (mega bucks!), Garret, Turbo Technics, Turbosport and a few smaller companies. Found the best combination of price, quality, service and product was Turbo Technics, got a CT20 with titanium shaft and ball bearings for £614 inc VAT, that's with a 12 month warranty, service was excellent too, I think it helped the guy I spoke to (Gile Rose) has an MR2 turbo! Waited a week for my new Turbo, so not too long, now spins up lovely thanks!
When I get round to uprating the internals of the engine so I can safely wind the boost up a bit more this turbo is easily capable of going over the 400bhp limit, you wouldn't want much more than that in a road car anyway cos it wouldn't be too drivable. Figures are one thing, using it is another.
Skinthespin2003.
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