If You Knew Suzi...

After losing his driver's licence six times (yep six!), Sam Rechichi thought it'd be safest to buy a car that was incapable of whisking him past the posted speed limit. A true slug. Not wanting the slowest of pedestrian hatchbacks, however, Sam's eye was taken by this blue 1992 Suzuki Sierra 4WD. Was the Sierra slow enough to avoid getting speed tickets? You bet - with its carby fed 1.3-litre four producing just 47kW, the little off-roader couldn't pull the proverbial spool...

Being a bit of a car nut, what happened next was kinda inevitable. Sam decided to flick the little truckin' rims for a tasty set of polished 17-inch alloys. This was a bit of a pain the neck, however, coz nobody makes rims to suit Sierras. The solution are these one-off Performance rims, which are clad in Kelly 235/45 rubbers - yep 235s do fit under the guards of a Sierra!

Things then looked a bit strange with the body perched a mile above the big rims and lo-pro rubber, so Sam slashed the ride height by about 3 ½-inches using a set of lowering blocks. Already, the Sierra was starting to turn heads.

If you ever needed proof that hanging around with turbo freaks is a bad influence, this Sierra is a great example. While Sam's mates (including members of the Boost Kings) were having the time of their lives driving turbocharged Mazda RX-7s and the like, Sam felt pretty miserable about the performance of the Sierra. Ashamed even. All that changed, though, when Sam hooked up with a guy called Bill Monkhouse of Adelaide's Suzuki in the City; Bill used to off-road race Sierras equipped with Swift GTi engines. On came Sam's thinking light. He loved the idea of giving the Sierra - a car he'd now grown to really enjoy - an injection of power, but some basic maths showed that substantially more power was in order to satisfy his needs. Here enters the idea of a turbocharged GTi-engine'd Sierra...

Expecting to fit programmable aftermarket management with the GTi engine from Day One, there wasn't much more hassle to include a turbocharger in the works. With a Mazda 12A turbocharger selected for duties, all that was needed was a custom exhaust manifold (fabricated by Whippet Enhanced Performance) and some farting about with oil and water feed and return lines. But - hang on - we're getting ahead of ourselves. First of all, Sam sourced a Japanese import 1.3-litre, DOHC, 16-valve Swift GTi engine (which, incidentally, is rated at 84kW compared to the local GTi's 74.5kW) and stuffed it into the engine bay at work (Sam's a mechanic, by the way). The conversion was pretty straightforward - the engine blocks were virtually identical (allowing the standard Sierra engine mounts to be retained) and the Sierra 4WD gearbox bolted straight up (in conjunction with a new Sierra clutch). The top radiator fitting required some re-jigging, the distributor housing had to be modified and the Sierra's under-bonnet jack bracket got chopped out. That's pretty well it in terms of fitting the engine into the bay.

Of course, the original fuel system also had to be upgraded to EFI standard - a Holden Commodore VL Turbo fuel pump and Malpassi adjustable pressure regulator serve this purpose perfectly. Interestingly, the injectors remain the standard Japanese-spec GTi items, which - we're told - are bigger than the local ones. With a whole lot more gasses being pumped, an all-new exhaust system was fabricated, comprising 2 ½-inch stainless steel pipe leading through a cat converter and a couple of straight-through mufflers. The air intake is equally high flowing - there's a Simota pod filter on a short length of mandrel bent pipe before the turbo compressor. Peer behind the grille mesh and you'll see something unusual for a Suzuki Sierra - a front-mounted import Supra air-to-air intercooler. This is an absolute necessity given the turbo is pumping into the standard engine's high compression ratio. Oh, and while we're under the lid, check out the blow-by oil catch can, the thermo wrap on the exhaust manifold and TurboSmart blow-off valve - which gives this car its own very unique sneeze.

Orchestrating injector pulse width and ignition timing control is a programmable EMS computer, which - at the time of writing - was yet to be fine-tuned. As a result, the turbocharged Sierra's power output is unknown but we'll take a stab and say it's making two to three times the factory output - and that's on a measly 6 psi boost! Line this scorchin' Sierra up at a set of lights and you're certainly in for one hell of a shock - its 4WD grip lets it leap away from a standing start like a Rex! Driveline durability has a question mark along side it at the moment, though - Sam is looking for an upgraded clutch to replace the factory part, which he expects will start slipping any time now. Once a no-slip clutch goes in it'll be interesting to see how the gearbox, diffs and axles cop the punishment.

Sam hasn't neglected the interior while all this mechanical work was swinging. It's hard to fall in love with the Sierra's standard vinyl trim (who likes their bare legs sticking to vinyl on a hot day?!), so Sam sentenced the entire interior to a fabric re-trim. Nice job it is too - its colours are very in keeping with the rest of the car. Highlighting the interior is a meaty APC tacho and shift light, Isotta steering wheel and the EMS handset located on the floor in front of the gear selector.

Stereo-wise, there's a Sony CD/tuner up front teamed with Pioneer front splits, VDO Dayton rear 6 x 9s (in custom boxes) and a pair of large amplifiers. No need for subs - you don't need any more than this to have fun with the roof down on a hot summer day.

It's no coincidence that Sam's managed to get this substantial project back on the road ready for summer. He plans enjoying it to its absolute fullest. Still - like any true car nut - he's still got a few things left on his 'to be done' list. The intercooler pipes and the overall engine bay need a bit of a tidy up, the clutch needs upgrading and he is yet to gain Department of Transport approval (which he expects to go fairly smoothly). After that, who knows - the future might even hold a full engine rebuild to suit high boost pressure.

We can only guess Sam is no longer concerned how long he keeps his licence. Still, he's got the perfect alibi - "c'mon officer, you don't really think a Suzuki Sierra can go 200 km/h do you?"...

Contact:

Whippet Enhanced Performance
+61 8 8382 6065

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