More cars have turbos fitted as standard and we will look at the best ways of tuning them.

Ther are phenominal power gains available to turbo charged cars with engines of all sizes.

For a more comprehensive look at car tuning see our sister site www.torquecars.com

Wastegate control

This quite simply controls the flow of exhaust gasses and therefore the speed of the turbo and resultant boost pressure.

The speed at which the assembly spins is proportional to the pressure of the compressed air and total mass of air flow being moved. Since a turbo can spin to RPMs far beyond what is needed, or of what it is safely capable of, the speed must be controlled.

The problem in a turbo engine is that high intake pressures are prone to spontaniously ignite, a condition known as knock. So there is a theoretical limit on how much compression you make to the intake charge depending on the engines internal compression ratio.

A wastegate is a great way to slow up the turbo as the upper limits are reached. Aftermarket wastegates operate more quickly than standard ones and can be more finely tuned allowing large power gains.

The wastegate quite simply and cleanly diverts the exhaust gases away from the turbo thereby reducing the speed and amount of compression of intake charge.

Many modern cars will go into a limp home mode if the intake pressure is much higher. A full remap will override this and allow you to run with more boost.

We will take an indepth look at turbos and see what the best way of tuning them is.