The Underdog!

I never expected to post an Alto or anything from India for that matter here on Octane Heads. But then there are some guys out there who like to think out of the box and you just cant help but notice! 

Bear with me for a moment now. Some of you might be complaining as to seeing this here, but it has a very good reason for been posted here. 

The Suzuki Maruti Alto has become an epidemic to be honest. Everyone seems to be driving them now. For a start its cheap to buy, cheap to run and has seemingly good resale value too! So its the best choice for our Sri Lankan citizen. 

Now I have been knowing Mahen for a very long time. He was one of the few guys I knew in School who was into cars. I still remember pouring over old Mitsubishi brochures, because his Dad owned a Pajero and my Dad owned a Box Model Lancer at the time. His Dad still owns the Pajero amazingly. So when Mahen got his hands on his driver's license, the family car (this been the Alto) was given/taken by him. 

Getting 4 wheels is freedom! But Mahen is a petrol head, he didn't really like what he had for four wheels, then again he couldn't afford to buy what he wanted. So he decided to do something quite extraordinary! 

Yes that WEPR sticker kind of gives the game away......

Yup, he went out and turbo charged his little Alto! You might call him crazy, but you have to give it up to the guy. This is the last thing an ordinary Alto driver would do. Mahen was good enough to take his car to the right people so that the end result would be not only fast but reliable too. 

Its always nice when a selection of really good parts come together for a car build. You can find some top brands like TiAL, Garrett and KnN nestling under the hood! 

Sacha at WEPR has also made a whole bunch of custom goodies for this ride, including this Oil catch can. 

A TiAL MVS external waste gate (with Screamer Pipe) has been used to control boost within the Garrett GT1544Turbocharger. A complete exhaust manifold has been fabricated from scratch for this car.

A HKS SSQV IV Blow off valve controls boost at the intake.  

An E-Motors USA FMIC hides neatly behind the front bumper!

And to finish it all off is a complete straight through exhaust system.

All of this controlled by this little blue box inside the glove compartment. That there is an TRUST GReddy E-Manage Blue Piggy Back ECU which has been completely tuned by Raptor Performance.

Mahen is currently running 0.4 bar of boost on the car, which he hopes to crank up to 0.6 in the future.

Driving this car is a completely mind boggling experience. There is very little lag so the Turbo gets to work as soon as you put you foot down. You can give quite a few guys in bigger and more expensive cars a good run for their money. 

Much of the interior has been kept stock for now. Mahen hopes to install some better seats though. 

Helping the car put down the increased horsepower on the road would be thanks to....

Some fresh rubber and 

lower suspension on all four corners. 

A set of Dunlop SP Sport LM703 (175/50/13) tires all round provide grip and improve handling. 

Mahen has a lot more plans for his car which obviously includes getting more power and improving the braking performance of the car. Here's wishing him good luck with everything!

So if you see a little silver Alto on the road, be careful it might be Mahen's Turbo'd monster! 

Charith Kulasiri