Help me decide what to do with my car
 

I'm really on the fence about what to do here, figured I'd ask for some opinions.

First, my goal: A car like hustlers: Drive it to the track, beat on it, drive it home. I'm really trying to keep it around 200 whp, I don't have the time, money or patience to deal with the problems I'm going to see by going past that. Also, I'm not a good enough driver lol.

My current setup and the issues I have with it:
-Begi log/inconel studs, GT2560, 3" exhaust/catless, IWG.
I'm not exactly a savington level driver, and I'm on street tires, but at a track day this past weekend, my downpipe fell off twice (impossible to hear with a helmet on so I kept going), and one of the studs in the manifold backed out. On top of that, I was battling boost creep the entire day, which means I had to keep it at about 50% throttle just to stay under overboost protection at 10 psi. I'm pretty fed up with the little bullshit, and boost creep is the bane of my existence.

What I'm considering: Baller vband setup like the rest of you track guys.
Issues: $$, "is it overkill".

I've barely touched the tip of the iceberg as far as research into this goes, but the first thing that made me sad was that I'm going to have to buy a new turbo to do this since tial apparently doesn't make a vband exhaust housing for the t25's. I'm basically looking at 2k+ for parts alone (ewg, absurdflow mani, modifying my DP to work, turbo, tial housing, misc other stuff), not including any other things that come up along the way (and they always do).

My other idea was to have someone make me a manifold that will fit my setup, but with the studs not exposed to direct exhaust. It will probably fix my studs backing out, but I will still have boost creep, and my downpipe will still fall off at the track. I could also have a manifold made for EWG, but at that point its a slippery slope, I might as well go with vbands, etc etc.

----. Opinions? What would you do, etc etc. I actually have no idea what to do with this car right now.

For a super cheap down n dirty solution you could weld in a couple of tabs between the Turbo and dp. Just use cut off wheel when you need to remove it. Also could use some lock tab things on the nuts.

IMHO, either stop making compromises or don't do it at all.
You want no more backing out, go vband.
You want no more creep, go ewg.
(though I'm kinda worried that you're on your second mani and inconel studs and STILL they're backing out, something tells me your motor vibrates like crazy and way more than its supposed to, but I don't know.


Just my advice. Had this been a street car I'd tell you 100 ways to compromise. But looking at the track guys and what they went through, I would just copy their "final setup" from the start.

I'm coming to terms with the fact that I should really just go with vbands/ewg.

For a goal of 200whp, should I still be choosing a 2871 over a 2860? I've seen countless people here say to go with the 2871, but their power goals are higher than mine by quite a bit.

for 200? hell no
the tater is good to 300 easy and if you will never want to go higher than that then I don't see the need to pay more. used 2860's are fairly common, no so much with 2871's

I guess vbands are a dream until Tim finishes his v6 swap.

Gives me time to think things through lol.

ARTech can build you a vband rig too.

Also, Hustler is eventually going to go back to NA. Just give it time.

Good to know, I'll get in contact with Abe as well.

Ugh. When people part out their cars or turbo setups, it makes me lose motivation and desire to have a turbo Miata.