Starlet tuning

"A star performer"

The Starlet is a good car to base a tuning project on. The Turbo is a positive gem and responds well to tuning showing what the car is capable of. Few cars give such good handling and sharp performance rewards for so little expenditure on modifications.

Improving the handling should be your first priority in your Starlet tuning project. Drop the car by as much as 30mm and fit stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Turning our attention to the Starlets engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

Sadly with smaller engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.

Toyota Starlet Tuning modifications.

Doing this will help to keep the cars economy at lower speeds. Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains as far as a bolt on part goes. Don't forget to uprate the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty. Improve your cars response to the throttle with a Fuel pressure boost valve. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this.

Toyota Starlet Intake and Exhaust.

Breathing mods are usually next up. For small Starlet engine sizes go with a washable panel air filter. On larger engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help increase power. Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow through the engine but do not go too large. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

In nearly all cases of Starlet tuning your clutch will start to slip and this needs to be uprated - read our article on clutches for more information. NASP engines do not achieve big power gains if you remap them but with turbo engines this is another story. A remapped turbo remapped turbo will give phenomenal power gain. Adding forced induction will see big power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Superchargers are generally easier to add than turbos. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it hard to map. The nice steady boost to rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Adding forced induction will usually require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Toyota Starlet Wheel modifications.

Because alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Starlet is that you alter your effective final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on performance. Aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the same as supplied from the factory. In all cases we do not recommend going above 16 inches.

Please join us in our forum to discuss the Starlet options in more detail with our Starlet owners. It would also be worth reading our Starlet tuning articles to get a full grasp of the pros and cons of each type of modification.