Miata Mailing List: August 1993, Message #36
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   From: Herb Samuels 
Subject: BBR Turbo (was RE: Miata M2 1006
   Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1993 19:17:06 -0400


The BBR turbo is relatively simple but sophisticated in design with
its own ECU which piggybacks on the stock ECU.  The boost is modest at
about 5 to 5.5 pounds so the compression does not have to be changed. They
claim about 150 hp and 150 lb-ft of torque which comes on with
virtually no turbo lag and with alot of torque in the midrange 3,000
to 4,000 rpm.  0-60 is claimed by BBR to be 6.8 sec which I think is
somewhat optimistic and it is more likely 7.2 to 7.5 sec. BBR claims
that the boost can be raised to 6 to 6.5 pounds which is safe and will
result in about 10 more hp.  The transition to the turbo is relatively
seamless and the BBR turbo feels like you are just driving a Miata with
with a much more powerful engine and not a turbo.  The conversion
makes the car the way it should be and the hp and torque do not
overpower the suspension.  More hp or torque in a conversion would
likely require significant suspension changes.  What is really
interesting is that gas mpg is unchanged or even better presumably
because you do not have to go to over 6,000 rpm to get alot of power
out of the car.  The conversion is probably reliable because it is
waranteed by Mazda in the U.K. for 3 years or 60,000 miles.  The
conversioon does require pulling the engine to install a number of
oil and coolant lines and the conversion contains a water cooled turbo
with an intercooler and oil cooler.  Mazda in the U.S. was probably
reluctant give the Miata more power because of insurance reasons and
it is unlikely that the 1994 model wil have substantially more power
for the increase in weight.  If you want more power there is also a
BBR Phase II conversion for over 200 hp (probably expensive) as well as
other turbo conversions sold in this country which are advertised in
Miata Magazine such as CarTech.

Herb Samuels