Make your Focus faster: Part II

In the first part of this series a few people commented on how unrealistic it was to spend almost $5,000 on a supercharger system for a 2.0L Zetec Focus. Well, turbocharging is the other side of the forced induction coin and will produce comparable power gains on a smaller budget. After some hardcore googling I found, of all things, a Cavalier tuner that produces a reasonably priced turbo kit for the Focus. Cavalier Extreme out of Florida sells its Cavalier Extreme Turbo System for the 2000+ Ford Focus at a reasonable $2,749.99. Running at the recommended 9psi of boost, the kit will add an approximate 90 hp to the Zetec motor, putting it somewhere in the range of 200 whp.

Cavalier Extreme refers to its kit as entry-level, pointing out that?s it a bolt-on installation that requires no modifications. The kit is built around a Garrett T3 turbo with an internal wastegate and a Turbonetics manifold. It also includes an intercooler, charge pipes with custom welding, a Greddy Type S blow-off valve and an oil feed-and-return kit. The kit also includes a Pro-M mass air flow sensor and set of four Ford Racing 42-lb injectors. Cavalier Extreme also sells a version of the kit minus the fuel management hardware for an even easier to swallow $2,299.95.

One reason the Cavalier Extreme kit is less expensive than complete kits from companies like Precision Turbo and Roush is that it comes sans the chip needed to control the delicate balance of fuel and air being crammed in the cylinders. The company recommends the SCT chip by Focus Sport, who also happens to be a distributor of the PowerWorks FocusForce supercharger kit mentioned in Part I (just a coincidence). That company?s single program chip goes for $299.95 and is restricted for use with 91-94 octane fuel.

The price of the Cavalier Extreme Turbo System is certainly nice, but the extra cost of the chip will cause the price to crest three grand. It?s also unclear whether or not Focus Sport has pre-programmed chips that are tuned specifically for this system or if they have a universal program that adapts to the turbo system. One wonders if additional dyno tuning is necessary or at least a good idea and what that would entail.