Born out of a pit-side conversation, this wild triple turbocharger, compound-boost, power-adder system is the brainchild of tuner extraordinaire Shane Tecklenburg (Tuned By Shane T), who was asked what the craziest thing was that he could think of to try to make the race car he was tuning at that moment, quicker and faster.

Photo courtesy of JT Oliver

“Team Tekno Toyz had been running a single-turbo SR20 in Modified Compact and Pro Import 4 cylinder categories at Orlando and Maryland,” Tecklenburg begins. “I started with them around 2017, worked on the car little by little, and at the end of that season, we were up in Maryland and another friend of mine, Ralphie Navarro, who I’ve done some land speed racing with and who’s into motorcycles, was there and hung out with the team. He stayed with us the whole weekend. We were having a few beers after qualifying and he says, ‘What’s the craziest thing you could think of to try with one of these cars?’ I told him I would put a compound turbo in one of these (referring to the SR20 in the Team TeknoToyz S15) and put it in the fives. Everyone laughed, and I notice Ralphie over there in deep thought and then he asks, ‘What do you think it would take to do that?’ ”

Tuesday after the race, Navarro contacted Tecklenburg and asked him if he was serious, and if so, what would it take funding-wise to accomplish that goal. The money was wired the next day and Tecklenburg got a duplicate single-turbo SR20 engine build going with Mark Mazurowski/Mazworx Racing Engines in Sanford, Florida, who assembled the billet block and added one of its race-ported, stock head castings. The original single-turbo engine combination was designed with a 10:1 compression ratio, which Tecklenburg and Mazurowski decided to carry over to the compound version.

JT Oliver was tasked with fabricating the compound turbo system, which was designed to bolt onto the single-turbo setup and feeds the single Precision Pro Mod XPR 88m turbocharger on Matt Scranton’s engine dyno. He also incorporated two TiAL wastegates on the high pressure side and one for each of the low-pressure turbos, all in an effort to go prove the concept on the engine dyno before it was put to use in a car.

“The two [turbos] on the front are Xona Rotor 88mm compressors with a smaller GT42 exhaust side, because we are splitting the exhaust flow to the Stage 1 Turbines and that will help get them to spool at the right time,” Tecklenburg explains. “The single 88mm in Stage 2 is acting as the high-pressure turbo, but it’s the same one that we run in the single-turbo configuration. Turbos multiply the pressure coming into their inlet, and in the case of a compound setup, the two stages multiply each other. For example, if stage 1 raises from one atmosphere (ambient pressure) to 15 psi boost (two atmospheres), the ratio is 2:1. Then, Stage 2 takes in air at two atmospheres, and multiplies by two to get (2 x 2) four atmospheres feeding the engine. The big advantage here is not only extreme boost capability (up to 5 x 5 atmospheres), but importantly, the temperature of the charge fed to the engine is kept close to ambient temperature due to the reduced pressure each compressor must achieve, liquid-to-air charge air cooling, and because each compressor can be operated in its highest efficiency island.”

Despite running on M1 methanol, the engine combination utilizes an ice-water-filled, air-to-water intercooler between the low pressure twin turbos and the high-pressure single turbo, as well as another ice-water-filled, air-to-water aftercooler between the high pressure single turbo and the engine.

It was 2018 by the time everything was ready to hit the engine dyno and Tecklenburg was ready to dial in his calibration on his MoTeC engine management system, but the initial test did not turn out as they had hoped.

“We planned to test turbos on the dyno anyway, so we built a second long block, ran the single on day one, and on the second day we swapped long blocks and put the compound on it. The single made 2,000 horsepower and the compound made about 2,100 or so,” Tecklenburg says. “The problem was, when the boost got above 100 psi, the dyno couldn’t hold the engine back anymore. It doesn’t make any boost until 8,000 rpm and the water brake had a hard time allowing the unboosted engine to get to 8,000 rpm to start the pull. We were restricting the water flow to the load unit to help, but then when it made big boost, the dyno couldn’t load it at that point. We also ran out of MAP sensor, as I was only using one of my 10-bar units, which can only measure up to 135 psi. I had to have a 13-bar sensor built, good for up to 185 psi. We intended to go back another day to the engine dyno and let the MoTeC control the water valve feeding the dyno, but meanwhile, they started building a car.”

According to Tecklenburg, Navarro said he was going to have a car built by Oliver, the fabricator of the compound test setup on the engine dyno, so they never went back to the engine dyno with it, and it wasn’t until about a year ago when the Toyota Celica neared completion.

“In all that time, Navarro’s interests changed, the team needed a better car than the S15, and he said, ‘here, take the car, you guys finish it and run it,” Tecklenburg explains. The team took on the task of completing the car with the intention of running on the hub dyno before they hit the track, and they just recently fired the triple-turbo beast up.

“My thought process was this: we made 2,000 horsepower with a single 88mm turbo, and if we double the volume by using two 88s on the low pressure side, we ought to be able to feed the single unit with 15 psi on its inlet and generate enough air to create 3,000 horsepower,” Tecklenburg says. “It takes 75 psi on the engine dyno to make 2,000 horsepower on that SR20. It’s going to take about 150-170 psi to get it to 3,000. In the end, it’s just a number to shoot for. It really just needs to make enough power to make us go faster than the single-turbo setup. We need to continue to run it on the hub dyno to figure it out before we ever go to the race track.”

Currently, the Liberty six-speed-equipped car is at Mazworx getting some final tweaks before Tecklenburg and the Trinidad/Orlando-based Team Tekno Toyz Motorsport race squad puts the Celica on back on the dyno.

As for what class they intend to run the car in, Tecklenburg noted that the rules for the Modified Compact class say 88mm turbo, but that it doesn’t specify how many.

“We’ll enter it in the Pro Import class if we have to,” he says. “It went 6.22 at 229 mph back in 2017. The cars have gone a lot quicker since then — there are single-turbo cars going 5.80s right now — so the first in the fives thing is out the window, but the first to 250 mph isn’t.”