My 89 TTA is stock except for bolt on speed parts(TA49 turbo, Casper's 7 position chip, 36# injectors, 3" downpipe, free flowing exhaust with testpipe, 62mm throttle body, ported plenum with spacer, K&N 9" air filter, bleed valve to control boost, I run 22psi at the drag strip with Sunoco NOS Supreme racing fuel.) It also has a TCI Streetfighter, 12” Lockup, 2500 rpm stall, torque converter. My car regularly turns a 60’ time in the 1.90’s on BFG Drag Radials and a quartermile ET in the 12.20-30’s @ 114. I have on 3 occasions turned ET’s in the 11.90’s on a good day. My feeling is that if I upgrade to a “better” torque converter, that I can potentially get my car to be a consistent 11 second performer.
Since I race at an IHRA dragstrip here in Alaska, I can go as fast as 11.50 without adding a rollbar. At sometime in the future I may go to a bigger turbo or upgrade the intercooler to get down to the 11.50's, but for now my goal is to run consistent 11 second ET's with my present combination. I have narrowed my choices to:
PTS Xtreme Converter (Formerly 9/11) $595.00
Precision Vigilante 9.5’ Converter (Single Disc) $695.00
My understanding is that the stall is in the 2800 to 3000 range for both. Would this be adequete if at some time I upgraded to a turbo that was one step larger than a TA49? I am very concerned about maintaining my cars present street manners.
The GN people I have polled on the GN/T-Type Digest, favor the PTS Xtreme Converter, while the TTA people I have solicited on the TTA-F-Body Digest, favor the Precision Vigilante Converter.
I haven’t heard any bad comments about the PTS converter, but the one bad comment I heard about the Precision converter, was from one TTA owner that complained that the clutches rattled at idle.
If anyone has any feedback that can help me make an informed, well-researched decision on my torque converter purchase, I would be most grateful.
Thanks,
Mark Sorvoja
Eagle River, Alaska
One of only two TTA’s in Alaska