Thinking about a 91 Swift GT turbo
 

Just thinking about it. It has been so many years since I have owned a nice little car that is fast and this seems to be a decent step up for me while getting good gas mileage.

Any thoughts?

Anyone want to talk me in or out of it?

I want to have a cool car again and I can't stand my protege.

Turbo engines can, in theory, work more efficiently, as you can get more fuel/air into the engine per combustion cycle.

However, the problem is the enrichment, which results in much worse economy when on boost.

My car is a turbo, and I have made pretty good fuel savings. I would say go for it, but you would need a wideband Lambda sensor in order to avoid the enrichment (it happens a lot earlier on turbos, I think), and a SuperMID would also be good!.

The smaller the turbo the better as it can help get more torque - my boost goes above 0 at 900-1000rpm, for example :)

They are fun little cars. The 100 hp GTI is plenty fast without the turbo. My 70 hp GA is adequate and gets great mileage.

I have heard turbos can boost efficiency, by using the "lost" energy going out the tailpipe, to help push the pistons. Naturally aspired engines have to act as vacuum pumps, every intake stroke slows the engine. In practice, though, most turbo'ed engines are tuned for power, at high RPM. When you step on it, it just crams more air/fuel than a N/A engine.

Isn't there someone on here with an Eagle Talon turbo? with 50 mpg

One of the tuning magazines had an article on the sprint turbo IIRC. They did some modifications to it to make it faster and still managed 40+ MPG with ease. I say go for it!

I think your biggest problem will be to find one, but it should be a fun car. You'd have to learn to keep your foot out of it to keep the mpgs up.