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The Turbo Tracker, a work in progress. I began this project with the goal of increasing power for mostly highway use. It was fine off road, but the added weight of the off road equipment, coupled with the oversized tires left it sorely lacking in hill and passing power. I'd already lowered the overall gearing by swapping in the 5.13 gearsets from a manual trans Sidekick ( This Tracker is an auto originally equipped with 4.30 gearsets), but it still needed more power. I also wanted it to be reliable and everyday usuable so peaky race derived cams and other hot rod tricks were out. After doing some research, the solution came in the form of FORCED INDUCTION.

I played around with the idea of supercharging, especially since it would produce more low end power, but the engineering was too complicated . The answer was Turbocharging. Unfortunetly, nothing was available for this vehicle in the way of kits so virtually everything had to be fabricated from scratch. Initially, I spent weeks researching turbocharging on the net, in books and on the Zukiworld forum ( Thanks a bunch to Darrin/ AKA Wild) before coming up with a plan. Lots of metal dust and scraps were created in the process. I also donated some hair, skin and blood to the build. It was all worth it.

The turbo Tracker runs beautifully, with plenty of power to spare. I've been driving it for almost 6 months now, and have most of the minor wrinkles worked out. It starts, idles, and drives normally, that is to say like a stocker, until you give it just a little bit of encouragement. As soon as you put your foot in it , your on boost and accelerating the way no overweight, over tired, and undergeared Tracker should. As an added bonus, the Turbo actually works in off road situations as well, especially when in 4WD low, where the RPM's are higher However, I did experience some engine compartment heat related problems.

Towing my small trailer with my rock crawling wheels and tires or my camper through the mountains, those mountain grades meant I was on boost for long periods. The Tracker pulled the grades without a problem, even being able to accelerate up the long grades! The build up of heat under the hood was causing some problems though, eventually melting my distributer cap into somthing resembling a Salvidor Dali sculpture. The heat also deformed my plastic master cylinder reseviour. In order to vent the heat build up in the engine compartment, I installed a set of hood louvers. A 6" electric fan was attached to the underside of the vent directly above the turbo. I got a marine bildge fan from a local marine supply ($13) and cut a 3" hole in the top of the fender well on the passenger side. Cool outside air is drawn in via the hole in the fender well, and blown directly in to the vunerable areas. Both fans are controlled from a dash mounted switch and do great job of cooling and venting the engine compartment.

As an added precaution, I made up some heat sheilding to go around the exhaust manifold and turbo,( covered with heat reflective material) and I wrapped the upper portion of the manifold with commonly available header wrap. The engine compartment now stays safely cool. Some of these mods are probably overkill, but I have not experienced any heat related problems since.

Update Feb 23rd 2007: The Turbo Tracker passed New Jersey State emmisions testing registering lower overall exhaust emissions than it did stock.

Update, Dec 17th 2007. It's been about 1 year since I installed the turbo and it hasn't been without some problems. First, my manifold developed a crack near the top of the collecter, due to vibration and the weight of the turbo. I repaired the crack, and added some bracing to control vibes and help support the turbo better. That seems to have taken care of that problem. Second, the turbo itself started to leak oil into both the turbine and compressor sides, causing some smoking on trailing throttle, or when backing off the gas after a hard run on boost. This problem was traced to an omition of a bypass air valve that I should have included in the charge air lines during the build. The oil problem never surfaced during normal driving, and only began during a cross country trip, towing my camper through the mountains. After quite a long time on boost, climbing long mountain grades, sometimes being on boost for 5 or more minutes, and having to back out of the throttle rapidly after cresting a hill, or to slow for traffic, the build up of pressure in the charge air lines had no where to go, and caused the turbine rotors to basicly stop and reverse direction almost instantly. This in turn pressurized the internal cavity of the turbo, forceing oil out past the seals, and into the compressor and turbine, where it got sucked into the intake, or poured into the exhaust system. It didn't cause any real damage to the motor, other than oiling the inside of my exhaust system and stinking a bit, and smoking as it burned the inhal

Power comes from the heavily revised handmade 6.0 litre V12 engine from the DBR9 racing car, tuned to deliver 510 bhp (380 kW; 517 PS) at 6500 rpm and 420 lb·ft (569 N·m) of torque at 5750 rpm. The V12 power plant features a new by-pass air intake port that opens above 5500 rpm to boost engine breathing as well as re-profiled air inlet ports that further improve airflow into the combustion chamber. A curb weight of 3737 pounds (1690 kg), combined with the 510 bhp (380 kW; 517 PS) V12 help the DBS accelerate 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.3 seconds and reach a top speed of around 191 mph (307 km/h).[2]

The DBS is fitted with new vented carbon ceramic brakes discs – a first for a road-going Aston Martin, it reduces unsprung weight by 12.5 kg (28 lb). The front wheels are fitted with 398 mm (15.7 in) diameter carbon ceramic brakes with six-piston calipers. The rear wheels have 360 mm (14.2 in) diameter brakes with four-piston calipers. The double wishbone alloy [suspension] features an adaptive damper controlled suspension which uses two separate valves to set the dampers to five different positions, allowing instant adjustment of the car’s ride and handling characteristics.

Also included is a new hand finished interior with black lacquer, brushed alloy, semi-aniline leather and Alcantara as some of the materials. The Aston Martin DBS also features an optional Bang & Olufsen sound system with 13 active loudspeakers including 2 tweeters with ALT (Acoustic Lens Technology). The car comes with a six speed manual transmission standard and is expected to retail for approximately $265,000 USD. Sales are expected to start in spring of 2008.

On 22 January 2008, spy photos of a convertible DBS otherwise known as the DBS Volante appeared on the internet.