Your 1990 has the smaller turbo and really goes very well off the line when it is well tuned. My guess would be that you have some maintenance or tuning problem like a clogged converter, bad ignition parts, torn turbo inlet hose, leaking injectors or bad injector seals, bad knock sensor, clogged air filter, a hole in the turbo plumbing or in another vacuum line or the idle air motor hoses, etc. Get that sorted out and raise the boost to 11 to 14 psi and use a Dawes device or solenoid style boost controller and your car should really scoot even if it is an automatic. After that, I would do some exhaust modifications, preferably including the cat.

Your engine management is not really sophisticated so going over 8.7:1 CR may cause problems. If the head ever has to come off for some other reason and you want to add half a point of CR, consider doing so, but my guess is that you will have to run not much more than stock boost in order to avoid detonation.

Another thing that helps automatics to get off the line is a higher stall speed torque converter. MVP sells them. They are much more important on the early 84-89 cars with the bigger turbo that did not begin to spool up within the stall speed of the stock turbo. Your turbo will begin to spool up within the stall speed of your converter. You could ask MVP about the effects of the converter on the small turbo cars. I am sure it is still beneficial. They make the car launch much harder. Good time to do preventative maintenance like replacing the rear main seal and the trans tailshaft bushing if you do the converter.

Philip Bradley