I'm thinking of adding a turbo to my zx10r and would like to hear any experiences or advice.
For example, buy a complete kit, assuming money no object, build an installation from bits.
If anyone has done either, it would be great to have your thoughts, not just on the installation but
the driving experience as well.

General advice.

The gearbox is designed for the standard power and torque, doing this will overload everything to a degree
Run a low psi, 7 - 8 and leave the engine alone, just use shell optimax and a decent intercooler
Budget for a lock up clutch kit as well
Budget for a higher diff ratio, you should be aiming for 140mph minimum
Budget For an oil cooler and bigger rad, losing heat is a problem
Budget for a whole new exhaust system

Other stuff

Turbo mine is special as its variable vane and runs its own lubrication, if you can afford an aerocharger turbo (mine) I highly recommend it (money no object)
Turbo Look for something off a + 2.0 litre car, turbos off V70 Volvo estates are ideal and cheap, you get low pressure 7psi ones or higher depending on what power your are looking for.
The turbo needs to drain tinto the sump, this forces it to be held quite high up (unless you run a scavenge pump), for a 'hidden' install this means a manifold placing it in front of the engine, does of course add heat, mine is slung on the side 1/2 inside the frame.
Run fuel injection, I use megasquirt although only for fuel as the sparks are dealt with by the standard bike system, it would be better to control both although how do trigger may be an issue.

Mines DIY, very budget so intercooler pipes are from and old steel headboard, silicon hoses off a landrover 90, inlet bent for aluminium sheet and welded up, exhaust a chopped up bike manifold (it's a bit ugly, I may replace at some point), to do came in at under £1000 as the turbo was very cheap, Scootz special @£250.

It runs 7psi and on the rollers pushes 201 BHP
To drive, 6th gear acceleration is akin to 3rd gear before, car is transformed.

Regards Mark

Thanks Mark, very interesting. Zx has injection and uses a kit ecu, so mappable for fuel and spark. Already got a big heavy duty oil coller, accusump and large ali rad, so partly on the way already, just got to souce a turb and make up some headers.

Mapping for fuel with ITB and turbo is a bit fiddly (both TPS and MAP affect the fueling) so if I did it again I would have a single throttle body to keep things simple. It can be sorted but it took me a lot of mapping effort.

For me it was an interesting project, but a lot of work.

The strange thing is that I don't really use the revs like I used to, at least on the road there is so much happening by 8kRPM that holding the gear seems like a very dangerous idea.

My insurance went up by £100.