Top end rebuild?
 

If I do a top-end rebuild on my 3.2 Carrera, do you guys recommend replacing the 9.5:1 pistons and slipping in some JE Turbo pistons?

I want to be able to run 1.2+ bar of boost later, but don't want to go with the half finned 930 cylinders. I like the fully finned Carrera cylinders. I can't afford to bore them out, so I want to stick to 3.2L, but use proper forged turbo pistons.

Any recommendation on compression ratio? Car will be mainly street but see some track time, so it will see sustained high boost for long periods. I'm wondering if 7.0:1 would be good, especially since I intend to run around 1.2bar later on?

If you want to run ~1.2bar of boost then you definitely want to go with different pistons for lower than 9.5:1 CR, unless you want to run around on $10+/gal race gas all the time. ;) Are you still using the Motronic? If so, I'd tend to think something around ~8.0:1 or 8.5:1 would be good. Much lower than 8.0:1 and you'll start to loose a decent amount of response and low-end power. Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in but, those are my personal opinions. I believe my Carrera is either 7.0:1 or 7.5:1 (Mahle low CR pistons) and I'll say this much, the car is laggy and has crappy low-end performance considering the displacement though I plan on big boost so I'm sticking with it. ;)

I guess the effect of "lag" can be combatted by using decent headers and a properly matched turbo though, right?

I'd gladly sacrifice a bit of low end response for an extra .2bar of boost. An extra 3psi has the potential for ~50-60 extra HP. I doubt a 1/2 point increase in compression ratio will give you that?

Just throwing thoughts up in the air... please keep the advice coming :)