back in my uni days a good buddy had a laser tx3 with the 1.8bp engine.. non turbo. it was a real nice torquey car. i am assuming yours is a 1.6. sometime back i found a complete BP turbo halfcut, rare item these days. I would say keep the engine stock and play around with handling and learning the car. Any car can be pretty fun once u learn to carry more momentum into the corners. Those B8 turbos back in the days were really balls to drive, tons of power onto the front wheels and massive amount of torque steer. Refurbish the under carriage take away the suspension free play that has probably developed over the years and u have ur self a fun car.

welcome bro, all the best