Actually I am focusing it for offroad desert racing. Mainly simple desert dirt/rocks/dust. It really shouldnt have much of a problem in these conditions. Turbo's arent as fragile as many think.

As for the corregated tubing...your mistaken on which part is which. The corregated tubing is the air inlet from a remote filter to the turbo inlet. The hard piping that goes through the side is the intake piping (the pipe the intercooler would normally be mounted to), and the big pipe connected to the turbo is ofcourse the exhaust.

Placement from the throttle body doesnt have anything to do with turbo lag. Turbo sizing and air flow make the real difference. As long as there is exhaust pulsing through the exhaust the wheel will be spinning (its small enough of a turbo) so therefore lag is almost none existant. If the trubo is upgraded to a larger one, the lag can be increased, but that is commonly fixed by alcohol or methanol injection, which ofcourse helps spool.

The HP numbers for this kit are as follows:

Stock 3.4L V6 Tacoma: 140whp/178wtq

Boost: 4 psi
Rear Wheel Horsepower: 224whp
%'d increase: 60%

Rear Wheel Torque: 278wtq
%'d increase: 59%

Boost: 12 psi
Rear Wheel Horsepower: 343whp
%'d increase: 181%

Rear Wheel Torque: 391wtq
%'d increase: 155%