The turbo isnt simply a rumour..i was told face to face. I think someone is planning an R5 conversion. At the end of the day it requires some crazyness to decided to spend thousands tuning a 1.2 instead.
Fred has proven (presuming he had 75bhp to start) he has got an 11bhp gain with a filter and exhaust. There is obviously scope to have a de-cat (or a sports cat which may be released by k-tec) plus a manifold..so were talking 15bhp.
With 4 valves per cyl ballpark would be 10%-15% gain if you got someone decent to do the headwork. (11bhp)
I wont guess on the rest as i just have no idea, but you could machine the throttle body (or get individuals), gasflow, mess with the inlet and exhaust valves, new cam, plus of course a chip to sort it all out, even re-bore the engine ..but that wouldnt make it a 1.1 anymore which takes away the fun IMO! However if you throw enough money you could see 100bhp easy..but lets face it 100bhp is still pretty lame.
Youd have to get the turbo..which would see you another 30-40..whatever BHP depending on how soon you want to kill the engine. But if anyones got the balls why wouldnt you get 150bhp?? And the power to weight must be similar to a 172 then...
However you could just copy somebody and get an R5 engine where the hardwork is pretty much done..but at least you could say you have a 1.1 with 150bhp LOL..
-Rob