You can't run a fast motor on a shoestring

[ja.jack]

If i've seen it once i've seen it a hundred times.

Joe Bloggs buys a mass produced "Hot Hatch", finds its not powerful enough, so throws a heap of dosh at the nearest "tuner" to transform it into something it was never meant to be [or will never be]

Result: A bundle of trouble. An unreliable liability. A heartbreak motor that will bankrupt you. Just look at some of the recent threads on here.

"cams, omex, ect."

No, what you want to do is win the lottery , buy a 400 BHP Evo, thrash it mercilessly, and when it blows up, get a £10k rebuild with a big smile on your face.

 

[172.com]

Thanks. I'll take that onboard...

 

[kully]

gr8 advise ..............

 

[jamesy]

steady victor

 

[unofficialPete]

If i've seen it once i've seen it a hundred times.

Joe Bloggs buys a mass produced "Hot Hatch", finds its not powerful enough, so throws a heap of dosh at the nearest "tuner" to transform it into something it was never meant to be [or will never be]

Result: A bundle of trouble. An unreliable liability. A heartbreak motor that will bankrupt you. Just look at some of the recent threads on here.

"cams, omex, ect."

No, what you want to do is win the lottery , buy a 400 BHP Evo, thrash it mercilessly, and when it blows up, get a £10k rebuild with a big smile on your face.

When you say mass produced 'Hot Hatch' I presume you mean 1.2 corsa?

If you were however refering to the sport range I see no issues with engine modification, its the top of the range model, if you want a fun fast hot hatch go for it.

I'm interesting in seeing these 'result' threads!!

 

[Rob.]

Well welll well this threat come from nowhere

 

[Lam7r]

Nothing wrong with it if the job is done properly.

Lots of modified engines out there running absolutley perfect. A lot of the problems if not all the problems with modifying an engine is down to either poor workmanship in the fitting or poor quality mapping.

For example a car on throttle bodies set up and mapped properly will run exactly the same as the standard engine did. Will idle perfect (if not better in the case of bodies sometimes) and still return good mpg and will have the same chance of failure as a standard engine would.

Obviouly IMO of course

 

[Justin182]

When i bought mine, it was plenty fast for what i was expecting. After a while, i decided to mod it to get some more performance and i enjoy doing it.

The result: Brand new 182 for £11,600 plus £1000 worth of performance mods, plus a bit on visual and am very happy. Looks much better so stands out from std and is now fast enough to keep up with the much much more expensive hot hatches as well as others.

So in total... thats £13 K which is still a bargin for a hot hatch with all the attributes of the 182, and more.

Try finding a different hothatch in the 172/182 league for 13k.

So i dont see a problem with modding, and it hasnt effected reliabilty at all. Infact, ive less probs since modding it lol.

 

[TD172]

I hate to piss on your fire Ja but I've got a 1998 Xsara VTS. I bought it for 2 grand two years ago and fitted 12:1 forged pistons, cams, verniers, decat, panel filter and re-map, it produces 206BHP@ 7200rpm (39bhp over standard) and it runs spot-on and has done for the past 12000 miles. Total spent in 2 years of ownership = £5000 Including the car, a new clutch+cable and lots of other service parts (Full rebuild) at the time of fitting the pistons and cams.

I had a Clio RSI which I put a williams engine and gearbox into and never had a problem with that until I sold it to a guy that hasn't had problems with it either.

I am now putting together a clio 16v turbo myself with a mixture of parts from BB tuning, fastchip and numerous other places and I see no problems with reliability as the engine has lowered compression forged pistons, oilway modifications, oil cooling, uprated clutch and the BB kit is very comprehensive and almost up to OEM quality as far as I see.

I would also note that I am a qualified technician with an eye for detail+quality. If modifications or repairs make a car un-reliable, it's probably because someone that has no clue has carried them out, usually ruining as much of the oem setup as poss. I've seen lots of cars that have been ruined in this way (Usually corsas, saxos, clios and renault 5 GTTs and have refused to work on them.