Why stop at 190 bhp?

[christophe]

Not sure what the question was...

 

I drive so far a VVC and a good friend of mine drive the same car. We went to two different development routes:

 

He tuned the engine from the standard 143 BHP to a gentle 190 BHP, light flywheel and kept everything else standard

 

I kept the engine standard but went for adjustable shock absorbers, harder springs,Yokos A032, big brakes front and rear, uprated ARB in front, ARB on the rear and got the height and the weight balance adjusted

 

The costs of these two routes is reasonably similar

 

The track verdict on Magny Cours was:

 

As a reference prior any changes with the standard cars 2min 05 a lap. (Arguably we are not top drivers)

Three months later with some hard earned spent

190BHP and standard chassis 1min 56

Standard engine, fine tuned chassis 1 min 51

 

On the road, the tuned chassis is more stable at high speeds on flat roads, much less understeer when cornering. The ride is firmer, but acceptable. Stability on bad roads is not that good, but acceptable. On wet, rear ARB disconnected, it is acceptable

 

On the road, the tuned engine gives poorer MPG and is not legal from an insurance point of view

 

Seems that rather playing with the oily bits, better to tune the chassis

 

Even better, tune the chassis and tune the engine. And then turn your phone off, so that your banker don't reach you.... 😬

[murph7355]

The more I think about this, the more I think I'm going to bin the daft power ideas.

 

Time to start saving up for another brand of motor to compliment the 7...

 

 

[elie boone]

V7 SLR, there is a 1.4K Turbo in Belgium and there is another in Japan but on this one the Turbo sits low in the chassis, i havent driven it yet but it should have 175bhp. IMHO it is to complicated and sevice unfriendly. The turbo sits high besides the top chassis rail and engine, you can't get the valve cover off without taking the turbo off.

If you want 220/230bhp a VX is the best option price wise or a BD if you have something extra at the bank.

[Johnty Lyons]

It's all a matter of Age I drive a 1.8 K with DVA head piper Cams Throtle bodies and an Emerald It has a 4 to 1 Caterham [non cat] comp exhaust Light f/wheel and the big brake kit It produces [ or so DW says on his road] 191 BHP all fed through a Cat 6speed box it's wide track and fully adj supension on AO32s I rally don't want any more power the last upgrade was a set of fully floating rods and forged pistons on a restroked engine [formerly 1.6] I just cant rationalse needing any more for a road car perhaps if I was 20/30 again I might have the Red Mist syndrom but now I relly feel I've got enough and any more would be silly on the Queens Highway. I know Nig wants 230 BHP but he's still trying to recapture his youth and forgetting he's now an old married man 😬. Time will tell,,, my final upgrade I hope this winter will be the Pace dry sump and a THINK Laminova, All in the quest of reliability.

 

jj

N.I. L7C AO.

Membership No.3927.

[Swiss_Tony]

Theres no substitute for power!

 

To be honest on trackdays I can keep up with almost anything in a straight line.

On bends only the odd 7 or Radical go past me. Most I then catch on the straight again.

I cant drive for toffees so it must be a power thing! 😬

 

James

 

 

 

P17HPC The K2RUM Eater

K2RUM EATER@hotmail.com

 

Edited by - james on 11 Oct 2002 22:25:46

 

Edited by - james on 11 Oct 2002 22:28:15

[AMMO]

Johnty

 

So maybe we can conclude that us sensible old blokes require less power than the hot-headed youngsters.

 

Angus&Tessa

 

Would you like to form a 190 bhp clamshell and windscreen club with me?

 

LOISEAU

 

I have a similar motorcycle story (I have an endless repertoire). Tuned engine against tuned suspension. Tuned suspension won.

 

Turned out into an interesting thread after all.

 

AMMO

[Matt Seabrook]

Not sure as to why Zetecs seem to stop at 200ish bhp as it is not that difficult to get 220 with a standard bottom end 240ish with forged pistons and steel rods 250+ with a steel crank Dunnell claim to be able to get 270-275 from a Zetec. Myself I have 210bhp and the engine has aprox 160-170 lbft torque from 4000-7000rpm from a 2000cc Zetec the bottom end is standard apart from arp bolts. Next plan is to have some bigger valves fitted to the head should see me at 220bhp aprox. I am not on here to knock the K`s but I think you would be hard pushed to get that sort of spread of torque from the Rover engine. It seems to me that the Zetec falls 1/2 way between the K and the Vx for weight and power. I think it is a case of you pays your money you takes your choice

[V7 SLR]

Hmph, my attempts at upgrading to 230bhp failed this weekend. I'm about to post the reasons in another thread. ☹️

 

Old Married Man, trying to recapture youth.

 

Worcs L7 club joint AO.//Membership No. 4379//Azure Blue SLR No. 0077//Se7ens List Tours

 

[Morls]

PC wrote; "I do miss the power on the road, but not really on the track. Weird, huh"

 

From years of bikes, this is definately true.

 

Whereas most 1000cc bikes will leave any 250 400 for dead on the road, the difference on the track (with riders at club, rather than National level), is far smaller.

 

On most trackdays the 600s are as quick as the R1s .

 

On a practice morning, booked to run-in some race bikes I ended up carrying so much extra corner speed while at a rev limit below the powerband my times were hardly below normal yet it felt bloody slow.

 

Nothing was made better, so I was cornering faster purely because I had LESS power (Less fear 😳)

 

Obviously on a 7 the power is rather more usable than a big bike but it'd still be interesting to see datalog traces of a lap by the most powerfull cars and one with 'just' 190BHP.

 

And AMMO,

 

Spill the beans on this single, it sounds rather fun.

 

Mark

 

Still not 'spotted' ☹️

[AMMO]

Mark

 

As motorcycles are probably of little interest to most people here, why don't you give me a call sometime on 01394 383499. I'll tell you all the details and we can swop some war stories.

 

"The older I get, the faster I was".

 

AMMO

[AMMO]

Double post.

 

Edited by - Ammo on 13 Oct 2002 08:24:20

[simonbell]

I run a 2 litre zetec with throttle bodies and 4 into 1 exhauts.....everything else is standard.

It puts out around 170bhp. When I got the car it was pant wettingly rapid but after two years I have got used to it and am beginning to crave more power. I have also got used to driving the car (my first rear wheel drive experience) and I think my driving has improved through some track sessions over the summer.

 

However this winter I`m changing the gearbox to improved ratios and I`m going to experiment with different brake pads and possibly fit a lsd and some sticky rubber depending on how far the budget goes 😳

 

The reason for this is that on track I have recognised that my time can be improved by sorting these things out first rather than throwing more bhp at it.

 

Don`t get me wrong more bhp is still on the cards....I`m also hoping to swap my weber alpha unit for an emerald (no alpha dealers in northern ireland) which will allow me to play with the engine later. The plan is to have the head ported courtesy of DVAPower and fit a set of Piper cams. This should bring me just over the 200bhp mark. I`ll throw in some ARP rod bolts to allow me to raise the rev limit slightly to get the benefit of the cams.

 

However after this it starts getting expensive with forged pistons, steel crank etc. I think for a road car where mine spends most of its time 200bhp is more than enough.

 

Simon