congratulations on your purchase, which you will enjoy hugely
however, wrt bhp produced by the SLR motor:
1. all depends on the rolling road
2. don't think any really make 190bhp as supplied with the cat fitted
3. 175 is probably more realistic
4. cam timing from factory is variable- until it's checked you won't know if verniers will make a difference
5. standard mapping has hiccups and lots of overrun popping and banging- amusing for the crowd but doesn't help drivability
6. i had my engine completely rebuilt to standard SLR spec (other than reliability upgrades-metal dowels, HG) by QED ( *thumbup*rebuilt on time and on budget) and they bench tested it at 175 - which they said is normal for a standard SLR on their dyno. i then had the engine re-mapped on BHP dyno as QED don't support Motec ECU. Optimax, no cat, caterham 4-2-1 mid pipe. End result 177bhp but very driveable. Also engine mapper was able to tell me that cam timing was correct and therefore nothing to gain from verniers.
initially i was a bit disappointed compared to all the 200+ reported on here but accept that the dyno you are attached to makes all the difference and it's allowed me to race in endurance series reasonably competitively without further rebuild
all the above is my personal experience over 5 years ownership SLR 61 😬
jerry
Edited by - jerrypike on 25 Sep 2006 17:59:58