Expensive Upgrades !

[mgvs88]

There is a fair size population of the Rover 1.8's in the UK and around the world. Yet, the upgrades for these engines are quite expensive while offering little performance gains. When you compare a CART 4 cylinder capable of putting out close to 1,000 hp, the performance upgrade equipment pales in comparison but not in price. There was one web-site offering an upgrade to 210 hp for 15,000 quid. You can buy a good used Elise for the price, or close enought. This is the Rover badge, not the Lotus marque! Can anyone shed some light on this one?

[tonytubi]

rip off britain

[cuzza]

I agree £15k is outrageous but a few things to bear in mind:

The K-series was originally designed as a 1.4 engine, the Elise has a 1.8 so the capacity cannot be increased greatly - see the thread on the new MG racing K-series for details on what they had to do to increase capacity - it's fine for a race engine but it would self destruct in about 2000 miles if you're lucky.

The engine produces 118bhp as standard so 210bhp is an 80% increase - finding that kind of power increase from an old design that has already been stretched is quite an engineering feat!

A CART engine is designed to do a very different job to a road car four pot! Try driving a car with a CART engine in traffic and try to avoid rebuilding every weekend!