Performance Upgrade: What will £3k buy me?

[lordb]

Its time to move on or is it?? - will it be a Griff/Chim or just go hell for leather and modify the S to something unique?
I'm prepared to spend upto £3k on my S1.5 and would consider ripping out all the mechanicals and engine and starting again.
So come on you lot - this could be a pet project for the winter which I will fully report and document for all to benefit.... "Getting the best performance out of an S1.5 for £3k"

Sensible thought out ideas welcome....over to you!
:D :eek:

[V8Smith]

lordb said:

Its time to move on or is it?? - will it be a Griff/Chim or just go hell for leather and modify the S to something unique? I'm prepared to spend upto £3k on my S1.5 and would consider ripping out all the mechanicals and engine and starting again. So come on you lot - this could be a pet project for the winter which I will fully report and document for all to benefit.... "Getting the best performance out of an S1.5 for £3k" Sensible thought out ideas welcome....over to you!

AFAIK there is more to it than just upgrading the performance on the S1.5 as the chassis, brakes etc all need upgrading if you have a lot more power. so you might find you have a unique car but how much faster will it be with the money you have left?

If its still to be a second car put the money together with the sale of your car and buy a V8S. This should buy you a car with the required extra speed, a larger grin factor and the running costs wont rise much (I went from a S2 to a V8S)

One thing for sure the running costs of a modified car will always be higher than one thats near standard (ask GreenV8S) so there is that side of it to look at.

IMHO

Mike

[heyiga]

hey Lordb

Just an idea, but I have just seen an add for a S3C with not only a 24v cosworth engine, but it has been turbocharged as well! estimated at 280 bhp, and for sale at the moment...........

[GreenV8S]

heyiga said:

estimated at 280 bhp

280 bhp in an 'S', don't be silly; the chassis won't take it, haven't you heared?

[V8Smith]

GreenV8S said:

heyiga said: estimated at 280 bhp 280 bhp in an 'S', don't be silly; the chassis won't take it, haven't you heared?

I was always told that the chassis and brakes on the S4 and V8S were different and uprated from the S1&S2 if you know different please pray tell.

Why wont the chassis take 280bhp then Pete when your car will........?

[V8Smith]

heyiga said:

hey Lordb Just an idea, but I have just seen an add for a S3C with not only a 24v cosworth engine, but it has been turbocharged as well! estimated at 280 bhp, and for sale at the moment...........

Havent seen that for sale where is it advertised?

[bugsy]

V8Smith said:

GreenV8S said: heyiga said: estimated at 280 bhp 280 bhp in an 'S', don't be silly; the chassis won't take it, haven't you heared? I was always told that the chassis and brakes on the S4 and V8S were different and uprated from the S1&S2 if you know different please pray tell. Why wont the chassis take 280bhp then Pete when your car will........?

I think Peter may be being a bit sarcastic here because he knows the S3 will easily handle 300bhp, the V8S does have differences but not fundamental chassis construction, strength wise, just wider track and engine bearers IIRC to take the wider engine.

[big ian]

1 month touring round europe in your unmodified S.

[V8Smith]

bugsy said:

V8Smith said: GreenV8S said: heyiga said: estimated at 280 bhp 280 bhp in an 'S', don't be silly; the chassis won't take it, haven't you heared? I was always told that the chassis and brakes on the S4 and V8S were different and uprated from the S1&S2 if you know different please pray tell. Why wont the chassis take 280bhp then Pete when your car will........? I think Peter may be being a bit sarcastic here because he knows the S3 will easily handle 300bhp, the V8S does have differences but not fundamental chassis construction, strength wise, just wider track and engine bearers IIRC to take the wider engine.

Derek I was aware of the sarcasm, my comments were tongue in cheek in response to the need for a sarcastic comment, when a simple explanation would suffice. My knowledge as to the mechanics and limitations of a car are about as limited as Peters spelling...

To get back on topic, regarding the differences in chassis, well there you go you live and learn I was under the impression that there was more to it than that! Seems I was given duff information.

Regardless of Chassis strength I think putting the £3K towards a V8S rather than upgrades would be money better spent with less ongoing issues than with a heavily modified car.

Again IMHO


>> Edited by V8Smith on Friday 9th September 15:11

[s1.5f]

I'm in the middle of putting a 4.0l V6 in mine, but that is small fry compared to the changes being worked-on by Leebee and Mickeypee!!

[V8Smith]

Thats true met with Lee a month or so back and what hes doing is pretty mental? His recent prurchase is not too bad either but thats a secret apparently........?

later

Mike

[s1.5f]

I also seem to remember Joolz was going to put a Cerb speedsix in his Think his bottle went though!

[GreenV8S]

Ooh that sounds interesting, what's he up to?

BTW the 'chassis won't take it' was me feeble attempt to poke fun at the nay sayers who said that a hot cam and stage III heads would produce more power than the V8S chassis could handle, then the tuned 4.6 would produce more power than the chassis could handle, then the supercharged 4.6 would produce more power than the chassis could handle it's a bit of a broken record ... Complete rowlocks of course, I don't know what the limit of usable power is but based on my experience to date I expect it will be some way over 450 bhp, we've got quite a long way to go then!

However, nobody's tried this line for a while and I thought it might make a change ...

[trackcar]

s1.5f said:

I also seem to remember Joolz was going to put a Cerb speedsix in his Think his bottle went though!

4.2 AJP8 was the plan .. it's all out on loan at the moment though for a secret project

[V8Smith]

GreenV8S said:

Ooh that sounds interesting, what's he up to? BTW the 'chassis won't take it' was me feeble attempt to poke fun at the nay sayers who said that a hot cam and stage III heads would produce more power than the V8S chassis could handle, then the tuned 4.6 would produce more power than the chassis could handle, then the supercharged 4.6 would produce more power than the chassis could handle it's a bit of a broken record ... Complete rowlocks of course, I don't know what the limit of usable power is but based on my experience to date I expect it will be some way over 450 bhp, we've got quite a long way to go then! However, nobody's tried this line for a while and I thought it might make a change ...

Pete you will have to ask leeBee yourself mate as he told me not to say anything.

Aaaaahhh Now I see so you had plenty of doubters re your mods, I wondered why the sarcy comment?

[yellabelly]

Richard,

V8s

you know it makes sense!!!

that way you still qualify for SCH4.
What does the chim section ever organise, other than games of golf or tea parties
(sorry I thought you said chimps)
and the Griffs are all big engine and strangled exhausts, no soul

[Pies]

Gazboy said:

Take it from a habitual tweeker, modifying is dead money, unless you do something gob-smaking (Jellisons LS2 Chim) or has high demand (Porsche 993TT), you lose almost all monies put in. What does £3k buy you for a 2.8 V6? I personaly would get the V8s, or even a wedge (mmmm SEAC's mmmm).

Ditto

[mycroft]

yellabelly said:

What does the chim section ever organise, other than games of golf or tea parties

Games of golf and tea parties !!!
were`s the classified

[johns3]

hmmm £3k. Good amount to play about with. I wonder how much it would cost to get an aluminium chassis fabricated then drop a high torque small block v8 (supercharged of course at 2 bar boost) with forged pistons, forged conrods, titanium valve springs, tte head gaskets, with a wet nitrous kit. Sequential close ratio gearbox. 4 pot brake calliper kit on the front, get rid of the drums on the back and get discs. Top spec coilovers fully adjustable. Motec ECU with laptop control. Slightly blown the budget by about £10K but it will be quite swift!

[trackcar]

I woud approach this by rebuilding your exisiting engine so you know it's a sound basis .. then doing a light pressure turbo conversion. You would still have enough money left over for a set of cheap dampers and springs and a set of bigger front discs/calipers.