best value performance upgrades?

[MAC11]

First thing to change is the car for one with a bigger capacity motor. Pointless trying to wring bhp out of a 1.4 when a 2.0 will give you more torque which is what you want more of rather than bhp assuming you run 4 bangers. Stay away from small capacity (<3.5L) V motors as they are too heavy.

K&N airfilters are, although fashionable, quite restrictive and expensive. The No.1 airfilter is the ITG one which has NO restrictions but will still prevent dirt from accessing the throttle body etc.

Brakes don't matter as long as they are working ok, as the only factor that stresses the braking is the weight of the vehicle. Lightening the car as previously mentioned, is as good as spending megabucks of brake components.

An exhaust has to be as freeflowing as possible so make sure the pipes are no less than 2.5" diameter. Don't forget a small resonator to create some back pressure (..no back pressure means you'll lean out and overheat/detonate the engine when thrashing it)

[Exodus]

.

K&N airfilters are, although fashionable, quite restrictive and expensive. The No.1 airfilter is the ITG one which has NO restrictions but will still prevent dirt from accessing the throttle body etc.

K&N filters give power gains that are noticable, so how exactly are they restrictive? The best thing to do if you want to change air flow is to go with a short-ram intake or a cold air. Thats basically opening it up as much as possible unless you want to get into getting a bigger throttle body, etc. Regardless, anything intake related will only give you a 5-10hp gain, so its not much.

[MAC11]

Testing filters in the lab here with a big fan and my anemometer, the stock paper one reduced airflow by 70%, the new K&N from my lady's 620ti, reduced airflow by 40% whereas the ITG on my Corvette showed no reduction.

A K&N like an ITG doesn't filter on its own, but relies upon the oil on the material. Its just that the structure of a K&N restricts whereas an ITG doesn't. That's why all racers use ITG..

http://www.itgairfilters.com/

[Guest]

Testing filters in the lab here with a big fan and my anemometer, the stock paper one reduced airflow by 70%, the new K&N from my lady's 620ti, reduced airflow by 40% whereas the ITG on my Corvette showed no reduction.

A K&N like an ITG doesn't filter on its own, but relies upon the oil on the material. Its just that the structure of a K&N restricts whereas an ITG doesn't. That's why all racers use ITG..

http://www.itgairfilters.com/

Yes, our experience is with MACII on this. We've found K&N are a good unit and generally better than the stock part, but these days there's a lot better out there and often at better value for money.

[Exodus]

Eh, I noticed a difference with a K&N, and I noticed a lot better difference when I upgraded to a short ram. *shrug*

[stargazer21]

i found out that the best way to get my car to go quicker was to let my boyrfriend drive!

lets face it, us women do suck at driving...

i'l get on with the ironing

Theres actually a element of truth in this. Modern cars have learning ECUs, if you drive it like miss daisy it'll learn you style and run in economy mode. Drive it like you stole if for a while and the next day it'll fly! the boy/girl bit doesn't matter

[stargazer21]

Don't you lot not think putting an induction kit kills all the low down torque, there okay for high rpms but for normal driving the car has less pull.

Then theres the dreaded heat soak on open cones

[Guest]

[quote="MisanthropeYou'bve obviously missed the point also- you must lower the compression ratio, i.e change the pistons. So it's not a case of just bolting on a Turbo.

[ibbo]

ok simply if you want to make it go faster you have to make it stop faster as well thats if you dont want to bend it the best place to look first is on www.GMCMOTORSPORT.co.uk what they dont know bout saxos is not worth knowing and i bet if they had a look at what these peeps are sayin then they would fall about laughin
1st you need a sensible budget to start with
2nd vts wheels are wide enough i recomend toyo tryes last about 8000 miles though yocohamas are not too bad either i should know as i got a vtr
ok spend money on having the head improved about £500 - £1000 and uprated valve springs if you not going to turbo or supercharge it speak to gmc or (even if you are) if you not then take a mm or 2 off the head to increase compression ratio, then would recomend a good stainless exhaust system i got a magnex that i like. you need a cold air feed induction kit as others sound good but kill the performance
then get a 4-1 manafold for it you can gain up to 10 bhp just by doing that personally after talking to john at gmc i would not bother spending £300 gettin it chiped for a program that not much better that standard
just pay gmc to replace the ecu fitted for about £450 check there website out for full info
as far as lowering is concerned gmc web site again it pointless lowering to improve handleng un less you replace the shocks and rear tortion bars i know from personal experiance on this
a lot of people will tell you all sorts of rubbish but if you want to improve your saxo then talk to people who race a saxo like gmc as they will spend a lot of time trying new things etc to improve the car to make it better and know the best ways to do it how ever they not the cheepest but i would and am going to give them my money to do work on my car as they are the best i have found and dont recomened you spend money on bushes that are a pain in the rear to fit. when they on, they cant tell the difference to stock ones
like i said they are very good oh any one reading this cointacts them for bits or to do work then say ibbo recommended them oh and please dont waiste there time as they are very busy

[coates]

istead of doing up the cars, why dont you jst buy somthin thats already quicker dib-sh** !!!!!

[Guest]

istead of doing up the cars, why dont you jst buy somthin thats already quicker dib-sh** !!!!!

Because that's not as much fun as getting your hands dirty and talking to the guys at the shop.

[Guest]

oh my ga...

FOR SPEED, ADD LIGHTNESS!

or exhaust...

[FMJ]

Don't you lot not think putting an induction kit kills all the low down torque, there okay for high rpms but for normal driving the car has less pull.

Then theres the dreaded heat soak on open cones

This is quite true as it happens, engines lke to breathe deeply but most of the gains are felt at high rpms. Wouldn't say it kills the low end torque though. Most modern cars don't seem to have any these days anyway. Try dumping the clutch at low revs on a VTEC and you'll see what I mean. Its all high rpm power. Me, I prefer detroit motors with their high torque. My vettes L98 motor is physically smaller than a Rover V8, but at 345ftlbs stock, no wonder the Yanks call it the Torque Monster!

[Usquanigo]

oh my ga...

FOR SPEED, ADD LIGHTNESS!

or exhaust...

Great.... IF you're starting from scratch. But with an existing car, "adding lightness" means adding noise, harshness, and chassis weakness right along with it (with few exceptions). And even when starting from scratch, the Elise is limited on the big end. Great for low end acceleration and darting around, but to really go fast takes big power, more size, and as a result, more weight (SSC Ultimate Aero, Veyron, Koeniggsegg, Zonda, etc - all heavier, and faster, than an Elise)

[Usquanigo]

Don't you lot not think putting an induction kit kills all the low down torque, there okay for high rpms but for normal driving the car has less pull.

Then theres the dreaded heat soak on open cones

This is quite true as it happens, engines lke to breathe deeply but most of the gains are felt at high rpms. Wouldn't say it kills the low end torque though. Most modern cars don't seem to have any these days anyway. Try dumping the clutch at low revs on a VTEC and you'll see what I mean. Its all high rpm power. Me, I prefer detroit motors with their high torque. My vettes L98 motor is physically smaller than a Rover V8, but at 345ftlbs stock, no wonder the Yanks call it the Torque Monster!

Honduhs are torqueless wonders though. Since HP is nothing more than TQ over time, the way to get big HP in a small engine, aside from boost, is to spin the ever-lovin' crap out of it, like the VTECs. Great if you're gonna be racing and keeping the rpms in the narrow power band all the time, but crappy for everything else.

This is really true of DOHC too. It's great for super high rpms, but requires all sorts of tricks to get low rev drivability down. And for high performance driving at lower revs, it gets worse. The dynograph is just too peaky even here. Toss in added weight, bulk (and accompanying packaging restrictions), and higher center of gravity to the mix, and it becomes even less appealing.

OHV is not only newer technology, despite what the ricers and other snobs want to beleive, but it's also better for real world street conditions, resulting in a much flatter TQ curve, along with being physically smaller, lighter, and having a lower CoG. It's only draw back is that it can be tricky to spin super fast. But really, if you have to spin past 7 grand, you're doing something wrong or are in a crazy rules bracket. lol

But.... kinda got sidetracked there. lol

Heat soak should not be a problem on open cone filters. If it is, it's in the wrong location. Likewise, metal should not be used for the tube running to the intake for the same reason. Most of the gain from an FIPK comes from removal of the stock airbox and piping allowing for much free-er flow. The K&N filter can flow better, but the difference isn't too dramatic (vs a good paper filter), and it suffers from blowing oil onto the MAF which skews readings and hurts performance. Better to go with a non-oiled reusable filter.

On my Dakota R/T (with a 5.9L [aka 360 cid] Magnum engine), I ripped out the stock airbox and slapped on a large K&N cone. I go super light on the oiling. And I left everything else stock. I also changed the oil to Mobil 1 (since I use that on my LS1 as well), and I got a boost in performance that I could actually feel, as well as a moddest boost in mpg.

Next up for that is getting rid of the corrugated rubber tube running from the filter to the manifold. After that, probably headers to get rid of those log-style exhaust manifolds. Oh, and an electric fan to dump the crank driven clutch fan.

All of those are cheap, and offer the highest bang for the buck. (at least on that application)