So I'm upgrading...

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Discussion

pinchmeimdreamin

9,836 posts

217 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
Whatever happened to the day when you could ask a car related question on PH and get a straight answer rather than everyone telling OP what he/she should do ?



300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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DrTre said:
While all good advice, perhaps we could try to avoid retreading the previous thread.

Yes he possibly could buy a faster car from the off, but maybe not.

Perhaps he wants to spread the cost over a period of time.

Perhaps he, good gods no!, even wants to work on the car himself.
A faster car is usually an option.

When I was 19, me and my mates were all into cars and who had the fastest.

One mate bought a 2.0 Sierra.

Another a 1.4 Nova SRI

Another a 1.6 Nova GTE

Another also a 1.4 Nova

And one with an XR3i


One of the 1.4 Nova's got a 2.0 litre 8 valve, the other a 2.0 litre 16v engine swap. The Sierra was modded with bolt on mods, as was the XR3i, which in turn was swapped for an XR4x4i with a freshly rebuilt 2.9 V6 and bolt on mods.


Me, well at 19 I bought myself a £700 5.3 litre V12 Jaguar XJ-S. Completely standard it pissed all over all of my mates cars, massively quicker. All I did was put a custom rear half exhaust on it after a few years.

And to top it all, the XJ-S was not only the quickest, it was also the cheapest to insure out of all of them and the nicest to drive.

Albeit the worst on fuel!!! biggrincool

Edited by 300bhp/ton on Wednesday 30th September 11:25

GreatGranny

9,097 posts

225 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Prizam said:
Ahh, the old marque loyalty syndrome.

Ditch the idea that you have friends because of the car you drive. Its just silly. VW fan boys rub up each others rings in the "dubbers clubs". But if you fear you would loose friends by driving a ford, then they wernt really friends.

That said, the Swift Sport is an alright car, for what it is.
You've taken that all the wrong way haven't you!

He wants a 1.6 Swift. That part isn't going to change no matter how you try and dismiss his enjoyment of socialising with like minded owners.

OP you've obviously seen the supercharger kits :-)

http://www.rsrs.jp/en/engine/zc11.html

Seems that company do lots of nice parts including ECUs, exhausts etc..

aka_kerrly

12,415 posts

209 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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300bhp/ton said:
I'm gonna guess you are fairly young? And not been driving long?


Moving from a 1.2 to a 1.6 of the same car.


As soon as you hit puberty and realise that actually there are a lot of REALLY interesting cars out there. Obsessing over modding a ho hum car becomes less important.
The chap did say he is 19 and from my experience the Swift sport 1.6 16v is bloody good fun and a highly regarded car in the warm/hot hatch arena.

As someone else has mentioned the Swifts are used at the Nurburgring as rentals. Everyone I know whose tried one said it was brilliant an almost all will have driven cars with >3x the power

pinchmeimdreamin

9,836 posts

217 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
aka_kerrly said:
300bhp/ton said:
I'm gonna guess you are fairly young? And not been driving long?


Moving from a 1.2 to a 1.6 of the same car.


As soon as you hit puberty and realise that actually there are a lot of REALLY interesting cars out there. Obsessing over modding a ho hum car becomes less important.
The chap did say he is 19 and from my experience the Swift sport 1.6 16v is bloody good fun and a highly regarded car in the warm/hot hatch arena.

As someone else has mentioned the Swifts are used at the Nurburgring as rentals. Everyone I know whose tried one said it was brilliant an almost all will have driven cars with >3x the power
Its not American tough wink

TacoLimeys

Original Poster:

57 posts

107 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
GreatGranny said:
You've taken that all the wrong way haven't you!

He wants a 1.6 Swift. That part isn't going to change no matter how you try and dismiss his enjoyment of socialising with like minded owners.

OP you've obviously seen the supercharger kits :-)

http://www.rsrs.jp/en/engine/zc11.html

Seems that company do lots of nice parts including ECUs, exhausts etc..
Thanks for this, and I know, I have been looking at them wink

Although that would be well in the future due to Insurance aha

TacoLimeys

Original Poster:

57 posts

107 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
aka_kerrly said:
The chap did say he is 19 and from my experience the Swift sport 1.6 16v is bloody good fun and a highly regarded car in the warm/hot hatch arena.

As someone else has mentioned the Swifts are used at the Nurburgring as rentals. Everyone I know whose tried one said it was brilliant an almost all will have driven cars with >3x the power
I was reading up on the Nurburgring and they all said they love them!

rohrl

8,711 posts

144 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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As someone above has said tyres are a good place to start.

I'd also reiterate that if you're interested in cars and driving then driver training is absolutely the best way to spend your money. The money you spend on driver training will equip you with skills which will last you for the rest of your life, long after tyres, air filters, exhaust systems etc. have been consigned to the scrap heap.

Don't necessarily get hung up on track driving skills either. There is of course some crossover between track driving and road driving but not as much as some people like to make out. Perhaps spend half your budget on some track tuition and the other half on improving your skills on the road.

TacoLimeys

Original Poster:

57 posts

107 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
rohrl said:
As someone above has said tyres are a good place to start.

I'd also reiterate that if you're interested in cars and driving then driver training is absolutely the best way to spend your money. The money you spend on driver training will equip you with skills which will last you for the rest of your life, long after tyres, air filters, exhaust systems etc. have been consigned to the scrap heap.

Don't necessarily get hung up on track driving skills either. There is of course some crossover between track driving and road driving but not as much as some people like to make out. Perhaps spend half your budget on some track tuition and the other half on improving your skills on the road.
Thanks for this, will look into it.

rohrl

8,711 posts

144 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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And some of the other posters here need to have a look at themselves and their motivations for posting.

If you've nothing constructive to say why not just skip the thread and move on? Your gratuitous rudeness is totally unnecessary and impresses no-one.

TacoLimeys

Original Poster:

57 posts

107 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
rohrl said:
As someone above has said tyres are a good place to start.

I'd also reiterate that if you're interested in cars and driving then driver training is absolutely the best way to spend your money. The money you spend on driver training will equip you with skills which will last you for the rest of your life, long after tyres, air filters, exhaust systems etc. have been consigned to the scrap heap.

Don't necessarily get hung up on track driving skills either. There is of course some crossover between track driving and road driving but not as much as some people like to make out. Perhaps spend half your budget on some track tuition and the other half on improving your skills on the road.
Thanks for this, will look into it.

delta0

2,334 posts

105 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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JonoG81 said:
Depending on how much more it would be to insure a 'faster' car I would look into this before getting too carried away.

Not sure how much more performance you will be able to extract from a n/a 1.6, and if you are going to look down the forced induction route you may well be best off just buying a turbo/supercharged car in the first place.

Again, all depends on your financial situation.
Insuring a modified car is going to cost considerably more than insurance a faster un-modified car.

C.A.R.

3,967 posts

187 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
I can relate this back to the same level of advice which is given out with RC cars.

Take an entry-level £100 4wd RC car - very nice piece of kit out of the box (like a Suzuki Swift Sport) and with lots of available aftermarket tuning options and 'bling'. However, ultimately the chassis is not competitive no matter how much money you throw at it, until it is a bdisation of its' former self - like if you strapped a supercharger to your Swift for example.

You have to weigh up the bigger picture. The gains will be minimal, but some of them might be worthwhile even if just for the placebo effect. I would suggest limiting what you do to such a car to the intake system and exhaust, unless these two items would make insurance costs prohibitive.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
pinchmeimdreamin said:
Whatever happened to the day when you could ask a car related question on PH and get a straight answer rather than everyone telling OP what he/she should do ?
To be fair, the op hasn't asked a direct question (go look at their post). The closest they get is asking for opinions, which is mostly what people have done.

TankRizzo

7,247 posts

192 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
If you are determined to modify then suspension & brakes. Leave everything else alone.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
pinchmeimdreamin said:
Its not American tough wink
Like a Focus or Fiesta wink

rohrl

8,711 posts

144 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
300bhp/ton said:
To be fair, the op hasn't asked a direct question (go look at their post). The closest they get is asking for opinions, which is mostly what people have done.
There's no need to be a tt about it though is there?

There are ways of couching your opinion which don't involve showing yourself up as a total prick.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
delta0 said:
Insuring a modified car is going to cost considerably more than insurance a faster un-modified car.
Insurance probably has changed a bit. But I think it depends what and how you insure it. Along with how much effort you put into finding a quote.

When I converted my TR7 to V8 power (I was 21), it was classified as heavily modded by the insurers. However I was still paying less to insure than some of my mates with standard 1.2 Nova's.

Joeguard1990

1,181 posts

125 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
My advise.. don't go chasing power. The cost vs reward will be too high. The money you spend trying to get any decent power (turbo/supercharge/engine swap/etc.) would be able to buy you a faster car with a chasis that can handle the power.

If you are going to modify, make it look nicer and handle better, so brakes, suspension, tyres, wheels and bodywork.

Bradley1500

766 posts

145 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
quotequote all
aka_kerrly said:
The chap did say he is 19 and from my experience the Swift sport 1.6 16v is bloody good fun and a highly regarded car in the warm/hot hatch arena.
This.

For the time being I would concentrate on suspension, braking and tyre upgrades. There's really not a lot of power to get out of these engines without forced induction. Superchargers and turbos are available but aren't cheap.

To this end upgrades such as lower, stiffer springs with suitable shock absorbers and decent tyres will mean you'll be able to make the best use of the power you have. Once fitted get a proper geo setup, it'll make the world of difference.

Upgrading the brakes will give a lot more confidence in the car, allowing you to brake later into corners. Aftermarket brake kit can be expensive so upgrading the pads, fluid and lines is a cheaper alternative which can make a huge difference. I've done just this on my EP3 with PBS Performance brake pads, braided hoses and RBF600 fluid.

From the sounds of it you're already involved with other Suzuki Swift owners, so it'll be worth asking their opinion and asking on their dedicated forum as well. They'll have a better knowledge of the cars and will know what aspects need upgrading and what aspects are fine standard.

Good luck and enjoy!