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Ford Focus 1.6 - 145 mph!!!!!
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I drove a 1.6 16v Astra on the Autobahn and the most I could get out of it was 120 on a downhill stretch. Flat, I was lucky to hit 115 and that's not taking into account the speedometer accuracy.
145 with just an Exhaust upgrade.:rotfl:0 -
People leave positive feedback for all sorts of rubbish on eBay - especially the super-cheap stuff eBay special tuning boxes.Great input, 5 posts in a year and post number five of yours is to pick fun at eBay super chips, when as I stated before, must work, as I have found, or people would leave negative feedback!
Like I said with my car, with all the bolt on upgrades, a new exhaust, modified intake and a remap (total cost - ~£500) your looking at a realistic max of ~180 BHP... over this the clutch just slips. Yet on eBay you can buy a box that claims to give you 185 - 190 BHP for £50. Do you realistically think it's possible? Yes it will give you a little gain... by dumping more fuel in the engine by playing with the MAF values, but thats not a long term solution and adds very little real power...
I'll be honest - I reckon you had a speedo out there.PrincessNemmie wrote: »When I lived in Germany (so was perfectly legal to do these kinds of speeds) I managed to get a Ford Focus to just about 145mph (it was a 1.8 TDCi 115bhp)
It wasn't happy with it though...
I miss that car
My car stock has 135 BHP and a rated top speed in the 120 range... it's got a little more than that now (150 - 160 BHP) and on a private test track i've topped out at 124...
Even with an infinite amount of power I still think it would only be geared to ~140.
On an N/A car an exhaust & new air intake (a proper induction kit, not just a filter) might offer you 15 BHP at most if your stock setup was horribly restrictive.Regards a Mondeo 2.5 V6, it is almost the same engine as in the ST24, the standard 2.5 V6 has 170 BHP without any mods to it, so adding an exhaust and/or air filter, such as a K&N may offer you quite a bit more power gain.
It's more than possible to remap a car for better performance (with a simple plug-in chip you can make the 115 BHP version of my car get to 150 with the same fuel economy), however adding 25 or even 50% more power doesn't change the top speed much, as the gearing will still be restrictive as will the aerodynamics.
Anything north of 160 will require lots and lots of space even for something very rapid.
Disagree - a new panel filter will not suck in more hot-air... it's just a filter. A less restrictive filter will let more air in, which can improve BHP if the car needs more breathing... fitting a cone filter where one wasn't before, however, is a bad idea.ps - an aftermarket filter will not increase bhp, they very often reduce bhp as they are sucking in hot air from the engine bay. However, they will increase throttle response and make a very nice noise. I have a K&N Typhoon and it sounds fantastic, but it does not increase horsepower, despite what the marketing blurp may say.
My car was originally designed with 115 BHP in mind, and as such has a very restrictive air inlet. Once the 135 model was launched, this because a lot more restrictive, and with bolt-on parts taking it to 160 BHP adding a proper induction kit can gain 5 or more BHP.
And even if the Focus in the OP DID have 5,000 BHP, I doubt you'd be able to use cruise control at 140. Not only because it would take an awful lot of concentration to maintain that speed, but because a lot of cruise control's have a speed limit when you go north of 100.Nothing I say represents any past, present or future employer.0 -
Haven't a clue what you're all talking about guys...or why! But from the outside it looks strangely fun...I'm a saddo!0
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I would love to see a Focus 1.6 doing 145mph! Most cars are limited to stop too much heat building in the engine up at higher speeds. Some electronic and some by the shape/size of the engine bay and the gearing. Like others, I was around in the days when a car didn't have fuel injection & engine management systems, or even CANBUS. I was also a victim of the lucrative "car tuning & modifying market" and their advertising. Looking back I had a bit of fun, but am annoyed at being conned by companies.
After spending loads over the years I found that a lot of products sold don't do what is claimed, some try and you end up causing damage. First off, air filters - they are to filter the air and paper ones pass more air than required by the engine at full RPM. The holes might be small, but the surface is huge when unfolded. If you put one of the oiled mesh/cotton ones on you will notice bigger holes and a smaller area. They do not filter particularly well and block up faster causing a reduction in performance in a shorter time. A loud noise caused by air rushing in doesn't mean you have more power but boy racers confuse the two. They don't do much for performance, if anything. What you do need to be aware of is allowing big bits of dirt and dust in to the engine or turbo which will cause damage. Some will spend hundreds on an induction kit that sucks in hot air from the engine without realising it is severely reducing performance - but it makes a noise so must be good!
That is just a total lack of understanding of how a car engine works.
Chips that claim to give more power on a petrol engine are not that good, there isn't much you can do to get more power unless it has a turbo. Then you will not get much, certainly not what you would expect after paying a lot of money. People will not complain as they do not want everyone to laugh at them for being taken in. Diesel engines are a different story. You can get quite an improvement in power from a turbo diesel but at the expense of causing problems. If you buy a box to add on then all it is doing is raising the fuel pressure so more diesel is sprayed in when the injector opens. Some intercept the signals to the injectors and hold them open longer. This is a crude way of doing things as it even does it when the engine is cold and takes no input from engine sensors to control it. That is why a lot of diesel cars have black smoke pouring out - it's unused diesel burning off in the manifold and possibly the EGR which it ends up blocking and the turbo gets loads of soot. You can only fit so much diesel and air in a cylinder, that is what people selling tuning boxes forget. Some cause problems with the clutch and gearbox as it operates everything outside design tolerances. It leads to problems with fuel pumps, fuel rails, injectors, EGR valves, Turbos and in one case a DPF (diesel particle filter) that was completely blocked and had to be replaced! They invalidate your insurance unless fully declared and a garage will not do any warranty work once they take the readings from the ECU and find what you have been using. The ECU stores certain values for diagnostic purposes so it's obvious when a car has been tampered with or pushed beyond the limits. Police accident investigators check for this too as Vauxhall, Honda and others have helped them out.
You could remap a diesel turbo and this will give more control over the performance, but you're only talking 20BHP before you start causing damage elsewhere as the rest of the components were not meant for that increase on a regular basis. Once you see black smoke you are decreasing efficiency and power, it is a fine balance between a bit of extra power and a big repair bill at a later date.
As for exhausts, fitting a backbox will do nothing. Removing a CAT will reduce the temperature of part of the exhaust system so the gases will not flow out as fast as if the exhaust was hotter. Fitting a big wide exhaust system will decrease performance depending on the car as the standard one is often the best for that engine. Again, more noise doesn't mean power. How often do you hear something thundering down the road only to look in the mirror and see a Corsa doing 30mph.
Car manufacturers spend millions on development and research. Why would they deliberately fit components to restrict performance and economy. I have seen examples of people spending £300+ on an exhaust, removing the CAT and being unable to believe a rolling road test showed a decrease in performance. The biggest laugh was people removing air intakes as they thought that some extra parts of pipe designed to tune out certain frequencies restricted the air flow!!! It's just a lack of knowledge and experience and sadly people that don't know much will jump on a car forum and tell their mates to cut bits off the car or add bits and buy products. Others do it without doing any research. Some will push their own products on a site and make various claims about them.
Just don't believe the advertising, companies are out to make money and go for people that maybe can't afford a fast car but can spend hundreds on extra bits if they think it will end up going faster.
Each to their own, but my cars are standard and fast enough.
:beer: THINK BEFORE YOU GET RIPPED OFF!0 -
Yet more GOLD:D:D :T0
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You can always put it back on the 1st page in a couple of years Sassy, I mean Lil-smeg ;p.
Back OT, you can get decent improvements from a filter and exhaust.I had a RR power run at Well Lane years ago and the car made factory-ish figures of 220bhp/200lbft after the exhaust and filter(not supllied or fitted by the RR operator) it made something like 230bhp/220lbft but that's mostly down to the exhaust giving less back pressure and a slight boost increase.
Its easy on turbo cars though, I was gaining 10-15bhp for each extra 1psi of boost I ran-I had it up to 1.1bar before it had other ideas and spat a couple of ringlands through the exhaust due to a timing issue.I learned a harsh lesson about detonation.
I do like to mess about with more basic stuff like air filters though.The one below I mocked up myself and had made form exhaust pipe, with the MAF>Filter adapter being made from a cone of mild steel by me, welded by my dad.Its bloody hard to get both ends to be the right diamer and was a lot of messing about.This is pre-30 second cardboard heatshield
I have adapted another inlet I bought from someone else and had a recirc bung welded on to do away with BOV whooshing noises and fuelling issues caused by a vent to atmosphere bov.It can't be fitted until the car is remapped though as the ecu needs to be told a different MAF is being used.It will be heat wrapped and covered in alluminium foil backed cloth as the current one is getting very hot from the engine
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Had my focus upto around 140-150 on the speedo, that was without the satnav on, fastest recorded speed on my satnav has been 125.0
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tomstickland wrote: »When I could be bothered I preferred to modify the air box. I cut the bottom off the air box in my Astra, a similarly large hole in the inner wing and cut and bent up some Aluminium sheet as a crud guard. That sounded great.
Almost 10 years ago now.
Mock up.
I'm going to decommision the site sometime. Not sure what to do with it really.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/engine.htm#air1
That site is a good source of info, keep it going
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