Well after having had my car rolling roaded hoping to see close to 500 bhp I was disappointed with the result!!

I had effectively followed every bit of advice possible and had a remap by a reputable company. They were convinced that the car was dong the power but as they had not built it (it is GpA spec everything) they were unable to gurantee that it was.

I took the car to a dyno pack dyno to get the power figures verified and they came up with exactly the same figure. The power comes in at 4300 rpm (when the boost hits it's stride ) and peaks at 6200 rpm, then tailing off quickly.

You can see from my signature that the car has all of the ingredients for big power but it ain't happening!

I spoke to the mappers and they were a little puzzled that it hadn't produced more and pointed to the cylinder head as being the problem. They claim that the boost had to be held back at lower revs as the head couldn't handle the flow. They also said that a standard head will not allow and engine (regardless of other mods) to produce more than 400 bhp.

I am unsure as to whether the head on my car has had any work. Trouble is, I am looking at £1000 + VAT for an exchange ported head PLUS the cost of the valves and springs. Then I have to pay extra for this company's cams....

Thing is, I don't want to start shelling out even more dough, when I have already spent thousands to get to a point that is not that much further than I already was at. Some of these firms are very good at telling you what you want to hear and then charging you for the privilage only for you to have to return for those endless extra tweaks to get you where you wanted to be in the first place...I have been here before and that i why I wanted to get it all done at once without doing it piece by piece. Thing is this method doesn't seem to have worked either!!

Has anyone got any thoughts on the above or any experience as whether the std head really is the bottle neck in this type of application?

Also, has anyone any idea where I can get a head ported to stage 3 spec (26mm inlet and 25mm exhaust) for less than £1000 + vat exchange?! Any ideas also what cams are best recommended?