ok reading cossiebags abuse topic and that 106 has really caught my eye
what power can you have out of a fwd car and not understeer everywhere
surely 300bhp is already to much??

 

They always used to say about 220bhp

 

I have nearly 300bhp in my focus ST and its fine. It is a modern car though !

 

Stick some Revoknuckles on from the new FRS and you could probably easily hit 400.

.

 

i had a mk3 astra gsi with a calibra turbo engine in running 280bhp,i had to wait till 2nd gear before i could propa boot it else it would snap the gearbox but after 2nd it flew fastest car i have ever had

 

400bhp in a fwd would be a bit scary

 

i had a C20let corsa B, we never got a final power figure but it was good for 300bhp+ that was also just on the normal F20 5speed box with no LSD...... great fun in a line, but throw some twistys in and it was dangerous!

 

my astra was 280bhp at 12psi it was fun when subarus used to try there look and most other things on road

 

It depends from the weight of the car and the suspension set up - system. To a modern car (weighting 1200kg+) I would say 250 bhp with lsd too. A friend of mine had a starlet GT 170bhp (700kg) wich I was also driving sometimes and it was understeering a lot on throttle. It was an animal and hard to take it on the limit but very capable of leaving today spec 300hp cars behind. That's why it was called "pocket rocket"!

 

looks nice

 

this was mine. was abouit 350hp with the nitrous and 300 with out. 6 speed box with lsd and decent suspension. it had adjustable boost so our lass could drive it. would spin up in third with the nitrous on though. never found anything quicker on the road. miles quicker than my m3 on the road.

 

cheers, it was an awsome car, but i had to sell to go travelling a friend of mine is building another C20LET corsa for 450-500bhp which will be a weapon on the 1/4 mile, but as a track car would get destroyed by most. Altho i have another mate who is building a supercharged GTi6 currently at 259bhp (0.6bar boost), but going for a fully forged bottom end and 1.2bar with a LSD, should be a monster if he can get power down, hopefully the smoother power curve will play a big part!

 

like the look of all 3 and there all vauxhalls

 

you can have any peak power figure you like as long as its mapped and specced so its controllable, you then just use your right foot to ensure you stay on the road.

Just cos you can spin the wheels on any corner on the track, in any gear, doesnt mean you dont have to, but until you can do that, you *could* go faster.

 

They do spin and understeer badly in the wet though if you switch off the ESP Other than that they are great though as you say

 

Rob's astra is around the 400bhp mark, and that drives fine, its certainly not too much for the chassis IMHO at that level.

Much more than that would start getting to be a bit pointless though, so I reckon that is about the real limit for useable power.

 

For those that dont know, robs car is mapped with a VERY progressive, controllable power delivery. It is nothing at all like a stage 3 cossie engine. This seems to be what people miss when they talk about big power. In fwd big power should come from maintaining torque at high revs, not a massive lump of torque in the midrange and then nothing.

 

My supercharged ST170 was around 300bhp last year and i pedalled that around with no wheelspin/torquesteer issues at all...

I'm going for around another 100bhp this year and suspect i'll only be traction limited with the nitrous in 1st and 2nd...

I think a lot of people overlook the chassis/suspension/geometry and tyres when building fast FWD cars and then moan that "they're all over the road"...

 

It entirely depends on the chassis and the capabilities of the car. The Focus RS handles 300bhp easily, the Alfa 147 GTA struggles to cope with 250.

 

what about a saxo chassis?
because that black 106 posted by cossiebags seems cool

 

Oh god yeah, if we took the LET out and put the YB from my 3 door in with its 34lbs midrange spike, it would be totally undriveable, lol

 

Power has nothing to do with understeer! Do you mean torque steer? as they're two totally different things.

 

not torque-steer
its just with that much power in a light car it must be useless on a track

 

Why?

people dont seem to understand that if your power is controllable then you can select any level of power you want with your right foot. Id suggest that even 600bhp wouldnt be too much on the main straight of most tracks in 4th or 5th. Doesnt mean you need to use it in the bends tho.

Problem every time this gets discussed is people assuming that with 400bhp comes the lack of control associated with the sort of engine chip describes.

 

Mine drives like a normal road car

The world just needs to slow down the car is pretty tame!

 

i didn't see the progressive power delivery sorry
but i think my question is answered thanx

 

all the cars mentioned are Turbo'd

Mine track car will be hitting 300+ BHP all N/A so no lag, I'm sure it'll take me a while to set it up but Ive got fully adjustable front end

once dialed in I cant see it having any issues at all.

 

Driven plenty of Supercharged Saxo's some with 230bhp at the wheels and they all had very little issue putting the power down. That was mostly due to the way the supercharger produced boost as opposed to a turbo kick.

Basically it depends how the engine is setup, as per Rob's Astra.

 

my mk3.5 fiesta zetec turbo running about 280/300bhp was fine with adjustable lower arms and gaz gold coilovers ,the problem is that most people with a modified car buy suspension etc , fit it and then dont have the car set up correctly. it also had power steering which helped with the torque steer , i remember when i picked it up from grove garage and drove it to ian howells house and let him have ago in it , he just couldnt believe how little torque steer the car had , in the end i had to take the keys off him!