Originally Posted by Rsmat

Someone talking sense ^^^^^.... Glad I'm stopping T34 cos it drives so nice and is quick enough point to point .

Originally Posted by Mike Rainbird

I doubt £10k would even cover the cost of the parts of how I would want to do it .

I personally now advocate a nikasil linered block for anything above 500bhp and although you can build a 500bhp engine for 10k, it won't have the response that people now seem to expect or insist upon.

When you think that the correct turbo and manifold is going to immediately wipe over £2k off the budget and the block is going to cost £1.5k by the time it is done, pistons £750, head work £1k and then there's cams, solid lifters, oil pump, WRC gasket, rods, inlet manifold, loom, ECU upgrades, injectors, engine dyno time, labour - and this is without different rods and crank (my preferred spec would involve going 2.2 litre), you soon realise that £10k isn't going to quite do what you want.

The problem is, if the budget isn't there, then you start having to compromise and as soon as you compromise, you lose out in this particular area that spending the extra would have gained you. At the end of the day, it is always a balance of budget and compromise.

Originally Posted by dojj

They've banned him

Originally Posted by Mike Rainbird

Around town, it's a simple fact that a small turbo car will rape a big turbo one in response. Transfer that out to the open road, where slipping the clutch isn't required to keep the turbo in it's boost threshold, then the tables are turned.

Even a small difference like a T34 with a 0.48 compared to a T34 with a 0.63 is immediately noticeable around town. Back in the day, my mate would always pull 3-4 car lengths before my car came on boost if caught out of the boost threshold, and that is with a turbo that only has a 500rpm difference.

You also have to understand that there are LOTs of poorly specced 500bhp cars around that have been built by people that don't really know what they're doing, so they don't start to boost properly until 4500-5000rpm. These conversions obviously give 500bhp a bad name.

However, as Mark has said, get it right and a 500bhp car can have the same kind of response as an ickle T34 car, with the top end rush that a T34 can only dream of . BUT, these kind of conversions aren't the cheapest, and all the majority of people seem to want is a big number and screw the drive-ability - until that is, they end up with a car that drives like a POS and regret what they have done.

Big power is easy - big power AND driveability is neither easy nor cheap....

For cost reasons, I'd ALWAYS recommend a T34 with a 0.48 a/r - 370bhp is MORE than adequate for the road and with the response this gives, it almost drives like a turbo-diesel (with a similar shape powerband ).

The problem is them "Jones's" - everyone wants to keep up or be better than them .