1.2 limited edition Corsa Mod
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Buy a 1.4T ;-) ;-)
Actually in all seriousness, if you've had to buy a 1.2 to keep insurance costs low because of your age then any modifications to it which will have to be declared to the insurance company will increase your premium. The likelihood is that by the time you've spent out on mods to eek out any sort of significant extra hp out of the 1.2 and paid the increased insurance premium it would be cheaper to buy the 1.4T anyway. I would check with your insurance company to see how much your insurance will go up by before doing anything.
EDIT: Out of curiosity, is the 1.4na that much more expensive to insure? It doesn't cost much more to buy but looks on paper to have good hike in power over 1.2? OK not upto 1.4T levels but acceptable.
Actually in all seriousness, if you've had to buy a 1.2 to keep insurance costs low because of your age then any modifications to it which will have to be declared to the insurance company will increase your premium. The likelihood is that by the time you've spent out on mods to eek out any sort of significant extra hp out of the 1.2 and paid the increased insurance premium it would be cheaper to buy the 1.4T anyway. I would check with your insurance company to see how much your insurance will go up by before doing anything.
EDIT: Out of curiosity, is the 1.4na that much more expensive to insure? It doesn't cost much more to buy but looks on paper to have good hike in power over 1.2? OK not upto 1.4T levels but acceptable.
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54 Posts
I have to say I agree with mud4fun. fitting an induction kit on a 1.2 hatchback would make you lose BHP as it would just suck in hot air and the engine is too small anyway to see any gains. If you have a turbo you could get an increase with a remap but it would genuinely be tiny. best thing to do is just wait a few years till you can afford a car with a better engine and do some mods from there.
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2,902 Posts
The old fashioned way of gaining better performance from an underpowered engine are:
1) Reduce vehicle weight - remove everything you don't need and that includes body kits which just add weight and drag and do F all for performance.
2) fit skinny tyres, say 165's, as they have far less rolling resistance than wider tyres and will give improved top speed and mpg.
3) fitting smaller diameter tyres/wheels gives improved acceleration (but lower top speed)
4) Improve aerodynamics
5) don't choose A/C, even if not used it still adds weight.
6) Turn all electrics off, don't drive with lights on unless absolutely needed and turn stereo off. Electric devices consume power that draws current from alternator which makes engine work harder to generate that current. Having all the lights on, stereo, heater etc can use the equivalent of 5hp!
7) Use thinner oil. Not recommended but if you go to synthetic instead of semi synth you can normally go for a thinner grade which frees up engine power especially when cold and improves mpg. Eg. I swapped my old pickup truck from 10w/40 mineral to 5w/30 semi synth.
These are things we used to do 30 years ago to maximise performance of smaller engined cars. You may laugh but they did have some affect. Of course it is alot of hassle for minimal gain. These days huge gains can be made on turbo cars with remaps but sadly there is no so much that can be done with normally aspirated engines unless you spend big bucks on performance hardware.
1) Reduce vehicle weight - remove everything you don't need and that includes body kits which just add weight and drag and do F all for performance.
2) fit skinny tyres, say 165's, as they have far less rolling resistance than wider tyres and will give improved top speed and mpg.
3) fitting smaller diameter tyres/wheels gives improved acceleration (but lower top speed)
4) Improve aerodynamics
5) don't choose A/C, even if not used it still adds weight.
6) Turn all electrics off, don't drive with lights on unless absolutely needed and turn stereo off. Electric devices consume power that draws current from alternator which makes engine work harder to generate that current. Having all the lights on, stereo, heater etc can use the equivalent of 5hp!
7) Use thinner oil. Not recommended but if you go to synthetic instead of semi synth you can normally go for a thinner grade which frees up engine power especially when cold and improves mpg. Eg. I swapped my old pickup truck from 10w/40 mineral to 5w/30 semi synth.
These are things we used to do 30 years ago to maximise performance of smaller engined cars. You may laugh but they did have some affect. Of course it is alot of hassle for minimal gain. These days huge gains can be made on turbo cars with remaps but sadly there is no so much that can be done with normally aspirated engines unless you spend big bucks on performance hardware.
Sorry but its just not worth bothering with, anything you do wont make the blindest bit of difference. A turbo would, but never heard of anyone putting a turbo on a 1.2? Would be way over kill and your insurance will raise.
Just have to live with it and wait till you can afford a 1.4T or something
Just have to live with it and wait till you can afford a 1.4T or something
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