classic tuning guide

[Tidgy]

Tuning realy depends on your budget, no mater what model car you have.

i've gone from a more or less standard car (my00 classic uk turbo) to one thats got very few parts left in origional condition, but to do that i've had to throw a shed load of money at it.

shall base the upgrade stages on a classic uk turbo for now.

so first things first, decide what you want from it, do you want to do easy mods that will help the performance, or do you want to eventually go the whole hog?

The basic engine mods start at decatting, uprating the air filter and remapping. on a classic at this stage a uprated pannel filter is by far the best option insetad of an induction kit.

Generic chips arn't worth it (excluding the PPP kit) the maps are either too general to make large differences, or they can cause serious running issues risking the engine reliability.

the basic cost is roughly £1000-£1500 ish to get to this stage, and should boost performance from 215bhp 215ftlb to 260bhp 260ftlb (as a rough guide, exact figures vary from car to car).

Next are basic suspension changes.

uprating the rear anti roll bar will remove some of the generic understear presnt in impreza's. (roughly £150)
Drop links will stiffen up the connections between roll bar and the car (roughly £100 per end of the car)
anti lift keeps stops the front end from going up and down as much, however this means a geometry setup is required. (combined roughly £200-£300)
Strut braces will reduce body roll (£120 front upper, £120 front lower and £100 rear)
basic upgraded springs (stiffer) (£250)

then basic brake changes

Also brakes should be uprated, 4 pots should be a minimum (although post 98 cars will have them as standard)
uprate fast road pads (£140)
uprated brake lines (£50-£80) further improve braking responce
uprated groved disks (£140-£250)

for all of the above your probibly loking at £2000-3000

After that it start to become more involved and much more expensive, but also depends on model.

Bake upgrades mentioned above are a must, and possibly the introduction of a uprated 6pot brake kit (£1200 -£2000)

Full uprated suspension, including dampers and springs (£800 for a full kit), adjstable is possibly the best option at this point, they tend to allow even stiffer settings but also allow for softer to be used when required.


Power wise your lookng at changeing the turbocharger, fuel pump and a remap to suite, however you'll hit a limit at around 320bhp on this set up.

roughly an addition £3000 (total £5000-£6000)

to get to where i am now (340bhp)

you'll need, uprated turbo (£250 for a second hand one up to £750 for a brand new vf34), front mount intercooler (£450), induction kit (£100), uprated oil cooler is advisable (£450), a full set of gauges (£650 for defi's), some cars also need new large fuel injectors (£400),

also your at the very top limit of the gearbox, an uprated on is either a straight cut ppg or similar kit (£3000) or a switch to a 6 speed gearbox (£2000). the standard clutch wont cope and will need uprating (£450).

The standard ecu may become a problem at this level (£1500)

now as a rough guess your up around the £11,000-£13,000


Once your past this point then your alkind serious money

the engine isn't up to the job, rods block and pistons can't take te boost pressures and will need replacing. Head bolts wont be strong enough, headers will be restrictive, as well as all the parts monetioned above becomeing also not up to the task.

a full custom rebuild to get to that sort of power your talking (very very rough guide), with varous of the above mentioned parts

£7000+ for 400bhp
£12000+ for 450bhp
£15000+ for 500bhp

and the cost per bhp goes up and up, past this point its so variable as to the cost you can't give guess figures, they have to be priced up professional.


The price shown are rough guides and vary dramaticly depending on tuning company and market prices for parts.

however what i can tell you is there are some off the shelf engine that can gve mega performance and for what they are arn't overly pricey (in context anway lol)

Scoobyclinic do an off the shelf SC450 package which iirc is £12,000 plus vat for a 450bhp engine, icluding suitable clutch and gearbox. hich is very good value indeed, but is a whole different ball game as far as performance goes.

So it goes back to the question, how far do you want to go, and whats your budget.

hope that rough guide helps.