Great Car Need A Little More Power

[malfranco]

Hi my is Malcolm

I have owned a Lexus IS200 Sport for about 6 weeks now and I am very impressed my friend has a 318 coupe and the trim, spec and quality of the interior is not anywhere near as good as my Lexus. Lots of people have commented on the looks of the car and you feel special and exclusive in it much more than the BMW.

The only thing I am a little disappointed in engine at low revs being a 2litre straight six I expected a bit better 0-60, don't get me wrong the engine is smooth as silk, but I had a Seat CupraVT 20V 1.8 before and would slaughter this car the Seat was a load of rubbish though had nothing but trouble with it.

I do around 17,000 miles a year so I need suggestions on what might give me better performance without comprimising fuel economy. Supercharger sounds like a good idea however my friend reckons that would drink fuel round town.

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

[TonyGoose]

Supercharger sounds like a good idea however my friend reckons that would drink fuel round town.

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

When poodling round, there's very little difference in fuel consumption.

In fact, i've not really noticed any difference overall either....

and i blast around whenever i get the chance.

[malfranco]

Supercharger sounds like a good idea however my friend reckons that would drink fuel round town.

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

When poodling round, there's very little difference in fuel consumption.

In fact, i've not really noticed any difference overall either....

and i blast around whenever i get the chance.

What sort of price are looking at for a supercharger then?

[Claire G]

I had a Seat CupraVT 20V 1.8 before and would slaughter this car the Seat was a load of rubbish though had nothing but trouble with it.

I test drove the Seat CupraVT and the performance was great but I felt the interior/overall spec wasn't as high as the Lexus. When I phoned up to get insurance quotes on the Seat, when the insurance people stopped laughing, I was being quoted i.r.o £4-6k !!!!!

With the Lexus, use Shell Optimax, you should get more mpg

[Matthew_McNally]

What sort of price are looking at for a supercharger then?

click on the TDI link at the top of the page mate.

but bear in mind that

1 - TDI have previously done 'group buy' type deals on the supercharger. last one bought the price down to £2500, but there had to be three people wanting one. Mark from TDI is a regular on these boards (his username is tdiplc) - I'm sure he'll be along shortly to correct my errors ;) . I believe Mark was talking about another group buy in the new year.

2 - Become a Gold Member - you will get discounts that will lower the cost of your modifications, not to mention servicing and insurance. You will save more than the £25 annual subscription in your first mod ;)

[malfranco]

I had a Seat CupraVT

With the Lexus, use Shell Optimax, you should get more mpg

Do all Shell garages sell Optimax and do you need to convert your Lexus to run it?

[simonskippy]

My fuel economy has only altered because I like thrashing the car around now I have the S/C, if I am round town then it makes no discernable difference to the fuel economy

Cheers

Si

[Matthew_McNally]

Do all Shell garages sell Optimax and do you need to convert your Lexus to run it?

All Shell's I have been have sold optimax, including those on service stations.

you do not need to do anything to your car to use optimax mate.

[greeneyes]

I would also like more mid-range power in my Altezza. The power at 7500 rpm is fine, but they are very flat at 3500-4500. Can they be turbo'd, or is the compression ratio too high already? Just a mid-range boost with no increase at the top end would be ideal, enough to reduce the need for 3rd gear at 90kph to overtake...

[GRiM]

The good news is, you can do more to an Altezza to improve performance than you can do to a UK spec Lexus.

HKS do a turbo kit for the Altezza.

See here for more info.

[Monster-Mat]

so do blitz

[toreknudsen]

What about chip tuning of the IS200?? Can you get som Hp out of that. You'll see BMW and Audi that easily get 30-40 HP extra just by doing this. Low cost!

(Guess somebody have asked about that somewhere that I can't find in this forum)

[GRiM]

The current tried and tested option is an ECU upgrade and custom remap tailored specifically to your engine.

See our friends at TDI-PLC for more info.