Room for a few more ponies under the hood?

One of my customers has an 06 Exige that he has been trying to sell me for the past month!!

The first thing is that these cars are a pain in the nice person to get in and out of!! I am in good shape and not overweight and I still had an "interesting" time getting into the thing. I thought it drove really well and handled extremely well. Very nimble and "tossable" but can definately use more power. The car does not seem to come alive until after 6k RPM. It desperately needs some kind of forced induction to overcome the lack ot torque on the bottom.

If I were to purchase this car it would only be a toy for me and for fun. I would then right away bolt a supercharger on that puppy and tune it on the chassis dyno!! Then it would really be a lot of fun!

Getting back to the point at hand in regard to the Prius, I personally do not think that there is any appreciable amount of power that can be had by simple exhuast system upgrades. Generally when you put an aftermarket muffler on or replace the entier exhaust all that results is that it is louder and often times there is a power reduction, especially in torque.

Remember these are only 1500 cc engines and with an A/F ratio approaching 15-16:1, they are not designed for power and torque but for efficiency and fuel economy.





<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DocVijay @ Oct 25 2006, 02:06 PM) [snapback]338100[/snapback]</div>

 

I really dislike engines that you have to rev to the moon to make the car movie out of its own way. For example my wife drives a Honda S-2000. It makes 240 HP but you sure would not know it by the way it feels.

Personally I like a car that has a broad torque curve, not one that makes 30 lbs of torque until it hits 6,000 RPM's then goes to 130.

I am aware that the Lotus powertrain is a Toyota. I really think that this engine NEEDS either more displacement or forced induction. Bolting on a supercharger would be the easiest way to get a lot more power out of this powerplant and boy it could really use it!!



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 25 2006, 09:18 PM) [snapback]338358[/snapback]</div>

 

I kinda like cars with what I call a 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality. Cool, calm, and collected most of the time, with a snarling beast lurking within, ready and willing when you are. Personally, they're easier to drive around town than those muscle cars with stump-pulling torque that chirp the tires everytime you shift, and more fun when you get to take them off their leash. Not that I have any objections to a supercharger...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 25 2006, 02:10 PM) [snapback]338103[/snapback]</div>

So tell us, Pinto Girl, why does your Prius still have only 4 cylinders? You don't really need all that room in the back anyway, and you should do something creative with that spare flat 12 you have in the garage...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 27 2006, 11:55 AM) [snapback]339518[/snapback]</div>

May I suggest getting your "aggressions" out with Gran Turismo 4 on the Playstation 2 where you can buy a Prius, and then progressively replace parts to your desire as well as turning off VSC and TRAC. Most appropriate with a Logitech PS2 steering wheel. Then drive it all over the rugged roads of the world. :lol:

My GT4 Prius with all the port polishing, engine and body lightening, chip tuning, suspension tuning, still is a bit slow versus say a Mini Cooper S, but the Prius can sure hang and carve on the turns. I haven't decided if I wanted to replace the CVT with manual tranny yet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 25 2006, 11:37 PM) [snapback]338461[/snapback]</div>

I also so clips of an electric version of the Atom modified by another company. I wouldn't mind getting either!

 

I thought about getting an Atom instead of the Exige, but at least the Exige is "practical." It almost hurt my fingers typing in the word pradctical in reference to the Lotus, but compared to the Atom it really is. But my god what a car the atom is. On Top Gear, it was driven by Jermey Clarkson, who has driven just about every high performance car on the planet. When he drove the Atom, he said it was the most intense car he had ever driven! That really says a lot.


Back to the Prius (sort of). There have been some comments about the engine being small, at 1.5L. Well, first keep in mind that the Lotus Elise has a 1.8L engine, and it is upgradeable to 380 hp with the Forced Fed 380R turbo package (don't ask about price! I mean it!). There are also drag racing Civics out there with 1.5L engines with upwards of 700hp and more.

The small size of het engine is not a problem. What IS a problem is the high compression, the Atkinson cycle, and probably the CVT (no idea on power capacity, although with 295 lb/ft it seems to be OK). In a heavily computer regulated car like the Prius, it's not so easy to plug and play. Kinda miss the good old days. I'm plannign on building a 1972 Corvette for my wife with a Chevy 572 crate motor. That is easy stuff to work with. I've been planning it for a couple of years now, and I calculated that I'll be able to get around 780hp on pump gas. But the point is, in this car I can do things like throw in a new tranny, or headers, or whatever, and there's no computer that is going to suddenly revolt becuase the readings it's getting from some fo the 10 million sensors are out of the spec'd range. I could get a 2006 Corvette Z06 crate motor which would be a lot smoother and more refined, but once again it has all those sensors and a stupid ECU to get in the way. That old style 572 is ALL mechanical. Sure as hell don't need a laptop to tune it! This is the biggest issue with cars these days, way to much computer processing going on. Granted, cars these days wouldn't be as much fun and are much better than older cars in way too many way to count, but with each computerized advance it took a lot of options out of the enthusiasts hands.

Heck, look at hte hoops I had to jump through just to get a regular audio signal out of the Prius's stereo!

These computers are a belssing and a curse at the same time.

Thena gain, computers also give us cars like the new 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo. My god that is an awesome car. The computer controlled variable vane turbo is simply breathtaking. Literally. This thing is so damn fast it's rediculous! One of my wife's partners got a white one, and of course I had to beg for a ride. WOW! So while I hate computers, I also love them. Oh, and this is one car where the automatic is FASTER than the manual (computer keeps the turbo spinning spooled up at all times, so there is less lag.. very clever!). But I'll be damned if there's a single thing that I could modify on it that I wouldn't need a laptop with some prety special software to recalibrate the ECU.

Damn, damn, damn. I want to hate them but I love them too much.

Sorry, too much insane ranting now. I pray that none of the rest of you get a terminal car-mod infection like I have. If you do, may god have mercy on your wallet!

 

I just got finished putting a Porsche TT on the dyno. I actually thought that it would put down a lot more power than it did!! Kind of dissapointing really... Oh well, they sure drive really nice though!!






<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DocVijay @ Nov 2 2006, 04:05 PM) [snapback]342678[/snapback]</div>

 

Hey Pinto, if you want speed get an Mitsubishi Evo. The Prius is my first car, but i've driven an Evo. OMG the experience was transcending... It helped that my friend's Evo had 450+ to WHp too Eh, and it's a decent Grocery Car. IMHO only the Ariel Atom can top that in terms of cars that I'd like to have (And can possibly afford some day) but the Atom is about ($65K~80K) Dependant on whether you assemble it yourself or not. I've actually gotten quotes from Ariel USA. Oh, and btw the Evo is only $30k. The Prius is a commuter car! No point in making it something it's not really meant to be.

Handling can still substitute for speed though. You don't have to be able to hit 100+ getting the freeway on ramp, just corners at 30Mph can make some 'Macho Men' weak in the knees. You've already got the Sportivo set. Can't you corner hard?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Nov 2 2006, 09:52 PM) [snapback]343041[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, I know... actually they made that change only recently. Just for fun i signed up and configured one in June and they still had the Honda engines. The only problem was they had them as the top two tiers in terms of power/price. I just logged in a few minutes ago to their website and it's different. Sadly, what you said is true... only GM enginez....

I'm not a really good with technical car stuff, but i wonder if it's possible to fit an Evo's engine on that Atom chasis. Sheesh that would fly... It'd be pretty kool to possibly see the turbo spin up too. haha. Oh, I need to make a correction the very Base (And i'm talking without windshield) model of the Atom you can order is $41K++. And you're screwed if it rains.
See it here on You Tube
ARIEL USA