Mitsubishi Carisma Tuning

"Plenty of Charisma"

Designed for the European market and aimed at the family market you wouldn't exactly call the Carisma a tuners dream. It was build for comfort reliability and economy - the 3 things we are about to throw out of the window!

Improving the handling should be your first priority in your Carisma tuning project. We would go to a maximum drop of 35-44mm on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

Our aim in Carisma engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end. Sadly though there are not much engine choices on offer with the 1.8 being the most powerfull. An early Evo or VR4 engine should radically alter the docile nature of this car though!

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size. It's a sad fact but you really shouldn't waste time and money on the standard engine options.

Mitsubishi Carisma Tuning modifications.

After the engine swap you can (if you still yearn for extra power) go with some fast road cams which offer one of the biggest performance gains as far as a bolt on part goes. You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling.

Improve your cars response to the throttle with a Fuel pressure boost valve. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine. When increasing your fuelling you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Mitsubishi Carisma Intake and Exhaust.

Breathing mods are usually next up. For small Carisma engine sizes go with a washable panel air filter. But if your exhaust is too larger (over 2.5 inches bore) you will lose back pressure on most engines.

When you start tuning your Carisma you will find that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. NASP engines do not achieve big power gains if you remap them but with turbo engines this is another story.

Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation. This however will be more expensive than an engine swap.

Mitsubishi Carisma Wheel modifications.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually lighter than the steel ones. It is worth noting that although they can look cool on the Carisma Big alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance.

The larger you go the lower you top speed will be due to the change in your effective final drive ratio. For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 17 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no issues arising.

Please join us in our forum to discuss the Carisma options in more detail with our Carisma owners. It would also be worth reading our car tuning articles to get a full grasp of the pros and cons of each type of modification.