C2 Tuning

"Thank you for reading my C2 tuning guide."

The C2 is popular among our members for tuning projects due to its low cost and small size. We get asked questions for some tips on improving the C2 and which tuning modifications we rate as the greatest, so we've put together this guide to cover the primary areas and methods of modifying and tuning on the C2 engine.

This all helps to keep insurance premiums down and we tipped the C2 to be the ideal first car when residual values have dropped to a more affordable level, which has certainly borne out.

The small chassis, great styling and great handling add up to make a great car, and a fantastic tuning project.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best mods for your C2

  1. Remaps - A Remapped C2 ECU provides the most power in terms of cost, aftermarket ECUs, and inline Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
  2. Fast road Camshafts are generally the biggest mechanical mod upgrade, but they must be setup by someone who knows what they are doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
  3. Air Induction and Performance Exhausts - NB: on their own these mods won't ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
  4. C2 Handling Mods (suspension) - Fitting a more sporty Suspension kit greatly enhances your C2 road holding and cornering. Adjustable coilovers and better bushings are what is needed here.
  5. Brake Upgrades - Enhancing your stopping power needs to be listed in your priority list.
  6. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

C2 Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 28mm - 36mm), Alloy wheels, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Competition cam, Sports gearbox, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Engine balancing.

C2 Handling/Suspension Upgrades

Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the C2.

We suggest that you fit performance suspension and lower the car by 29 - 40 Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.

Adjusting the handling is often the first step in using the C2.Adjusting the C2's handling is often the first step in tweaking it.

When it comes to modifying your C2, one of the most often aims and objectives is to improve its handling. However, we repeatedly come across the same mistakes.

What considerations must you make when setting up and selecting your suspension if your C2 serves as a daily car as well?

Upgrading your Bushes

Enhancements to the bushings: Things you need to know

The suspension components of the C2 may be mounted and moved around the car's chassis through bushes, which are rotating rubber mounts. The rubber ones will degrade with time.

By replacing new OEM rubber bushings, you may greatly improve your vehicle's performance.

Because polyurethane bushes are stiffer, the ride may be rougher, but the bushes will last longer and maintain the car's handling over a longer time.

We see too many C2 owner's with really low, hard suspension, massive alloy wheels and drainpipe exhausts and then they complain that they have ruined the car.

Follow our guide to avoid the common mistakes in C2 tuning and upgrades and make your C2 project one of the best out there.

This car replaces the credible Saxo and Citroen have improved and revised the car offering a more mature grown up styling and an overall better package.

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

Many C2 owners uprate the handling of their cars with performance suspension upgrades as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Putting some negative camber on the wheels and around 1 to 1.7 degrees of toe in to improve stability or toe out for better cornering, will substantially improve your C2 in handling and cornering.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 28mm - 36mm and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Larger drops may require arch work - especially on models already equipped with sports suspension.

Top end power should be your overall aim on the C2 with a nice fat peak torque band.

Keep the car looking standard and remove the badges for the ultimate sleeper!

Sadly the 1.1 and 1.4 engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power to cost ratio, so start with a bigger engine like the 1.6 VTR or VTS and even the 1.4 HDi. Engine swaps to these larger engines are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Citroen C2 Tuning modifications.

Peak power is all well and good but a drivable and fun car needs a wide power band and lots of low down torque.

These mods &  motorsport modifications are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you get going.

If you fit a fast road cam and supercharger you will also need to uprade the air intake and exhaust. Just adding an exhaust and air intake on the smaller engines will kill your low end torque and create flat spots.

Getting the correct grade of fast road upgrades for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

Your aim when tuning should be a nice flat torque curve. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end unless you are creating a competition car.

A fast road cam will be one of the best power mods you can do mechanically to your engine. When pushing up the power you will need to pay attention to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

A fuel pressure boost valve can make the car more responsive and respond better although it will not increase the power output. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Citroen C2 Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Induction kits work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), for the smaller C2 engines you should go with a sports panel air filter.

A good sports exhaust is essential to balance your freer flowing air filter, just adding an induction kit on it's own will do little to increase your power.

Gas flowing the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools.

Your clutch can seriously let you down if it starts to slip and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 50%. Fit an uprated clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission.

If you own one of the HDi Diesels engines based on the Ford DLD engine you can easily up the power by applying a remap, these offer significant power gains on all turbo charged cars and keep the reliability and fuel economy you bought the C2 for.

On the Petrol engines in the C2 range the benefits are doubtful. However a tune/remap on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods perhaps adding another 10 or so bhp.

If you are power mad then adding forced induction will see big power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Turbos are harder to add than supercharger because on a  turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed and this makes it hard to map.

It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

We recommend a specialist who can setup the mapping and provide a full supercharger or turbo kit for your C2. You could always drop in a larger engine from the Citroen range but as the car is still quite new we haven't at the time of writing this seen any engine conversions done. If you know of any drop us a line in the comments field below or join our forum and see what our C2 members are up to!

Citroen C2 Wheel modifications.

The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. Large C2 alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio. For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our car forums where you can discuss C2 options in more detail with our C2 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Citroen tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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2 Responses to “C2 Tuning”

  1. paul king says:

    I own a citroen c2 1.6 VTS HDI and i want as much performance out of it as possible ive had it remapped first but im getting a new exhaust ont the 4th of feb i would like to know what other performance parts i could add to pump up my performance can you email me back with all your suggestions please.

  2. dean says:

    is the rear subframe the same on a C2 GT as C2 VTR/VTS ?

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