59 Plate Corsa SXI Tuning/Mods Ideas

T

TJ2312

Newbie
Points
21
Location
Gorleston
Car
'59 Corsa SXI 1.4
Hi,

Im new to this forum and need some help/advice im in the process of buying a new vauxhall corsa on finance, only the 1.4 SXI model however i want to know of any engine mods i can do that wont be noticeable to the naked eye or unless you actually drive the car, obv if the car goes in for a service i dont want it to invalidate the warrenty because ive pissed around with the engine so im looking for anyone who knows what i can do to the car to make it run with greater power n torque so ive got the insurance bills of a 1.4 but the power of a 1.6+ im not in the best of finances so please dont suggest spending 5-10k on it but something subtle but effective... any ideas?
 
Hi and welcome to TorqueCars, nice to meet you.

Most mods that are worth having are visible to a trained mechanic. You could change the cam which isn't that obvious but will make the car a fair bit quicker.

I should add though that it is just not worth doing mods without telling your insurers read this article for more details on why http://www.torquecars.com/articles/modified-car-insurance.php
 
hey and welcome to the site.
as said the garage will do anything to get out of the warranty so you really are limited on what you can do
and just for referance you may find that a 1.6 is cheaper to insure than a modded 1.4
 
Or, on the other hand you could go out and spend your money on a mans car that is already fast. I have never understood why people buy brand new cars with small engins and do them up. Why not spend less on a bigger second hand car that is faster, and spend your left over money on innsurance or improvements?????
 
When you're young insurance costs can be a real killer so the temptation is to go with a smaller engine. I have to agree with the sense behind buying used and spending the money on doing it up but we all have our reasons bbj.
 
bigbadjoe said:
Or, on the other hand you could go out and spend your money on a mans car that is already fast. I have never understood why people buy brand new cars with small engins and do them up. Why not spend less on a bigger second hand car that is faster, and spend your left over money on innsurance or improvements?????
Click to expand...

A mans car? Like what? A japanese cracker toy with more electronics than a supercomputer to keep it on the road? ;) Leave the lad alone.

Why did you go for an FQ-300 instead of a 340 or even 400? Many people like certain cars and like to modify and improve them just because they want to.

Small-engined cars can be very fast. I know of 1.4 Uno Turbos and Puntos running mid to low 12's on the quarter, that's quicker than an FQ-300 with 12 squillion % transmission loss.
 
I wasn't saying anything about Evo's. There is a whole list of cars you can go for that are faster then the 1.4 he is interested in buying and a lot cheaper. You have old escorts, Nissan pulsars, Toyota scarlet's, Astra's, supra's (if you can afford insurance) whole list of pugs, ect ect....
All I was suggesting was you don't have to spend all your money on a new car and worry about breaking the warranty. As in the long run you will spend less money on an older car doing it up, paying moor tax and payin to get her fixed if anything goes wrong, then buying a car for 8k and end up paying 11k due to finance.
And the question you asked me, why buy a FQ-300? Why not? You could ask that to everyone who has ever bought a car that is not full spec. I'm sure my FQ-300 would do most cars that you can buy for less then 60k excluding other Evo's. Scooby's don't even get a look in! I could have lied to you all on this web site and told you it was an FQ-400 but that would be dis-honest.
 
I was mirroring your previous question regarding why not go out and buy a car that is faster already. I'm glad you agree with the point I was making that, yes, you can just go out and buy a faster car, but then you can buy an even faster car than that, so where does it end!

Just buy the car you like and if it's not fast enough, make it so. That's the what I was getting at. There's some good looking slow cars out there and equally some fugly but quick cars too.
 
To be honest its not worth modding a small engine car as i had a 1.2 16v punto sporting which had 86 bhp which is very nippy for a small engine but i wanted it faster so i put a cat back performance exhaust on but did not go any faster the only mods worth doing to make any difference on a small engine is cams and remapp but you might only get about 5-8 bhp if your lucky but it will cost between 500-1500 quid to do these mods.
 
Of course there is a point of tuning a small engined car, and thats not just becuase i own a 1.2 and am busy modding it. small engined cars are of course lighter than a bigger engine or a bigger car, i can see the logic in going for the 1.6 corsa however becuase the power is plentyfull for a small car, however anywhere under 21 and your insurnace will be pritty high simply on the size of the engine.

Like I have said in a different post after listing all of my future mods to an insurance compnay for an estimate on the 1.2 corsa D my insurance was around 2000 and correct me if im wrong but the mods im looking to do (found on my profile, or in other threads) would give the 1.2 engine around 160bhp.

Definitely worth gathering some quotes to compare, I say list the mods your wanting to to to the 1.4 an an insurance company and then get a quote on the 1.6 thats the only way to know for sure. :)
 
Id still say I was 100% correct. Why take out a loan to buy a new (ish) car and worry about warranties and stuff, when you could save up a little (will power!) buy a car and insurance in a one er, and not worry about paying £300 a month back for 5 years, in a car you can't change the spark plugs in without getting written permission from Daniel Akerson to get the go ahead!

Save and spend, never spend and pay back. That's what I was told many years ago. Never forget it :blink1::bigsmile:
 
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