Handling/Suspension upgrades
Many Bakkie 1200 owners uprate the handling of their cars with tuning suspension modifications as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.
Good suspension tweaks that usually improve handling for the Bakkie 1200 include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe out on the front wheels.
We would go to a maximum drop of 33mm -48 mm. on most models. You risk grounding out if you go lower than this.
Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more bhp out of the top end.
Tuning modifications.
These are the modified upgrades are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you begin.
The top cheap mod is to smooth out and drill the airbox, and drop in a high flowing cotton air filter.
Getting the best motorsport modifications for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.
Stage 1 mods: Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels, Remap, Suspension upgrade (drop 33mm - 48 mm.), Panel air filter, Sports exhaust.
Stage 2 mods: Fast road cam, Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector.
Stage 3 mods: Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Engine balancing.
You really need to keep as much low end power as possible and aim to get a wide power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.
The aim of our advice is to give a brief overview of modifying upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your tuning project, the best motorsport parts and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road camshaft usually proves to be one of the best NASP power mods you can do mechanically to your engine.
The intake and exhaust valve timings play a major role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip to fully release the power gain.
Don't forget to increase the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.
Using higher octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from detonation or premature ignition on your Toyota project after fitting other modified mods. To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.
If you are increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Contrary to popular belief there is usually a small power gain achieved by fitting an induction kit, they only work well and are recommended after you raise the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!
Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for Bakkie 1200 engines you should just fit a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.
Do not go with the widest exhaust you can get this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1 to 1.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.
flowed (porting and polishing) 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 In nearly all cases of Bakkie 1200 tuning your clutch will start to slip and this needs an upgrade - read our article on
clutches for more information. The best mods that we recommend for your Bakkie 1200 are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.
Turbo engines are just begging to be
flashed. You will see significant power gains on most modern turbo engined cars including
diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and significant modifications for your money.
We've also seen some tuners toying with
twincharging conversions and making some very high power gains.
Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. It is more challenging to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with engine speed.
The nice directly proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Adding forced induction will generally require a
lower compression ratio or water injection.
Alloy wheel upgrades.
Alloy wheels can help the brakes cool down and are generally less heavy than steel ones. We can't go into too much detail here about tires but they are how the car puts the power down on the road so are a critical choice. directional tread pattern tires work well on Bakkie 1200, and make a big difference over budget tires. The drawback to large rims on your Bakkie 1200 is that you're altering your final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration and performance.
Due to this fact try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the recommended OEM sizes. In all cases we do not recommend going bigger than 16 inches.
