[Mk2] [Turbo] Simon Hicks Joins the 500BHP Club

[Peter Gidden]

Many of you will have read of Simon's weekend at the Brighton Speed Trials in last Autumn's MR2Only magazine.

For those of you that haven't, his family have a long history of competing in the B.S.Trials, and he was let down by his previous engine builder, We were asked to get him on the start line so we stepped in to help.

We built him a 2.2 litre sleeved block, fully gas flowed, port matched, big valve head, Piper 264 cams (already purchased by his previous engine builder), GT35R turbo, twin in-tank fuel pumps, plus supporting mods. Mapped by Ryan days prior to the event to 466BHP, he turned in a respectable 12.4 1/4 mile on standard road tyres.

Well, his car has been back with us. We swapped out the cams for a different pair , and look what Ryan has done now! Not only a massive increase in power and torque, but spooling up 500rpm earlier And it purrs like a kitten at 900rpm when idling.

Many thanks to my camshaft supplier, Simon and his dad David, and of course to Ryan at 2BarTuning. Both dyno sessions were at Surrey Rolling Road.

Further supporting mods are planned, after which 600BHP is on the cards...

I'm sure Simon will be along to express his thoughts of what it's like to drive such a beast.

[Sideways Si]

I can't express enough delight at this result, It's been on the cards for sometime now, and patience has finally paid off.

The Torque feels amazing, Ryan needed to get out of the car at least twice to secure the straps on the rollers, it was fighting to get off..

Ryan gave me a heads up warning before the road test by showing me the rear of the car on the rolling Road, As he undone the restraining straps, the rear of the car jumped up about a foot from the sheer tension.,

Ryan pointed out that you can lose some power from the readings through this!..

Anyway, we decided to Road test using 3rd gear, as a sensible precaution, as we needed to be facing the same direction for more then a few seconds.


Ryan said when your ready go right through 3rd to the limit. Just before it came on boost I thought, This can't be much different then before, I was wrong. As my knuckles turned white I wish i'd rested my head against the headrest before we hit boost.

And then when we came to a stop it was just ticking over just like an everyday car, Really.

I was prepared to put up with however rough it ran and undrivable for daily use because of the events I planned to use it in.. But this car can be driven just like any other daily car.. Fantastic..

[Steve Horrocks]

Excellent stuff guys! It's a cracking feeling ain't it?! Sadly I didn't get to be in your 500+ club, but Ryan worked his magic and I know the feeling you mean! Anyway, top work & that graph looks fun!!

[raptor95GTS]

takes off like a scolded cat! Are these at the wheels figures?

[Peter Gidden]

takes off like a scolded cat! Are these at the wheels figures?

Corrected flywheel HP. All Ryan's graphs are flywheel figures, so comparison is consistant.

[ashley]

Wow that's impressive

What boost is that at?

[raptor95GTS]

takes off like a scolded cat! Are these at the wheels figures?

Corrected flywheel HP. All Ryan's graphs are flywheel figures, so comparison is consistant.

fair enough, prefer wheel horsepower but that's not for this topic. It up on what it was before and drives nicely so that's a result

[Dangerous]

nice work peter... what boost was he running...? cr ratio ? fuel etc etc.....

what are the new cams specs.....look good!!

also who built the engine the 1st time ???

[Olly.Dent]

Nice results!! Hoping to see Ryan myself at the end of the week.

Peter im guessing we're both very busy people because that CT27 and downpipe is still sitting on my work bench waiting for you to take away and both you and i have not got round to calling each other!

[Kongaroo]

Wow, congratulations guys - what an awesome build

The difference between the old chart and after the cam change and head work is astonishing - makes it look like a different car, lol. Guess all those hours in the workshop have paid off big time!

That's one heck of a steep torque curve - I bet that forces you back into your seat a little when you hit the go pedal

[Peter Gidden]

nice work peter...

Thanks

what boost was he running...?

28psi for 539BHP. 23psi for 502BHP. Anthing over 23psi and inlet temps climbed, so next job is to upgrade the charge cooler. Ryan is confident the engine will break the 600BHP barrier once we've sorted the charge cooler.

cr?

I'll check it out. It's in a spreadsheet.

fuel

Ordinary pump fuel. Optimax.

nice work peter... what boost was he running...? cr ratio ? fuel etc etc.....

what are the new cams specs.....look good!

Big lift. Big overlap.

also who built the engine the 1st time ???

A friend of Simon's family. Works for a very well known, highly reputed engine builder. Not forum related. Bore clearances so big Ryan called a halt to mapping. Plus lots of other issues once stripped which would have ensured an early failure in any case. No need to name the company as it was not a corporate job.

[Andy F]

I still have this bad boy for sale, was run at 2.2bar for years with max inlet temp of 36deg...price dropped to £400

[Dangerous]

I still have this bad boy for sale, was run at 2.2bar for years with max inlet temp of 36deg...price dropped to £400

hey andy have you tried pm'ing ashman?? i know he was thinking of looking into a similar setup might be worth a try.....

[Andy F]

Think Peter is having bud, cheers though

[greeny]

What core is it on? Radtec?

Congrats to all involved

[Peter Gidden]

What core is it on? Radtec?

Congrats to all involved

Hi Michael. Thanks.

It was on a Radtec.

[greeny]

What core is it on? Radtec?

Congrats to all involved

Hi Michael. Thanks.

It was on a Radtec.

Yeah a few people have seemed to have problems with the radtec at higher boost/power levels. Possibly the core is just to small, which it has to be for where its mounted.

[Peter Gidden]

What core is it on? Radtec?

Congrats to all involved

Hi Michael. Thanks.

It was on a Radtec.

Yeah a few people have seemed to have problems with the radtec at higher boost/power levels. Possibly the core is just to small, which it has to be for where its mounted.

Problem sorted

[sanchi]

Great work peter! As mentioned before all those extremely late nights paid off! Great result!

[JJ]

Good work and a Good read !