Upgrades lined up for the Lancer!

The Lancer is geared up for the next set of upgrades, it has nothing to do with performance at the moment but got gauges to monitor the current status of the car. The Red Racer gauges are from Defi, the best gauges the motoring world has to offer. Oil Pressure and Water Temperature gauges have dropped in, got the tap and the sender to install the oil pressure gauge.

The crave to increase performance of the car, I have two choices up for grabs:

1. Overbore the engine and upgrade with second size pistons but with slight increase in the displacement of the cubic capacity of the engine
   
   
2. Replace the current head with a 4 valve head for more power. A mod at this level, I will have to piggyback a custom ECU for better fuel management and map for the new setup.
   
   
3. Get a GSR 1.8 ltr engine and then mod it further, this is a good option but works out expensive as the engine cost and the additional modding cost is not very invtiting
   
   
4. The great MIVEC engine swap, good power but I still have second thoughts on this upgrade does not excite me much, though could be a good investment

Counting the number of Horses?

An engineer, James Watt came up with the term horsepower and that’s when it all began. More horses is equal to more pulling power and man’s requirements for power never ended from the old ages of bull cart to the sophisticated cars of our time.


Tweak the ECU(Engine Computer Unit):
There are many aftermarket ECU that you can buy off the shelf. A remap of the ECU could give you some increase in performance giving an edge over the stock engines of the other cars of the same model on the street. We can also piggy back a secondary ECU to toggle between street and sport mode as seen on some of the high-end luxury sports cars. We have Racedynamics in India who does professional install.

Cold Air intake:
Improved airflow with the use of an Cold Air Intake system helps increase low end torque a little bit. This contraption will introduce cooler air into the combustion chamber of an engine which directly increases the power of the engine.


Free flow exhaust:
One of the components thats quick and ready to improve a car performance would be an upgrade of the Headers. The header makes it easier for the engine to push the combustion gases out. The engine pumps out its power through the back pressure created during the exhaust stroke. The valves open during the exhaust strokes and the pistons thrust the exhaust out of the cylinder and if there is any resistance to the piston then there is loss of power. Here is where an extra valve and larger one would help to increase and improve the flow of the gases.

Upgrade Engine head and cams:
The engine head and cams are one of the important component that influence the performance of a car. Overbore and sports spec cams can do a whole lot lot difference to the performance of the car. An overbore is where the diameter of the cylinder is increased based on the type of car and the engine’s cubic capacity. A larger size piston is replaced to match the new modified cylinder. This would increase compression of the engine which will churn out more power and you will find significant difference in performance having this mod done.

Pedders suspension upgrade

You are on a highway topping around 160kmph and there is a curve up ahead. What are you going to do? Tempted to step on the gas pedal and make the curve like Kitt from the Knight Rider show? I guess not! Our cars are not sophisticated enough to handle such a beating or rather challenging forces of speed.

A few weeks ago I was driving on a highway at cruising speed of 100 – 120kmph the stock suspension of the car was giving away while take a 70 degree curve bends at classified speeds(Gulp!). That’s when I decided its about time I got better hold on the car and went onto place my order for the sports suspension from Pedders(Australia).

Expensive, but worth every penny, having a sophisticated suspension system. My feedback in one word after the upgrade is “Fabulous”. The car just sticks to the road while cornering and road holding is just unbelievable. What makes this system effective you may wonder and there is a whole lot of research and innovation behind this suspension system.













The unique VRD(Velocity Responsive Dampening System) is the key to my cool experience with the Pedders suspension kit. Pedders developed the VRD valve that has a micro orifice located in the shock absorber piston through which the oil flow is regulated or controlled resulting in progressive shock response rate. The narrow passage opens up for free flow of oil at low shock speeds but restricting the flow at higher speed rates when oil velocity increases. The end result is a very accurate and responsive shocks giving you solid control of the car at high speeds and cornering.









The kit that I have on my car is as follows:
Front: Pedders Comfort gas CRD (re-valved to sports ryder specfication)
Rear: Pedders Sports Ryder

Camber your way through corners!

I always wanted to lower my car by installing lowering springs and upgrade the dampening system as well to compliment the springs to perform some amount of shock absorption to give a comfortable ride. While doing such a mod the camber angle of the wheels changes and this leads to greater wear and tear and more stress on the tires and directly affecting the handling of the car. So in case you want better handling you might not want lower the car at all unless you want just style.

The camber adjustment kits alter the angle of the vertical axis of the wheels. What does this contraption do to a car you may wonder? The camber assists and improves handling of a car with better traction and road holding capabilities of the wheels. The camber angles are of two types Negative camber and Positive camber. Its like this, when you look at the wheels facing the front side of the car and if you see the bottom part of the wheel angled to be pushed out further than the top point of the wheel then its negative camber and positive camber when the top portion of the tyre is pushed out. In simple words the wheel when its slanting with the top portion of the tyre near the edge of the wheel arch go outward its negative camber and vice versa.

If you drive a car on a track or a hill where there is more right turns then its idle to have a camber specification configured to handle the right turns effortlessly with less body roll and very good road handling.

The camber adjustment is measured in metrics calculated in degrees. So instead of having the entire rubber make contact of the road, the car will ride on the edge of the tyres with appropriate adjustment and the end result is very responsive handling of the car on corners at high speed.

When the car requires more straight line speed then better traction is achieved when the tyres are a perfect 0 degree shift, that is a perfect 90 degree angle of the tire with complete usage of all the flat area of the tires.

Motorheader Reader's Contribution!

Its summer time and we need some excitement while being at home and Motorheader invites its readers to share information of your car with mods and upgrades that has gone into it. This can cover anything from the Car Audio upgrade, Performance Upgrade, Bodykits anything that you think is unique and can beat any car in India.

So you got something on your car that will blow minds of Motorheader blog readers? If yes then drop in a mail with all the information of the car and your experience with it. The entries will be reviewed and the best mod will be published here on Motorheader, wait no more, send us your entries on word document or through mail right away at s.vicky@gmail.com.

Wait! there is more, the contributor's entry that will be published also gets a free Motorheader T shirt as a complimentary gift. We are doing this purely to bring the people from the mod car community together who can share their thoughts and experiences with one another.

Radio controlled race cars in Chennai

Who says you cant be a race driver without a racer’s license? Ever dreamt of driving a race car at high speeds on a race track, well! Its not a dream anymore. Chennai will soon see people driving petrol engine driven sophisticated Radio Controlled race cars. These are scale model high performance race cars that can reach speeds upto 100kmph and you the people of Chennai and around the country can lay your hands on the remote control to drive these little beasts.

Shivakumar Kamallakharan, the man behind this unique concept shares some information on the cars, the Nitro GP cars are capable of running 100+ kmph so are the buggys and the electric GP cars are capable of running at around 80+kmph. The cars are 1/10 scale with four wheel drive, individual suspension with oil filled shock absorbers with carbon fibre disc brakes. The car shods slick tires and also comes with wet weather tires for wet weather racing. So guys zip up and get ready for all the action.

These are very expensive and sophisticated RC toy cars with so much detailing, you have adjustable suspension and so on. Shivkumar also says that its not restricted to just guest who visit his venue but there are packages for Corporates as well with yearly membership system and it also extends itself by allowing corporate to advertise their brand on the cars for a price.

There are cars callipered to only Drift on the track, if there are 2 drivers competing each other then no problem at all, there are 2 cars of the same specification for racers to compete against each other with no advantage over each other. The same for other racing category.

The Dirt Track is almost ready and the GP track is under construction. The venue will have air conditioned tents a canteen to keep you fresh while the race is on. Watch this space for more updates on this front.

ECU remap for performance!

Gone are the days of the distributor where we had to go through the painful task of timing the spark of the ignition to get the exact curve on the RPM band. The Technology has scaled up and given us ECU that controls everything on an engine and also enhance performance with ease. So instead of mechanically tunning the engine we do it electronically.

We are talking ECU(Engine Control Unit) here, its the computer processor, a chip that contols the ignition timing, turbo system, air and fuel mixture and many other core functions of the engine. The ECU is primarily driven by a computer software embedded within the chip which has values tied to each components of the engine. These values are called MAPS and on modifying these values the behavior and performance of the engine varies.

The ECU on cars when they roll out from the factory are cars tuned to perform and burn fuel for ultimate fuel efficiency and not compromise on performance for road use. The MAP on the ECU are exclusively pre-caliberated for engines with the specific configuration or power and strictly complies with street legal specifications.


Alright now let us get to the interesting part, how do we bypass the stock ECU and squeeze the raw and real power out of the engine. Remaping or replacing an ECU requires an expert who understands the chip technology and software to tune and caliberate the electronics. The chip is re-programmed using an emulator that simulates a real engine which helps the programmer to rewrite the MAP values to achive more power from the engine. This can also be done by plugging a laptop the ECU on an engine and tune the car directly using the software.

A car with a Turbo system can really give you results by remapping the ECU, but most of us atleast here in India do not own a Turbo charged car. No it does not stop there the ECU upgrade can still make a difference on a non turbo car but only after modifying the compression ratio, updgrade the air intake, exhaust system, performance spec cams, pistons and large valves. After these upgrades are done then get your custom ECU in to get the full juice and taste of super power from your engine. We have cars in India integrated with remaped ECUs for Indian Disel and Petrol cars. Taste the meat already?

Subwoofer and Amp installation

My installer friend M. Kannan from Cats India(Chennai), GP road gets onto work, a solid plank is drilled to have my Phoenix Gold Monoblock and my old multi-channel Infinity amp sit side by side. The Kicker dual amp wiring kit is unpacked and the power cables are connected to the battery and pulled all the way to the rear of the car to power up the amps. I might need to get a power stiffener called the Capacitor to make sure that both amps get consistent power supply they need.

Now with everything installed its time to have my ever so reliable Alpine headunit to start playing my favorite music. Believe me the bass is now on the spot tight synching well with the music without booming. Even with the gain on the amp adjusted only half way through its settings it is still able to produce a whole lot of power. Iam loving every bit of the install.

Chop work for your car!

It has been a long long time and Motorheader is now back with a Scoop of a Skoda in India, chopped to look like a coupe. Most of us have always dream t of having a sports coupe or a car that not only looks sporty but also move quick as it looks. Lets leave the performance side of it and focus on this unique looking Skoda. If you notice the Skoda on the picture above, the rear end of the car is chopped off making room for the front doors to extend and fill up the rear hollow cast . Iam not in a position to comment on the handling of the car as I haven't got the opportunity to test drive it.










Its not just the body work we are talking here, the paint job will definitely turn many heads around as you drive by the busy streets of our city. I have more pictures of the car though but I will update this post with more details soon.

Happy New Year Motorheaders!

Wishing all Motorheader readers a very Happy New Year 2009 and a wonderful year ahead. Motorheader has lot more to offer in 2009. Please keep Motorheader pumped up with your comments and regular follow up of motorheader by registering to the RSS feed, the link on the right side top of this blog.

Wishing every a Safe and Smooth ride through the year. All the best.