I am throwing this out for commentary - it seems the board has been stale as of late.

Has anyone considered, that for a given mod to a car, instead of looking at the peak horsepower increase, looking at the total increase in the area underneath the horsepower / engine RPM curve (some calculus for all of the mathematicians out there!)?

It seems that most everyone is obssessed with peak horsepower numbers. The "I want 300 hp" post being a perfect example, in that while looking to be more of a hypothetical thought exercise than anything, it shows a mindset that quoted horsepower figures are more important than a car that actually goes fast. Example - if car A has 150 horsepower but can still beat car B which has 200 horsepower in straight line acceleration, does it really matter than car B's owner can boast a dyno slip that says "200 hp"?

The 4G94 is a low revving economy car motor. Instead of looking for huge high rpm power, why not cater to the motor's strengths? A paradigm shift of sorts away from the honda mentality (its actually a motorcycle mentality - but thats a tirade for another place). Build a motor with a big, fat powerband. Ignore peak horsepower, and instead focus on the power that you are going to be using 95% of the time while driving, the low and midrange. Lose the 200 pounds of stereo equipment and the 50 pound body kit. Lose anything which does not make a positive contribution, and you can live without.

Its not going to be the fastest car on the street. Not even close. Even the forced induction beauties I have seen/heard about on this site are not terribly fast. But will it be a fun car to drive? By all means.

 

Personally my goal has been and always will be a car that's fun as hell to drive, looks clean and that I did a lot of the work on. Plain and simple, I think it's a far more realistic and attainable goal than aiming for numbers on a dyno or times on a track. There's a couple pieces of copper for ya.

 

Well if I was looking for a high hp car, the lancer certainly wouldn't have been my choice. Having said that, my goals are to lighten the car as much as possible, and some type of forced induction down the road, once I have saved up enough (and more options are available). Not really looking for any certain dyno numbers, just a good, quick daily driver.

 

i definitely agree. i'm looking for a fun car, not a car that has 400 hp or anything. although hooking up a car is fun, being realistic is just better

 

I agree also I want a fast car that looks nice and might even win some trophys. I'm going to go forced injection down the road also and I know that it's not going to be the fastest car around but that mother ****ers gonna move. Anything around 200-220 in a little car like ours is gonna GO NICE.

 

You gotta keep your car balanced. If you want a fast ride, but good looks, you should sacrifice the body (kit) like DannoH said. That, or go on a diet.

Realisticly, its not a speedster, or sports car of any kind, but like a lot of you will agree, its a blast to drive!



D

 

But i want the best of both worlds...a car that DOES boast of hi hp and is pretty damn fast....but I do know what you are saying...

 

I just want an evo....nuff said!

 

I bought my Lancer because it was a nice looking car that didnt cost alot. People call me nuts, but I have always thought the Lancer had a bit of IS 300 in it, which was what I wanted. I saw a Thunder Grey OZ, and I was sold. That being said, I knew with a 120 hp sohc engine big hp was never going to happen, but even over a year ago I was on this board asking if the OZ could be turned into a autocross handling machine. The opinion was if someone came out with suspension mods for it, it could hold its own. Here we are a year later and Im sure anyone whos auto crossed their stock Lancer can agree it holds its own quite well.

So I bought my car because of price and the fact that going fast in a straight line did not interest me. As far as modding for hp, I will but just because a few hp will be nice coming out of slow turns on course, and damn its fun to rip apart a car and put it back together. Now if I just had a heated garage....

 

i think the lancer favors the IS300 as well. i have a yellow OZ and have parked next to a yellow IS. there are alot of similarities between the two.

haulin *** aside, the car is a blast to drive and i wouldn't trade it for any other car in it's class.( not the evo's class. just the lancer, civic, integra, etc. class)

 

i agree with the is300 comparison also, my ex used to have one and when parked next to eachother they had a lot of similarities

 

the 300 hp post is a post that is geared towards people that want 300 peak hp but in our lancer if you have a car that has 300 peak hp your gonna be running in the 13's if not lower that said i know the lancer is not a real power machine but its fun to drive and even more fun to work on its my first real project car and the fact that its a sohc with 2.0L and 16 valves makes it great to tune for beginners the 300 hp thread was made to weed out people who want to just put some basic boltons on or people who say slap a turbo on there, a few basic boltons and a turbo will not yield 300 hp you have to actually tune anyway you do bring up a good point, about having a power band that is more constant this is not an easily attainable goal due to the fact that the lancer is only a four cyl trying to just move lol smooth power band is what i was looking for, some ignition work and fuel work accomplishes that problem basically the lancer needs more whp either way you look at it if its a constant power band get the quad tb otherwise get the turbo

that should spawn some new ideas and responses lol

 

I'm all for modding and customization, but, it should be said that trying to make a car something that it is not for exorbitant amounts of money is ridiculous. I mean, for instance, there was that integra in the USCC, and was boasting 80K worth of mods... as much as the price of the Viper that won the Challenge.

I agree with improving upon a car's strong points, and as such, think that emphasis should be given to improving the drivability, and low to mid end horsepower. Even a turbo isn't overkill, but, it should be noted that when you're trying to get power out of an engine not designed for it, it's not gonna be cheap. So, I say throw money at a "problem" that's going to have a definite, and complete solution. Shooting for numbers is kind of lame, in my opinion, and I don't think that most serious tuners set out to hit a certain number, more like they try and get the absolute most reliability/power from their engine possible.

 

Actually one of my personal goals with this rice rocket is to smooth out the curves Horsepower and Torque. Hopefully I'll learn how soon enough?

 

See, that's the type of goal set by a real tuner. I don't think that this "What's it gonna take to hit 250" or whatever is very realistic, or the right tuning mindset.