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Is more power worth it?

3426 Views 18 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Jon Seal
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I'm happy with what I have but as always you want more, however bearing in mind every car that has been produced up until now that has had more than 220BHP driven through the front wheels has meant a poorer rather than better car to drive, is it worth it. For example the Astra VXR was 0.5 seconds slower round the Top Gear test track than the 225 but has almost 30BHP more. So my question is do I go for a gradual incraement like an exhaust swap or induction kit or would a remap be useable on the road?
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The Astra VXR is 237hp (240ps) so only 12 more than the Megane. Not had the remap myself but heard good things from those that have. I suppose as long as you feather the throttle in low gears before piling on the power it should be fairly driveable.
dont get confused matey. Renault know how great chassis out of relativley common parts they excel at this, sometimes poor steering feel like the cliosport but such as good chassis that EVO mag rate cliotrophy 3rd best drivers car, the 182 best hothatch all down to the chassis
vauxhaul had to make a sporty car then had to send their astra to lotus. sure they could so what they wanted with the suspension but the chassis was already fixed and it isnt the power that has corrupted imo.

i.e you dont use power on tight corners, perhaps just keep a low.mid constant modulated throttle with steering adjustments trying to get the maximum corner exit speed and posistioning it has nothing to do with peak power as you cant put your foot to the floor around a corner no car can. An F1 car can do circuits with 30mph speed breaker corners, it only does 30mph around these as its the physical maximum speed to go around it a hatchback will also do about 25mph if not 30 on these. its the higher speed corners where grip again is more important than power.

power is really completley irelevent to having any driver involvement or fun and is usually a way to kill yourself or lose your licence faster. it can only be used to overtake another car to prove your dominance in which case a vxr may indeed creep past a 225rs as it has more power (but higher weight and not as good as getting its power down) on any corner it is grip and balance that counts at which the megane is from the two reviews ive read/seen topgear bbc2 ridiculous ammounts of grip as much but with smoke out of the rears as the unstickable Golf R32 4WD, also EVO mag comments about sensational grip levels for a car of its type being a new bench mark with the 225cup (were talking faster than either me and you could drive on UK roads safley or competently)

do you need more power, yes. only if its mapped so the engine is fine, smooth and keeps its characteristic its lack of Turbo LAG. you can only use the advantage on a long straight road to over take another car. so do it but dont worry about corrupting the "lap time" as it will be upto you if you wanna put your foot down all the way around a corner as it is now.

i know id love to get a smooth safe lag free increase with improved economy 280bhp/305lbft would be fine for me (just like the £450 vxr software remap stage 1) that just stage one no sports exhaust or any other mods first generation mod !! scooby eater with there were some better remaps for the megane rather than a "superchip" that just boosts psi

(btw the vxr has more torque)

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so to sumize on my rant.

yes do it but wait until there are better solutions out and maybe just save up for a sports exhaust so when a proper map comes out you can take advantage of this and when you have big power/torque just choose how much you put your foot down :D

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the only way you will get more noticible power from the 225 is by having the remap, iv tried every poss means of getting extra power from my old blue 225 by fitting a induction kit removing all the silencers and just running the cat, winding the boost out on the actuator, but the ecu still stops the power from being let loose,yes you can feel the extra power for a split second but the ecu holds back the boost,

so really if you want extra power but not to much that it spoils the drive and handling of the car then go for the smaller of the 2 remaps from paul, if you dont like it then you have it removed, simple as that.
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Thanks for all your comments guys.

I didn't realise there was a smaller remap, what does this give and is it the same price?

I used to have a 205 Gti many years ago that had a Turbo Technics conversation and that had a two setting boost, one for 140BHP the other for 180BHP. Worked really well. I know that this jut changed the boost as opposed to doing something really clever in the ECU but it would be really cool if the same principal could be applied in order to have power on tap.
yea id like to know about those two maps prices and if there switchable i.e put card in switch to map 1 or 2 with a default map for everytime you dont specify as the high one

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once the maps are on the car they are written to the ECU and not switchable. I think Paul has a potential 300 bhp hip on the way they requires an aftermarket intercooler to allow for 18psi. Should be intresting....
will 300bhp run ok with stock clutch and internals ? bit of a gamble on a expensive hatchback.
its not a VAG mobile im just worried some reno bits may fall apart although im confident the mitsi-reno engine is rock hard its other related items that may just be normal megane that may perish

id be fully happy with 280bhp in a fwd car. i know there is the 260map but to REALLY feel a diffo above 50hp is needed 280 (remap, turboback, intercooler) will allow for safe temps and free flow + some real performance.

once on the roll being FWD it has no trans loss like the evo`s or scoobies 4wd and probably is a few kilo`s lighter also so a 280-300bhp megane will pass a UK STI 265bhp it will still keep pace with a 300bhp full tuned up PPP STI also and i find that quite amusing lol :lol:

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i will be well happy with 280bhp, like you say at least all will stay cool and not out do it self.

have got the zorst fitted, have just sourced a bigger intercooler and the remap is on its next month so 280 i will be happy with, any more it could get expensive
G
So does anyone know the price of the different maps?
Local A-Z usually about £4.50 or you can have a full UK road atlas for around £9.99 :lol:


Sorry couldn't help myself, I think the standard map giving you 267 BHP is at the £400.00 mark for club members
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Scoobies

My 225 with chip will run with a PPP scooby gt - when we go rolling.

Off the line he promptly will open a 4-5 car gap and this will decrease to about 3 car at around 180 or so - but then we back off .

Not too far behind a M3 either :D
K-tec have just released their ' powerbox' claimed extra 20bhp for 4 ton.
megane running gear is off some 300 bhp 4x4 so 300bhp should be well within physical limits, as for engine internals who knows! As long as everythings set up ok it should be fine. REVO shove 24 psi and get 290 bhp on standard cars, there no reason a renault engine should be any weaker than an Audi one, engines and chassis are the only things renault reallty excell at!
dools225 said:
K-tec have just released their ' powerbox' claimed extra 20bhp for 4 ton.
search the other threads, its an ebay resistor and they have sunk to new low`s selling that to potencial car tuners like ourselves. its not like we drive nova`s . £20,000 worth of 2.0T hatchback with complicated engine managment for the twin scroll mitsubishi turbo.

ktecs response

"ok lets buy one of those 20p resistors from ebay and give you tinypower gain for £100"

sad really.

anyways 280 break should be resonable before new bits need adding other than turboback zorst, FMIC, Remap, PanelFilter after that it could be turbo or injectors. you dont want to lose the lag free delivery the megane has as thats one of its best qualities so i wouldnt want a new larger turbo unless it was to deliver lag free performance and i also wouldnt (although this will happen) want to remap to 300bhp without those mods either.

we will see a 300bhp remap and possibly this may run the car fine but in the longer run for those of us who use the power often but want still to get a lot of miles out of the car the long term engine efficiency may be compromised i guess we wont know until some 300hp megane`s with high milege start to fall apart

once again 280 + lots of torque in a fwd hatchback is fine for me

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.... i take on johns comments about engine durability as engines are so tough now compared with their ancestors and even the new peugeot 207 is using a BMW engine ! and renault build with nissan who are very reliable of course the same company who make the 2.5T skyline and that can be tuned upto 1200bhp maybe 300 will be fine but thats still 75bhp more than stock and probably 65lbft more than it was designed to run smoothly and efficiently at.

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that ktec box interupts the signal from the ECU to the injectors telling them to throw more fuel in, the ebay one works by keeping the choke on all the time so the principal is basically the same. That said the ktec resistor mod comes in a nice box! They should talk to RS Tuning and get themselves a proper remap to sell ;)
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