Hi Guys,

I'm thinking of getting a Cinquecento for my next project car. I'll be doing it mostly for the fun of doing it, but it might find its way to a track day. To keep up with the slowest cars on track it will need 90+ BHP or 80 odd and some serious lightening.

I don't want to do anything electrical or to swap the ECU, but I'm quite happy to get my hands oily. I was thinking of a 1.2 8v swap with a skimmed head and a 286 cam. Plus bigger throttle body and intake, 4:2:1 exhaust manifold and any other nut and bolt change you can recommend. How far is this likely to get me up the BHP tree?

to get 90 bhp , your best bang for your pound would be to do the 1.2 or 1.4 ( 100 hop) 16v conversion

but if you are like me and want to say 8 v ,, i reccon im high 80 bhps with mine
i took mine on a track day and kept up with quite a few bigger cars

Depends on the track. Mine probably has 5bhp more than standard and as long as the straights weren't too long and the car next to me wasn't an evo I could hold my own ok.

Focus on the handling and braking as that is where you will gain the most.

a 1,2 8v is a nice start with 60 or 75HP. The mpi 75hp is a bit more work but you're almost at 80 already. Then a good exhaust, camshaft, chip and maybe some headwork would bring to close to 90.

I drove my "stock"(just stripped, no engine mods) cinquecento on zandvoort and could keep up with most civic's and focus's