General LAD Motorsport Fiat 500

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General LAD Motorsport Fiat 500

Splitty500

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Has anyone seen the articles in Auto Italia (jul 09) or Performance Car (jun 09)? I have just bought the very car and it is great. I have just spoken to Ernie Larton from LAD Motorsport and he informs me that Pipercross are making a run of production air filters from the prototype on mine. If your interested give him a ring. He is a top bloke and very helpful. All the mods he has done can be retrofitted to any 1.4 sport or presumably lounge too. I recommend the suspension modifications though it really does ride better.
 
Here goes - cylinder head skimmed to increase compression enlarged inlet and outlet ports, valve throats and seats, pipercross custom air filter sytem with longer induction pipe and cone filter, janspeed 4:1 manifold, comp spec catalytic converter into custom janspeed exhaust ( it's possible that janspeed may bring out a production of this too as the car spent a few days at their HQ). Suspension lowered 30mm and new springs and modified geometry for better handling. Brakes have been changed to cross drilled discs and high performance pads. Standard wheels have been refinished in gunmetal. ECU has been untouched so no warranty issues and rayrigg tell me that standard warranty is unaffected. :)
 
Sorry should clarify that last bit - Rayrigg Motors is the Fiat dealers that commissioned the car from LAD Motorsport and who I bought the car from.
 
No it hasn't. ECU has been left alone. Fiat have had a bit of consultation on it so I was led to believe by Rayrigg Motors so they may have asked that it be left alone. It does leave a bit of scope for a quick hike in power at a later date though!(y)
 
No it hasn't. ECU has been left alone. Fiat have had a bit of consultation on it so I was led to believe by Rayrigg Motors so they may have asked that it be left alone. It does leave a bit of scope for a quick hike in power at a later date though!(y)

if there has been no increase in fuelling how can it cope with the better breathing and increased compression?
 
Yea that does'nt make sense. Old school you would change carb jetting and timing to make the most of any mods.

Perhaps there is the capacity for additional fuelling and timing as part of the software. It would seem shortsighted to programme just the exact maximum theoretical amount of fuel injected for a given car without any margin for additional requirements due to varying conditions.

I would think that the sensors would determine (up to a reasonable level) how much fuel is required by measuring the air flow etc. and deliver the right fuelling for the job.

Obviously, for serious tuning this would not work but as the mods have concentrated on more efficient induction/exhaust without any cam alterations I would think that they would still offer an improvement.

Don't forget that, even with the modern engine design and superb tolerances achieved I would imagine that you could take two "identical" engines and find that they produce different power figures, (a bit like the Winchester 1000 rifle scenario) so there must be provision for this in the programming.

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating so I would think if the opportunity should arise to get it onto a dyno then the graph will show how much benefit the mods have made.

Rayrigg and LAD are well respected companies and wouldn't have done this without evaluating the gains (10BHP???) against the cost.
 
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any car with an oxygen sensor and a knock sensor should respond ok to these changes but at the standard mixture. But I really can't see that, having stripped out and replaced half the engine, the warantee would be unaffected!!
 
Have just spoken to Ernie from LAD and he confirmed that no alterations to ECU or remap. He said it was due to emissions regulations and at lower revs gives same economy as standard car. He said LAD haven't remapped a car since late 90's.
I don't know the intricacies of it all but can tell you that driving it back to back with a standard 1.4sport that it is definitely quicker especially above 4000. Couldn't tell you exactly by how much but Performance Car and Auto Italia both say noticeable increase.
From what Ernie and Rayrigg have told me this is not intended to be an out and out performance modified car rather to improve ride, handling and give it a bit more power and driveability.
Don't want to sound like I'm fobbing anyone off on the question but can't give you much more info. Will try to get any more info that I can.
By the way Ernie advises that the janspeed exhaust is already available and that any of the mods can be done either individually or in full. All mods as done to mine will cost around £2k mark if done at the same time. Individual mods he can price separately.
If anyone is seriously considering any of these mods would recommend speaking to Ernie at LAD for info straight from the horses mouth so to speak he is a top bloke and can explain way better than me.
 
Hello again. Just an update Ernie at LAD advises it has been on LAD's dyno and peaks at 130 bhp if that helps.:slayer:
 
Splitty, I spoke to Ernie at LAD about your car a few months back. To be honest I was just being curious at the time. The mods sounded interesting and he was really enthusiastic about it all. It does look great though lowered as it is with the nice subtle graphics.
 
I drove a LAD Peugeot 106GTi back to back with a standard one in 1998.
If the improvements on the 500 are half as good as the improvements to the 106 I'd certainly be interested.
 
So 130bhp with no mapping to adjust the ECU to cater for all the engine mods?

If true that's very impressive:D......... It would be interesting to find out would they did to the suspension, most probably fitted Eibach springs and Sachs dampers, as all the R&D data is freely available.
 
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Hmm. My brakes are getting upgraded this week, suspension next month. I wonder what he'd charge for engine/exhaust work? If they can get 130bhp with this I wonder what could be achieved with cams and remap in addition to this?
 
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