General LAD Motorsport Fiat 500

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General LAD Motorsport Fiat 500

140 in a standard looking 1.4 would be a fine thing ;)
It would be interesting to find out how much extra bhp you could achieve from a reprogrammed 8v 1.2 engine, given that 8v engines have lots more low down usable torque than the high revving 16v versions.
 
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It would be interesting to find out how much extra bhp you could achieve from a reprogrammed 8v 1.2 engine, given that 8v engines have lots more low down usable torque than the high revving 16v versions.

you soon get used to the power delivery of the 1.4 16v and it has a split personality - the up to 4k pootle around mode and 4k to 7k hardcore mode :devil:
 
absolutely, and no nasty turbo lag and heat soak issues either

a sprinkling of the laughing gas would top things off nicely too :devil:
that under seat storage is crying out for a nos bottle:cool:

I'm up in Lancaster in a month visiting relatives. I think I might have to drop into LAD and get a quote for their engine/exhaust/cams to see what they can come up with. They reckon the whole deal as featured in Auto Italia will be about £2k. Minus the suspension and brakes (which I'm doing already) but plus cams. Hmm. This sort of thing is seriously tempting me.
 
I'm up in Lancaster in a month visiting relatives. I think I might have to drop into LAD and get a quote for their engine/exhaust/cams to see what they can come up with. They reckon the whole deal as featured in Auto Italia will be about £2k. Minus the suspension and brakes (which I'm doing already) but plus cams. Hmm. This sort of thing is seriously tempting me.

I called Janspeed and L.A.D. yesterday to find out the score, the guy at L.A.D. is off on hols and will return my call when he gets back

still need to see the dyno curves to back up the claims, but this isn't rocket science and L.A.D. have an excellent reputation
 
I called Janspeed and L.A.D. yesterday to find out the score, the guy at L.A.D. is off on hols and will return my call when he gets back

still need to see the dyno curves to back up the claims, but this isn't rocket science and L.A.D. have an excellent reputation

Id' be very interested in seeing the dyno graphs as well. Reckon they'll do us a 2 for 1 deal? :D
 
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but I found it on a reference to LAD and it came from another forum with a thread on a 'Poor man's Abarth for around 2,000 Euros' - it was summarised as follows...

http://www.ladmotorsport.co.uk/ ( The firm, no story ) So. They tune out a extra 30 Hp from 1.4 100 Hp. engine. They do rely on old porting, polishing and head skimming to increase performance. Great attention has been paid to the engines breathing requirements, which is why there´s an all-new exhaust system, kicked off by a four-branch manifold, incorporating a motorsport-spec catalytic converter and finished off with a standard looking tail pipe. Also a induction kit with a Pipercross cone filter.

This seach came about primarily from RobW and Jnoiles enthusiasm for their 500s and it's interesting to see how the 'poor' has popped in here where as A500 is referred to as the poor man's Ferrari. I suppose some is always poorer than someone else. :)
So anyway when I clicked on the above URL I got a server maintenance page' so I assumed incorrectly that LAD no longer existed...
Trying to track down the issue on the AutoItalia wasn't straightforward so after a call to them it is covered on Issue 159. Back issues are still available and the nice woman sent me a copy of the original magazine including P&P for £6.50 and it arrived fairly promptly.
http://www.auto-italia.co.uk/shop.aspx?dept_id=130&item_id=2209
I rang the number in the article and 'low and behold' the phone answered and I was speaking to the man in charge who remembered the car that he had worked on. Some interesting things came up in the phone call...


A Supersprint manifold had been used and for whatever reason they ended up using a Janspeed. In discussing the lack of the CAT on the new manifold he spoke about a 2nd CAT. This apparently does a bit of work and allows the car to pass an emissions test but of course the CAT light does stay on because the 2nd CAT does not get hot enough because the first is missing (I could be talking complete horse*** here). He also said that the manifold didn't make that much difference. He spoke about the CAI - appears to be an early prototype of the one that Pipercross sell (probably the best bet given it has been specifically made for the 500 and it is not low enough for sucking in water). Skimming the head to raise compression worked and still allowed the 500 to run on standard fuel. No cams were changed but they have been tinkering with ones on an Punto Abarth. When I mentioned about mapping and the article said that none were done - he said that was true - but now they are flashing the ECU with a new map to get over the CAT light with a performance manifold been fitted. Seemed to think that the Porting & Polishing and the head skimming made the biggest difference. I gave him my details and asked him to forward on info with a breakdown on costs. Very patient and gave me his time. Impressed.

From the quick read of the article (sorry - I cann't reproduce the article - someone will bring me up for copyright infringement :eek:) but with lowering the height of the car by 30mm they have kept with the 15inch to balance the 'comfort thing'. 0-60 is claimed to be 9secs.

On reading the above thread there was 'talk' of visiting LAD and getting some RR graphs but I'll await some feedback from anyone who may have visited them or of someone who now owns the car.

Attached some pics of the LAD engine bay and comparison pics for my old Sport. They look very similiar - I'd imagine that my 'old' one is better since the silicone is one piece. This kit is still available unlike the GSR one and looks way better than the US version.
 

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i had a 1.4 500 and did the following
BMC panel filter
SPAX RSX adjustable coilovers
Supersprint manifold and system
Brembo brake discs and uprated pads
car was turned from a roly poly skittish roller skate to a pointy and responsive roller blade with the best soundtrack this side of a Ferrari
ignore the naysayers, it is a very tunable and rewarding car


https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motors/224419-my-500-sport-1-4-autoitalia-photoshoot.html

I only just realised that you no longer have your 500 going back on a previous thread. Did you have the full superspint exhaust system and did you have any probs with the CAT light coming on ?
 


https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motors/224419-my-500-sport-1-4-autoitalia-photoshoot.html

I only just realised that you no longer have your 500 going back on a previous thread. Did you have the full superspint exhaust system and did you have any probs with the CAT light coming on ?

engine light was already on before i had the exhaust fitted (due to a lambda failing) just needed re-setting on examiner but never bothered
sold before MOT required
 
To avoid creating a new thread and not too crowd the recent number of other threads for back boxs...

John Ashley Exhausts is offering to do a performance manifold (as in develop one) on a 500 1368cc 16v engine.(y)
Of the exhausts out there at the moment that I know off (Supersprint, Janspeed) John Ashley's exhausts are sought after by the Punto petrolheads and have been successful.

He has offered an 'all in price' of £200 as a once off but the 'job' will be done on his terms. For me based in the Ireland it would be too awkward to organise my car as a test bed. If anyone is interested in speaking with him please do so and give the forum some feedback. I will leave it for a couple of days and if there's no response or if I get no PMs I will put the offer forward on another forum.

Thank you for looking :)
 
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FIAT-PUNTO-MK...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item27b73c0afe

This was the one that was already developed for the Punto. Looks very similiar to the Supersprint and the Janspeed. Appears that some exhausts are 'sprayed' with some special paint to 'keep the heat in'. It's worth noticing that wrapping aftermarket exhausts like this in ceramic tape invalidates the warranty of the exhaust. I have placed the offer of having one developed for the 1.4 on the 'other' forum.
 
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It's not paint that will reduce underbonnet temperatures, but a proper ceramic coating.

For example http://www.zircotec.com/ or http://www.camcoat.u-net.com/Exhausts.htm to name two that provide this service.

Thanks for correcting me on the 'special paint' J333EVO. (y) It's unlikely that the ebay manifold is done with the proper ceramic coating given the price that Ashley is doing it for. If I was going for the manifold I would be looking for the proper ceramic coating because it would be likely that I would be running an open cone filter - the less heat in there the better. Saw a scooby recently on a 'car for sale' site and it was full of ceramic exhaust tape - looked like it had been in the warzone !
 
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