Technical performance on 17's

[ne1l]

Just fitted new 17's on my MK2

Anyone else done this (from 14's originally) and noticed a heck of a difference on performance??

on a motorway it struggles to keep at 70mph on any sort of resonable incline and at times I have slowed down to 50mph in 5th with the pedal to the floor

Acceleration is ok but still pretty poor and when overtaking on the motorway I need to drop to 3rd to get any sort of acceleration.

Any ideas on what to do reagrds getting even some more power no matter how little to improve it?? I have an induction kit so far fitted??

Also what sort of fuel consumption difference, if any, are you getting? I haven't done to much miles yet to be able to notice??

Cheers

 

[The Negotiator]

WR has experienced exactly the same and it's why he normally warns people "don't go to 17"s....."

 

[ne1l]

I still think it's worth it for the look and performance, though effected, is still tollerable. It's maybe just such a diffrence from 14's to 17's that make it seem like I could walk faster at times Still let me get used to using the gears and sticking a new exhaust on and I'll soon be back to my old self

 

[alexb]

sticking a new exhaust on and I'll soon be back to my old self

I hate to break it to you, but a new exhaust isn't going to make your car any quicker!

If you want a bit of speed then lose the 17s, simple as!

 

[joecinq]

17's look sweet on a punt, shame about the performance.....

I reckon your speedo will be under reading by alot now. have you used one of them calculator things?

wierd that your top end has dropped by so much, usually its the acceleration that is noticed the most

 

[sh33n]

I hate to break it to you, but a new exhaust isn't going to make your car any quicker!

If you want a bit of speed then lose the 17s, simple as!

Agreed!

 

[ne1l]

I checked my speedo before I put them on and it is only causing a 2mph diffrence at 70mph ( i.e reading 70mph actually doing 72mph)

I haven't lost any of my speed I can still get it up to 115mph it's just the getting there. It only seems to be acceleration that's effected.

I also wasn't buying an exhaust to make it faster I know it ain't gonna make it faster but it does improve acceleration if you buy the right one instead of the wimpy stuff you get from places like Halfords etc that all the boy racers stick on there cars.

 

[wolfracepunto]

WR has experienced exactly the same and it's why he normally warns people "don't go to 17"s....."

Yep........forget motorway driving with 17s. Like you say around town there's hardly any difference, its where you need the torque to get up hills in 5th/ overtake in 5th etc its useless. They use most of the torque produced by the 1.2 to get the damn things rolling!!

On the motorway fuel consumption is a nightmare aswell, just another reason why not to have them. You can see the needle moving and youre going what....60 top on a windy day??? :shakehead

If you do mainly town driving then keep them fitted

The only thing thats going to improve the power and torque noticeably is a supercharger/turbo or bigger engine.

 

[Lowtechguy]

£2k plus engine modifications or as much as £8k for an engine conversion just to keep your 17s...

And people say I am unrealistic.

 

[ne1l]

You are just a bit unrealistic.

My acceleration was all that's effected! my 0-60mph was probs about 1sec slower. Nothing major.

I don't need 8K engine conversions just to keep my 17's!!!!!!

A simple adjustment of gearbox ratio done the trick along with some extra ECU programing and now the 0-60mph is 4 secs faster than it was originally

And all done for free (helps when your best mate works with the Williams F1 mechanics team hehe)

 

[The Negotiator]

Erm, how?! Gearbox ratios AFAIK aren't exactly cheap and easy to change and knocking 4 seconds off the 0-60 time on a normally aspirated engine is, well, nigh impossible with a remap...?!

 

[wolfracepunto]

Errrrrmmmm.............what engine are we talking about here??!! If its the 1.2 8v- :nono:

 

[alexb]

I checked my speedo before I put them on and it is only causing a 2mph diffrence at 70mph ( i.e reading 70mph actually doing 72mph)

That's as maybe, but it'll still be slow as ****e!

I haven't lost any of my speed I can still get it up to 115mph it's just the getting there. It only seems to be acceleration that's effected.

Get out! I can only just top that in my completely stock 1.4 Sporting!

but it does improve acceleration if you buy the right one

But not really! Perhaps when combined with other performance parts then yes, but just sticking a decent exhaust on will hardly make a difference - Let alone a noticable difference!