MC
05-02-03, 11:12 AM
How many times have you seen this conversation?
Q. How can I make my 1.2 Merit faster?
A. I wouldn't bother mate, it'll never be fast, stick a bigger lump in it, you're wasting your time really.
Well, I disagree. That statement is not true for a number of reasons.
Firstly you might not truly understand someone's reasoning behind wanting to do this. For some, it might not be about having the fastest car on the road, maybe just making his or her car faster for what it is, or a little faster than his or her friends car. I gained a lot more respect for having a very fast 1.4 than a very fast 1.6. I'd imagine the same could be said if you managed to produce a rapid 1.2. Whatever the reason, the statement was still not strictly true. It is possible to make a 1.2 fast.
I'll give you a little background behind the decision to modify this particular Nova. This is a personal crusade for me. I want to encourage more people with 1.2's to be proud and to actually attempt some real modifying. Anyway in my current situation, I drive a Polo 1.4i, and a Golf V6 4-motion. Unfortunately I spend less time driving the latter, and have become bored to the point of crying with driving the Polo. Having the sort of mind that constantly wants to modify and improve things, I started planning what I could do to the Polo. The only snag with this is that the wife wasn't too keen on her baby becoming a stripped out racer. Charles (a.k.a CP) could see the frustration in my eyes and kindly offered to donate a spare 1.2 Nova to the Mark (a.k.a MC) salvation fund. So here the story begins, and over the months ahead, you should see the transformation of an unmolested baby Nova into a fire breathing track weapon.
To wet your appetite, I'll give you a small taster of my plans. Obviously, regardless of what miracles are performed, there will always be the issue of slightly less torque than one would ideally like, so weight will be more of an issue than ever, and will be kept at an absolute minimum.
In the real world, no amount of horsepower can make up for a lack of handling and braking, so getting these areas spot on in conjunction with the 'Slim Fast plan', should start levelling the playing field.
You must be starting to get the picture now. Ok, one thing that I am not flexible on is changing the capacity of the engine. If I say it will be a 1.2, I'll stick to it, and this does bear some benefits. The 1.2 engine has about the best gas flow of the range (forgetting about valve size for now) and it can rev higher than average due to its short stroke. That's the type of engine I'm gonna aim for, high revving peaky power. Using twin 40's, large valves, a 300 deg cam and a few other goodies, it should have good peak power, but will need to be kept in the torque band. I also have a home built Nitrous kit sitting unused!
So here's the idea, I'm going to build this Nova on a budget, and I'm going to report back to Novaload on a regular basis, hopefully inspiring a few members to take up their spanners and do the same.
Q. How can I make my 1.2 Merit faster?
A. I wouldn't bother mate, it'll never be fast, stick a bigger lump in it, you're wasting your time really.
Well, I disagree. That statement is not true for a number of reasons.
Firstly you might not truly understand someone's reasoning behind wanting to do this. For some, it might not be about having the fastest car on the road, maybe just making his or her car faster for what it is, or a little faster than his or her friends car. I gained a lot more respect for having a very fast 1.4 than a very fast 1.6. I'd imagine the same could be said if you managed to produce a rapid 1.2. Whatever the reason, the statement was still not strictly true. It is possible to make a 1.2 fast.
I'll give you a little background behind the decision to modify this particular Nova. This is a personal crusade for me. I want to encourage more people with 1.2's to be proud and to actually attempt some real modifying. Anyway in my current situation, I drive a Polo 1.4i, and a Golf V6 4-motion. Unfortunately I spend less time driving the latter, and have become bored to the point of crying with driving the Polo. Having the sort of mind that constantly wants to modify and improve things, I started planning what I could do to the Polo. The only snag with this is that the wife wasn't too keen on her baby becoming a stripped out racer. Charles (a.k.a CP) could see the frustration in my eyes and kindly offered to donate a spare 1.2 Nova to the Mark (a.k.a MC) salvation fund. So here the story begins, and over the months ahead, you should see the transformation of an unmolested baby Nova into a fire breathing track weapon.
To wet your appetite, I'll give you a small taster of my plans. Obviously, regardless of what miracles are performed, there will always be the issue of slightly less torque than one would ideally like, so weight will be more of an issue than ever, and will be kept at an absolute minimum.
In the real world, no amount of horsepower can make up for a lack of handling and braking, so getting these areas spot on in conjunction with the 'Slim Fast plan', should start levelling the playing field.
You must be starting to get the picture now. Ok, one thing that I am not flexible on is changing the capacity of the engine. If I say it will be a 1.2, I'll stick to it, and this does bear some benefits. The 1.2 engine has about the best gas flow of the range (forgetting about valve size for now) and it can rev higher than average due to its short stroke. That's the type of engine I'm gonna aim for, high revving peaky power. Using twin 40's, large valves, a 300 deg cam and a few other goodies, it should have good peak power, but will need to be kept in the torque band. I also have a home built Nitrous kit sitting unused!
So here's the idea, I'm going to build this Nova on a budget, and I'm going to report back to Novaload on a regular basis, hopefully inspiring a few members to take up their spanners and do the same.