I know theres a few on here who touch 400 bhp and are getting close to 500 bhp.
I have a spare engine and i am going to send it to Barbz.
So hows about a list of what i will be needing to achieve this.

a big pot of cash (10k plus!)

But would be something like...

Ported manifold (or tubular if you wish)
Forged pistons (maybe with the CR upped ever so slightly)
Forged rods
Well matched turbo
Cam's
Headwork
FMIC
3" Exhaust
Air Filter
Remap / Motec
Block hone
Lightening of flywheel
Balanced crank

And these are the minor things of the top of my head, im sure there is a few more nitty gritty bits you would need to account for

dont suppose i could trouble you to put a rough price next to these,as i can get a coupe with a blown engine easily.
i wont 500bhp the bravo as its quick enough at 300.

Forged rods & pistons, gas flowed head, GT spec roller bearing form either 28,30 or 32 sizing. Different injectors (speak to Barbs for your options) possibly ecu dependant on what Perfect Touch can work with.A large sum of money as for parts alone you are looking at £4000 for those parts inc ECU, then there is labour. Then you need to consider exhaust fitment inc downpipe configuration which will probably cost a couple of hundred quid to modify what you currently have, then a paddle type clutch which inc fitting will be @ £800 for something that will handle 400+ bhp.

Jamie

I'm guessing on the parts prices here, then there is labour if your going to get Barbz to build it

That's just the engine... depending on whether you are a straight line sprinter or a full bore track warrior you'll need to be sorting the handling and braking to get anywhere near to coping.

straight from the horse's mouth, as it were.

A 500BHP Coupe on standard suspension and brakes would be slower round a track than a 300BHP Coupe with some choice handling mods.

It took me about £5k to get to 400+ bhp. I reckon after about 300 - 320, each BHP starts to become very expensive, as its stops being achievable purely through bolt-ons. Proper engine internal work needs to be done to release the power.

To give you an idea of the gains that can be made on a stock engine, I now produce 300bhp at 0.8 bar (base boost) - that's how inefficient a standard head / exhaust / turbo is.

So to put it this way,
people will say im nuts for spending 10k on modding my car.

I also dont really want to spend 10k modding the same car..

However ,what can you get thats 500 bhp,looks great and that is 500bhp......

So in theory its a hell of a lot cheaper modding a car than buying one with 500 stallions.

for 10k? the 1st payment on a new M5

or you could buy 50 track days in someone else's car and not have to worry about the cost or it going wrong

1 track day a month for 4 years in whatever fast car you want..

dont forget nyssa's 20vt on darn near 590bhp, wild poor gearbox

rich

You're all nuts

The problem is once you experience that g-force,your always in pursuit of faster engines that pull harder.
Dont know why tbh.
it would have saved me alot of money if i drove slow everywhere.
But at least i have a enthusiastic hobby,unlike alot of the zombies dedicated to work i see everyday.

500BHP is a hard target to get to because it is another price point in the same way that Nigel was saying 400BHP is compared to 320BHP. For over 500BHP you must have a twin plate clutch, you must have an external swirl pot and fuel pump, you almost certainly need an externally wastegated turbo (the GT25 series turbine housings will struggle big time to flow it without too much backpressure.,

To get it running right, about 2-4 days mapping a fully mappable system, so upwards of £1000+ just for mapping/parts.
Think the way to reliable power is cubic capacity.
But its not power that accelerates us, its the amount of torque under the torque curve. So really, we should look at the best torque through the rev range.
Maybe running a sprintex or Eaton supercharger for low end torque, then running a larger turbo for the top end, would easily achieve 500bhp once internals were sorted. The head would need to cope with the mass air flow, and exhaust manifold very free flowing with no back pressure to stop scavenging. There is the small problem of finding room to fit a charger!!

Andy.

Supercharger has been done Andy, and it didnt work out too well. Do a search and you will see the results, was a guy in SA.

Begbie, did Matt ever give us a full review of that mod? I only remember a short message saying it didn't work (not too important, so don't go around searching for the thread plz )

V.

I reckon you'd spend as much on maintenance as you would on the rest of the payments on a supercar after a 10k deposit. You'd still have the same stupid cambelt arrangement just waiting to snap, and a 10 year old car.

Put a 10k deposit on a Noble GTO3R and tweak that to 420bhp. It'll go like a 500bhp coop, handle 30 times as sweetly, be considerably more reliable and look be...bet... well, look as nice.

A 500BHP Noble will cost more to run in every way conceivable than a 500BHP coupe.

One of the beauties of modifying a coupe is that the parts are relatively cheap and maintenance is relatively extremely cheap even if it is 500BHP. I would hazard a bet that the servicing is as cheap or cheaper than any 500BHP car whether modified or unmodified.

The only difference in maintenance is more regular servicing and what I would describe as more detailed servicing

I agree, it's a fantastastic hobby, almost an addiction like you say. I was there once, rebuilt my integrale full race spec, 411hp and stripped to 1050kg. It's a rocket with scary cornering abilities but in the end all that power never gave me the satisfaction i tought it would.

If i would have kept all of that money i could have bought 1/2 of a 993 turbo

So would i do it again? only if i was a millionaire.

And the Noble uses a F*rd Duratec V6 too!!

Andy.

Agree with JohnS - I've just had my 157,000 mile ( ) service at Motormech and the serice part of the bill came to a couple of hundred quid (also had polybushed wishbones fitted which edged the bill up)

I can't think of any 400+ bhp car that I could run for even twice what the Coupe costs. I even get 30mpg when I turn the boost down and stick to semi-decent speeds.

By comparison, my 355 cost almost four figures for a basic service, (£3k for a belts service) - it was about the same performance, but somehow managed to return mid to high teens MPG.



Looked a bit better though......

"somehow managed to return mid to high teens MPG"

I wonder why LOL

And you would always loose money in depreciation on a new car.
So its always cheaper to mod a second hand one.Especially one as cheap to buy and run as the coupe.

Not to mention the look on the chaps face in the supercar when you beat him on the 1/4 mile....

This thread is fantastic, you guys are almost making it sound sensible to modify your car to 500bhp.

I think realistically your lucking at near 15 - 20 grand to reliably mod a coop to 500 bhp, you'd be better of buying a r33 skyline gtr and modding that, it would work out cheaper in the long run and hold the road a bit better.

Surprising that your comment didnt include the dangers and paranoia of getting near 500bhp. Barbz lost his engine at TOTB. How many fan belts have been slipped in the last 6 months?

Ross

I'm thinking tuned skyline / supra or even an American Muscle car...

Well wasn't barbz fault though, was down to the company who made the liners for him

Im fully aware of that. But it still happened.

Ross