Newbie who is looking at an S3 as his next car.

Hello All

Just wanted to say hello. I am looking at what car to buy next and it looks to be either the S3 or the Fiat Coupe.

Currently drive a Punto GT, lots of fun, quick and easy to look after but am getting a bit older and want something a little but more luxurious and refined.

So if I ask loads of questions it is only to figure out a few facts.

Talk soon

Pummy

Thanks for the welcome. I am still looking at a few things in the archives to get up to speed but the forum layout is a bit different to what I am used to for my other forums.

A few things though, if you could indulge me.

S3 is a 1.8T 20v lump. Mods that can be done to up the power are a chip really as I read that the exhaust, filter, IC and all the other bits are good for 300 horses. Is this true?

I went up against a stock S3 a few weeks ago and was surprised that is was not beating me until we got past 80 so hence why I wanted to ensure the power output of the lump can be made a little more significant and can beat my little punto.

Talk soon

Pummy

Upgrade of the turbo sounds like a good thing power wise. But how about money? On the assumption that the engine bay has been designed a lot better than the Punto (Turbo right at the back of the engine bay behind the inlet manifold) then it would not be such a bad thing.

I think my view was that the S3 could be tuned to be on the better side of 250bhp, 250 ft/lbs for a relatively small amount of spend.

The thing with the Punto was that all the bits were very restrictive. Exhaust had 180 degree bends, airbox was quite bad, intercooler was about 30% exposed to airflow.

Once these things were done then the car started to move quite quickly. The costs for this was also quite low and doing these bits was very easy.

I assumed, maybe incorrectly, that the S3 would benefit from items like IC upgrades, chips, bleed valves etc before any turbo and internal work is required.

The Fiat Coupe can get upto 280 horses, reliable mind, with a spend of about 600gbp. Many of the old GT owners went down this route and saw good results. I cannot comment on the torque figure as I cannot recall.

Looking at some of the signatures of the cars here some have got near 300 ft/lbs of torque. I imagine that would be quite nippy

Think I will need to get down to a meet and see what is under a few hoods and figure out how much the after market changes would cost and what the I would gain.

Uprating a turbo is all well and good but I am the type of person who measures twice before I cut once.

Talk soon

Pummy

I saw your sig and thought that 300 ft/lbs would be quite lary. 270 with same torque sound very nice for 550. Is that installed or can I simpyl buy the chip and fit it myself.

Am used to having to do the bits on the GT myself a lot of the time.

Pummy