Just got back from a testdrive of exige with forcedfed kit. Here is a small review.
First of all, the kit is represented in uk by weltmeister and i was talking with Allan. Very nice guy, very knowledgale and a pleasure to deal with. The car for testdrive is actually a little tuned up to produce 300 bhp, instead of 285 in stock form on uk fuel. Its not a difference you could feel, but ill mention it anyway.
First Allan gave me a ride. For about 15 minutes we were just cruising around, waiting for the oil to heat up. The car felt pretty much like stock, apart from occasional wastegate whoosh, there was no difference from passengers perspective.
Wastegate sound wasnt very loud or annoying as some people have described. After about 5 mins i almost stopped noticing it, and im not used to turbo cars.
Also, idle when at stop, was a little rough, but no where close to actually stalling. This is apparently due to pluged out maf sensor and customer cars are supposed to idle rock solid. When letting clutch in at speed, idle was rock solid.
Then temperature got almost to working, Allan put down throttle pedal down a bit and the car went of. We were at like 3k rmp in 4th and the car pulled like standart one would at 5-6k torque is amasing. Switched to 5th and the car accelerated very nicely. Judging by amount of throttle and acceleration i felt, i though that we were doing around 120kph (open road, no traffic, so hard to judge after not driving anything for 2 month). Huh, thats about how my car accelerates - i though - was expecting a bit more punch. Looked at speedo and it showed 120… MILES per hour wtf, my car hits a brick wall at that kind of speeds at full throttle and this one pulls relatively easy even at part. Wow.
A few word about exaust. I havent heard the stock exaust for quite a while, since i have Larini on my car, so i might be a bit off here… but forcedfed exaust reminded me very much about the stock one. Only it was much cleaner, no droning at lower revs etc. Basically a nice, clean exaust. Its not very loud at all, definately sutable for motorway speeds for long trips at least for me. Would obviously want to keep my larini, which is absolutely fantastic, but no choice here. Not pleased, but not disappointed either.
Then Allan really guned the car, giving it full throttle from around 4-5k at second gear…
This car is just plain FAST. Very fast. It pulls amasingly well on first cam, but when second one comes in, all hell breaks loose and it just flies away. Comparing to a standart 111R, its almost like speedo was replaced from kph to mph. Not only because its a lot faster on second cam, but also because its indecently faster on first cam as well.
0-100 in 8.5? Definately beliveble.
From “fast” cars i have/drove like S2 honda, M3, 997S etc nothing comes close. The amount of both power and torque is amasing.
Then we switched places and i wanted to actually find out how does all this power and torque feel and drive. First, power delivery is very smooth. You definately notice an faster increase in power at around 3-4k rpm when turbo spools up, but after that its very smooth and linear. No drama at second cam switch, just linear increase. I could feel the switchpoint, but it was nothing like on n/a car.
The second thing i was worried about was throttle response. I tried putting down the pedal at different rpm, but all i can say, is that its very nice and smooth. It wasnt as crisp as n/a, but there wasnt any signifacant lag or anything. Drivability of the car is excellent.
Conclusion:
Well, im going to get one
The kit is just all round fantastic. Its is top quality, when installed it looks like something from factory. The car drives fantastic. Its daily drivable, civilised and shatteringly quick. Both power and torque are plentiful. Weight gain is neglegible. You just transform your torqueless 200+ bhp per tonne car into a genuine 300+ bhp per tonne beast. Moreover, its a fantastic value.
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