Ah, but what you want is both!

The Lizzie would drive me totally bananas if it was my only car. to this day, I don't know how some of my Elise mate manage. Maybe they never do any DIY and don't go snowboarding/mountain biking/camping etc. If I had to choose one car, it would be something like a VRS (maybe Octavia). With a mod or two, of course...

May have been cheaper for J to buy an Elsie though

At the moment, approx cost is looking at

That's the thing, Jason, the fun is often in the doing. I just flogged one of my Saabs for

Essential mods to get the power were. (bear in mind the basic pd130 conversion was much of the 7k )

Hybrid turbo

one off (alomst) FMIC

Wide turbo pipework, no reducers

Decatted exhaust + performance backbox.

Jabbasport custom remap.

For getting the 130bhp to 220bhp, the above is basically all I did. Oh, I forgot about the Cupra intake too, but that was existing from the pd100 days, oh, and the green panel filter too.

That's fantastic.

So, it would not cost huge amounts to get that performance when you are starting with a VRS. Maximum respect to the designers of the engine, then. I am guessing that if you hunt around for bits, you could get to this performance for less than £2000? if you can find a suitable donor car for the turbo and maybe the intercooler - if not, Allard will make you one if you have the patience to wait months for delivery!

Do you still get normal MPG when you drive sensibly?

Jez

Still get mid 40s usually - 450 miles from a good £35 brimful. I cruised back from TSR on Saturday, loaded with 4 alloys, at 70mph - and the instant mpg hovered around 55mpg. The average had been somewhat lessened by the thrash on TSR's rollers & around town finding the bloke I was collecting the wheels from.

So essentially to get where I am now you need:

Hybrid Turbo - around £800 on exchange

FMIC - around £800 again if I remember right, included most pipe I needed.

Turbo pipework - some spare ally and some time & rubber hoses.

Labour to do all the above of course. (oh and time off the road - Not just a weekend's work really, especially the custom turbo pipework fabrication I needed)

edit: I just doubt you'll find a fabia Allard FMIC & turbo on second hand market. Would be lucky to get a Fabia FMIC, especially as they've only ever made two, and I'm not selling mine, and I know the person with the other one, and I don't think he'll be selling either.

Oh, no, didn't mean second hand Allard. They will make you one if you give them the right size as they have for several of my Saab mates. But, I do have friends that have searched and found ones to fit other cars 2nd hand, such as the Volvo one that was fitted to my Saab 900. Either way, it appears not to be hugely expensive to get such an amazing amount of power/torque as you have.

As for the FMIC, I reckon the one Forge does is good too, possibly slightly more restrictive but a major improvement over the standard SMIC. Cost is lower and it's a set taylored for the Fabia vRS. I'd imagine (but please don't take my word for it if you're going for it ) it ought to fit the PD100 series too.

Turbo wise - does the hybrid cause it to spin up relatively fast whilst being able to get up to (a fair bit more) boost quicker?

Reason I'm wondering is coz I've got a Forge FMIC going on soonish, and I'm pretty sure there will be a touch more lag as a direct result?

BTW that's an impressive Saab

Forge - interesting. I had one of their dump valves and a wastegate actuator fitted to my Saab 9000. Did not realise they did intercoolers too.

Saab's have always been good on the torque front; that's why I love the VRS so much. My 900 was never beaten on the rolling road, so it was kinda the cream of them in terms of performance. I inherited it from a mate of mine who posts as Tandino, but fecking permit parking forced me to sell it after a year. The car was 15 years old and had done over 201,000 miles when I sold it - I wonder if the Fabia will last that well!

http://www.awesome-gti.co.uk/forgemotorsport.html

Forge FMIC Kit - Fabia VRS

A Front mounting Intercooler kit specifically designed and optimised for the Skoda Fabia VRS 130 hp Diesel.

Testing of this product has shown a significant improvement over the OEM intercooler in its ability to reduce inlet temperatures.

Title Awesome Part # Price

Forge FMIC Kit - Fabia VRS EN-FMIC-FORGE-E £550

That's the one

I just used the Awesome-gti link as that was the first one google returned LOL, but no doubt you can get it via JBS, Jabbasport etc as well