'95 1.8 SE performance question

[VAGRadley]

Hello peeps,

A question from a new A4 owner:

I bought the SE I have now because of necessity and circumstance. had I a choice I would have bought a Turbo.

Anyway, it's a nice clean well looked after car but is there anything tried and tested that I can do with the wheezy non-turbo 20v engine to make it a bit more spritited?

Many thanks

Karl

[sweendog]

looked into because i'm in the exact same situation at the mo.

general consensus is "trade it in for a turbo"

which is not what you wanted to hear. sorry.

[VAGRadley]

I kinda guessed that would be the case. The early mk4 gti golf must have been well crap then cause they had the same engine didn't they?
I'll just have to put up with some mk2 golf gti style airbox mods, rims and and lowering and be done with it!
Thanks for the reply though.
Karl

[sweendog]

before they swapped it for the 2.0 i reckon.

but never thought of that before... dont get me wrong i love my a4 but its taking the **** to say the engine is "gti" standard.

anyone i've spoke to with a turbo basically gets the same fuel economy as us suckers but dont need to violate the gearbox/lean forward and grimace/swear loudly to get some pace out of it.

[Marc97]

My 1.8 doesn't seem overly bad although it does need lots of encouragement from a standing start (sometimes 2 or 3 stabs at the clutch with full throttle) and it also seem to hesitate a bit mid revs but I found that if I take it to the limiter which is just over 7000 rpms, performance is what can be expected and even better that other similar sized 1.8 cars.
Theres always the option to go the superchip/induction/exhaust route then even have a bit of head work and given that the standard engine puts out 125bhp, you should easily see 150bhp with the right mods although you would more than likely be a fair few hundred quid lighter. The upside to this is that you might also see improved average MPG but doubtful if the throttle is buried in the carpet 90% of the time.
If I had the money to throw at it, I reckon 180bhp is easily possible. Should liven things up a bit :D

[sweendog]

if i hadnt just chucked 600 quid at it for an mot

and if it didnt now need a new throttle body

money, money, money, almost funny, in a rich man's world.

cheers anyway marc