Simple
Engine Performance Tuning
In the case of the punto Sporting the best bet for an increase
in power is to make sure everything is working correctly in
the first place as this is usually the cheapest and best way
to enjoy your car more. If you want more power ( or torque )
then the first step will be into increase the engines ability
to 'breath'. This is done by reducing intake and Exhaust restrictions,
by the use of aftermarket Air filter panels or replacement units.
The choice is yours. Then fit a free-flowing exhaust, the best
bet being a stainless steel complete system as they are usually
of a better quality and nearly last forever. You get what you
pay for, so the more you spend the better it will probably be.
They are no short cuts to increases in power ( torque ). Next
step would be a cam and then a 'chip' to make sure all of the
fuel and ignition parameters are correct. This will then give
you a credible increase in power ( and torque ) the problem
will be that the car becomes less drivable the more power that
you increase the engine by. After that the next step would be
to increase the inlet and exhaust valve size, increase the compression
ratio, lighten and balance the engine as well as increase its
maximum rotation speed therefore increasing power. then If you
want more power and want turbo power it would be cheaper to
sell your car and buy a Punto GT Turbo and have more scope for
power increase and reliability with that power.
SERVICING
Not as easy as you think. If you follow the guidelines that
are set out by fiat then you will have performed the necessary
servicing for normal driving.
The question then arises, what is needed to run and maintain
a FIAT Punto GT Turbo & Sporting when the driving is anything
but normal.
A few things have to be changed more often such as oil, oil
filter, fuel filter, sparkplugs, belts and other consumable
items.
Below is a small list of items that have to be changed and the
reasonable mileages at when to be changed.
Oil,
oil filter, sparkplugs and air filter 5,000 miles. Fuel filter
15,000 miles.
Cam belt 30,000 miles.
Rear suspension arms 45,000 miles.
Front wishbones 60,000 miles.
K&N Air Filter or Equivalent.
If you have fitted an aftermarket filter then you will be wrong
in thinking that it will not need cleaning for hundreds of thousands
of miles. Wrong. As most aftermarket filters that are fitted
are exposed to direct under-bonnet conditions (cone type filters)
the levels of particulate dirt have increased as the positioning
of the filter element has changed from it original air box position.
If you inspect your filter at least every 5000 miles and clean
and re-oil it as soon as any dirt build up appears, this will
then stop problems later of blocked air filter elements causing
increased stress on the engine, major oil problems and combustion
problems.
See FAQ
page for fitting instructions.
Mobil
1 Motorsport.
I have used MOBIL 1 Motorsport for years with no problems and
recommend it to everyone. Mobil 1 motorsport is a different
viscosity rating to normal Mobil 1(0w40) it is rated at 15w50
and is better suited to high pressure turbo-charged engines
because of its higher protection levels and thicker viscosity
as normal Mobil 1 is to thin for most high pressure turbocharged
engines. Typical oil pressure readings should be 3 bar when
cold and idling and an extreme of 1.5 Bar when warm and idling
with full pressure being obtained when engine speed is increased.
Castrol
GTX Magnatec.
This oil claims to protect the engine from the second you start
it up. Weather or not this is actually true remains to be seen.
Either way this is a top notch synthetic oil and is highly recomended
by puntosporting.co.uk (it's what I use!) So fill your sporting
with this and you won't go far wrong.
Unleaded
or super-plus unleaded?
In the case of the Sporting, there is no need to run anthing
other than standard 95 octane unleaded, But 97 octane 'super'
unleaded contains certain lubricating qualities which protect
your engine slightly more than standard unleaded. If you don't
mind the extra £2 per tank then this is also recommended,
you may even notice a slight power increase. Some vehicles may
need to run 'super' due to 'chipping', 'pinking' or the fact
that they pre-ignite under warm weather driving conditions.
Fortunately in the UK we do not have A/C as this increases under
bonnet temperatures even more.
Injector
cleaner & octane booster.
I try to use an injector cleaner every 1-2000 miles, there are
plenty available to choose from.
Octane boosters however are not recomended as they can cause
'hot-spots' and damage parts of the engine.
SUSPENSION
When uprating the suspension on any model of Punto, it's
best to do your homework so that you get the best possible sulution
to your driving sytle, road condidtions and personal preference.
For example, if you want to keep some kind of ride quality,
then the best option would be a small height drop with standard
shock absorbers. Or if you have the cash, adjustable dampers
(coilovers) are the way to go on high spec springs. This will
give you the best ride quality (below standard) but also when
you need it, you can alter the height & firmness to whatever
you need i.e track days & cruises.
If budget is an issue, then a -40mm drop on standard springs
is viable, you will loose ride quality, collecting various knocks
& squeeks over time, but in the looks and handling department
£ for £, it's a worthwhile addition.
Spax, Bilstein, Koni, Avo & eibach are all tried and tested
makes of suspension options for the Punto.
Aftermarket strut braces are also a good addition, reducing
bodyroll round bends, and making for an interesting under-bonnet
look.
OMP & Sparco are some of the companys currently making products
of this kind for the Punto.
BRAKES
When you add to the power of any car, you will also need to
add to the stopping power of the car. The punto is no exception.
There are various ways to achieve this, the cheapest being a
set of performance brake pads. Next would be uprated performace
disks(drilled, grooved, vented or drilled & grooved) + performance
pads.
Then if you have a very heavily modified car, you can buy better
calipers, e.g. brembo, which will greatly improve your ability
to stop.
The sporting has rear 'drum' brakes as standard, so lots of
people have converted theirs to have rear disk brakes. This
is a moderatly simple procedure usually consisting of taking
the whole of the rear arms with disks off a crashed GT or buying
them new from fiat and then putting them onto their sporting.
You will also need to change the handbrake cable ends and slightly
modify the brake line hoses to fit the calipers.
EXTERIOR
This is a massive subject, far too big to cover on one webpage,
so I'll try to cover the main area's.
Bodykits
There are quite a few different kits now available for the Mark
1 punto, some of which can be found from the company's listed
in the links and recommended pages of this site and pictures
of various types of kit in the gallery One of the best company's
at the moment offering all kinds of kits and modifications for
the punto is espeedup.
It's all down to personal preference really, you can buy a full
kit of one style, or mix and match different bits of different
kits e.g spoiler off abarth, skirts off extreme, splitter from
cadamuro, a beast rear valance and an F50 bonnet from Forza
tuning. It's really up to you.
Wheels
As with bodykits, there are far too many styles of wheel to
discuss in such a short time. I've put up a brief wheel size
and tyre guide in the FAQ
section to try and help, and theres also a utility on puntosports.co.uk
which enables you to try different wheels on a punto.
There are 2 main rules to wheels, the bigger they are the better
they will look and the more space between spokes, the easier
they will be to clean!
Sunstrip
& Tinting
The front windscreen will look much better if you have a colour
coded sunstrip accross the top. You can go for a small accross
the top one, or a touring car style one which covers almost
half the screen (These look superb!)
Also tinting the windows will add to the look of the car, a
light tint will contrast certain paint colours and look really
trick, whilst limo style black tints make your car a marquee
and you'll look like a pop star!
Check out the gallery
for examples.
It's up to you what you go for, although there are certain laws
which can mean that you may draw attention from the police if
they don't like the look of your tints, be nice and they might
turn a blind eye. Speak to a tinting specialist like AutoTint
Design for more info.
INTERIOR
Now that your Sporting goes like a bat out of hell, you want
to get in it and feel like you're driving a rally car. To help
you with this, company's like OMP sell race seats to the public,
and Larkspeed do a non-functional roll cage for the punto.
Seats are relatively easy to fit if you have the correct subframes,
and can help the performance of the car by reducing weight,
as they weigh a lot less than your standard seats, sometimes
more than 10kg.
Harnesses add to the race feel aswell and are usually safer
than standard seatbelts. Although beware of harness pad, they
look gay and are strictly for mincers.
Alloy gear and handbrake levers can be purchased from many perfomance
car parts stockists, along with leather gaitors and alloy gaitor
surrounds. See FAQ
page for removal of gearknob and handbrake levers.
Fancy Steering wheels are also a must for the mod freak and
look the business. You can get snap off hubs too which will
enable you to remove the wheel as a security deterant.
Braided, Alloy checkered and embossed floor mats always add
to the look of your pride and joy and come in numerous different
styles.
Lights, neons, coloured bulbs, lasers and strobes can make the
interior more interesting. No ICE install is complete without
a splurge of colour! Check out speeding.co.uk
for various bargain lighting effects.
Another way to make your punto look the dogs and help with performance
is to strip out the rear interior, the weight reduction is amazing
and you can mount your harness bolts where the seats used to
be. You then just trim the rear with matching material or some
trick checkerplate sheeting and presto.
If
you have any further infomation which you think should be here,
or you would like to send your product for review. Please contact
the webmaster
