Peugeot unveiled a new car with a tuned version of the 1.6l turbo at 218hp. That's good news for all the tuners out there.

http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive...-rc-z-concept/

 

Weird thing about their concept car is that the 0 - 60 times is 7 seconds. That's slower than the MCS and according to the article: "One of the project's goals was to reduce the total weight of the car, by making extensive use of lightweight materials." But it is a nice looking car too bad it's just a concept for now and too bad it won't be available in the US.

 

rumor has it that will be the engine for the new factory JCW car in 2009. go to mini2.com for more details

 

Those are probably DIN (Euro horses), vs. the US SAE horses. Our horses are a little bigger out here so generally, the numbers are a little lower on this side of the pond. We tend to have more emissions too, particulary in Cali.

 

Still, that's what's probably gonna be in the upcoming MCS's....

 

There's already a R56 MCS putting out those numbers... I think it was featured in EVO this past month... the 216bhp Morego T-Spec. Some surging issues reported (trying to iron out the early ECU issues)... but goes to show it CAN be done.

 

Morego. Here you go. http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evoc...r_s_tspec.html

 

Hmmm, I realize that we're talking about a production engine, so they (MINI or Puegot) are not going to go nuts with it powerwise, but considering all of the talk about "you can get way more power, and there are much greater tuning possibilities, using a turbo than using a Roots-type blower", 218 (crankshaft) hp seems a little weak.

 

Have any tuners posted their estimation of the strength of the R56 engine and how it will withstand power increases? It seems to have a strong bottom end, to be able to take 200 ft lb. of torque at low revs. Will the complexity of the valve train affect the ability to rev, and thereby increase power?

The consensus has been that the R53 MCS is a very strong engine whose only weakness has been in the area of pistons due to narrow top ring land.

 

There's an article about the production Peugeot 308 (with current MCS motor) in Car and Driver this month. It's a bigger and heavier car than the MCS (+500-600lbs, if I remember correctly); on par with the GTI. So it's significantly slower than the MCS, and the concept car is based on that platform.