How much is too much?

[Hartleracing]

Silly question I know, because I'm al about the old saying.. More is more, which is still not enough.

My question is, what's the fastest anyone has made a daily driver sonic 1.8? Next question, can that car be easily and reliably daily driven?

My criteria I'm chasing..
- 130mph
- 220+HP
- daily drive able
- still 32ish mpg at least (getting 38-40 currently)

 

[Camaroboi13]

I would say pick one, and only one of the criteria you are chasing on your list, and be happy with it.

For starters, why would you need to go 130mph in this car? My 69 VW handles better at highway speed than the sonic does, I couldn't imagine any faster.

220 horsepower would likely cost a good amount of money as you'll probably have to start looking into top end parts i.e. cams and whatnot if you choose not to go the forced induction route.

With 220 horsepower, you are going to lose some of that daily driven feel that you want so much, and at 130mph you are damn sure not going to get 32mpg. Grab an intake, exhaust, maybe a chip, and enjoy the car for what it is bud.

 

[mitdr774]

130MPH

130 MPH for what? Quarter mile, standing mile, top speed?? No public road in the US has a speed limit anywhere near that so I sure hope you dont plan on going that fast on public roads. To go that fast you would need to look into better suspension and tires as well.




220+ hp

Intake, full exhaust, and a good tune and you will probably end up around 160-170 hp at the crank. This number has not been confirmed yet though. The 1.8 will most likely need some positive intake manifold pressure to come even close to that number, unless you want to really dive into the engine start replacing parts. Even then the architecture of the engine might not be there to support that idea as a NA engine.



daily driveable

This is completely subjectable. How much are you willing to put up with? I daily drove a 226 WHP Cavalier for a while, but I was willing to put up with little annoyances. Others would have found them as big annoyances. When I pushed the power even more it became even less suitable as a DD but I still did it.



32mpg

Economy will be highly dependent on how you drive, what you do to get the power you get, and how good your tune is.

 

[ahtoxa]

My 69 VW handles better at highway speed than the sonic does,

Stock VW? Yeah...no.

 

[Hartleracing]

My car has full header back exhaust, intake with ceramic wrapped tube, tune, coilovers and swaybars and my next option is wider tires and track specific tread on them. I'll be pulling the throttle body and intake manifold and porting both next and see where that gets me. I often run track days and car shows and I run the car on 91 octane currently and still get 38mpg most of the time

 

[mitdr774]

I doubt you will gain anything from porting the TB or manifold. We dont have much room to go on the TB and the manifold ports are probably bigger than really needed as is.
I am at near ambient atmospheric pressure at WOT and at very specific points I have actually just barely crossed over to above ambient.

 

[Camaroboi13]

Stock VW? Yeah...no.

I promise you it does. I switch off vehicles going back and forth 87 miles round trip to and from work, and I prefer to drive the vw on the highway than the sonic. The sonic grabs the road and wanders all over the place, even the cracks in the road pull it from side to side. The vw with unmolested suspension (tires are 185 65 15 front, 205 70 15 rear, all stock otherwise) tracks straight and true down the highway with no hiccups. If it weren't for 100+ degree temps in Southern Caifornia, I'd never get out of the VW.

 

[GunBlade]

I'm at about maxed with mods you can do that you don't have to have custom made. Maxed out at 168hp you wont see above 200 more work like a turbo, intercooler, injectors, ect. You can still daily drive it no problem. I get 40-44mpg highway and 30-36 city depending on my lead foot.

 

[rwnoutlaw]

2012 LS sedan 6sp auto BNR header and down pipe, magna flow exhaust, K&N drop in filter, eibach springs, ltz wheels, falken tires, HP Tuners tune, tranny tune. 175hp / 140 tq 35 mpg hwy 70-75 mph 25-30 city top speed 130 mph +


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