| | |  | | ROAD TESTS | Mitsubishi Colt Clubcab 2.4i Performance
Power Cylinder Head Conversions | Unichip Tuning | Wildcat branch |  |  | XTREME MACHINES MAGAZINE |  | | | | MITSUBISHI COLT CLUBCAB 2.4i | | From ZERO To HERO | | Part 1 | Congratulations, you now own a 4x4 vehicle. So you pack your bags, your fishing gear, hunting rifle, tent, hitch the trailer, and you're off to go to the Camel trophy in Botswana, right? Wrong! You need to be prepared for any eventuality - or at least, that's what the 'Action Man adventure guide' says. | So off you go to a 4x4 accessory centre with your gold card in hand, 'Fit everything', you say.It starts with the attack bar, complete with 10 million candlepower spotlights - 4 of them, and a nifty 12-ton winch with extra long reach cable. A canopy is a must. You fit a roofrack for extra gear and topside tent. A new higher suspension is fitted, with wider tyres to match, and an ingenious snorkel system is fitted so you can go swimming in your new adventure mobile. Make room for the refrigerator/freezer combination and your vehicle is almost ready. | | | | | To power all the new found gadgets and equipment on your baby, a dual battery system is fitted complete with a new high charging alternator unit. So, you load up the van with shovels, batteries, batteries, torches chairs and all sorts of equipment, not forgetting the new 4x4 trailer with water tank (250liters). And off you go. | | But something's amiss! The van won't go that good! | You see, simple logic will tell you that all the extra weight, wind drag and friction from those wide go-anywhere tyres, must surely have an effect on the performance of the vehicle. It is simple really, at some point, the total forward thrust delivered by the engine to the road, become exactly balanced by the total resistance to forward motion. In other words, the immediate implication of any extra resistance to forward motion on the vehicle (like wider tyres, etc) will result in lower drive performance. | | So, now what? | We went to Steve's Auto Clinic, the country's biggest and best-known performance enhancement and maintenance specialists, for some insight into what to do when a vehicle is in need of extra power or better fuel consumption. | 'First off' says Mark Jones, SAC's Marketing buff. 'No mass produced vehicle ever leaves the factory delivering optimum performance.' | | | | | | FROM ZERO TO HERO | We have decided to take our very standard Colt Clubcab 4x4 2.4i to Steves Auto Clinic for a full engine treatment to see for ourselves what sort of performance difference they cab achieve. | First off, we will test our baby in standard guise, and then send her to the boys at SAC. | After the conversion we will test her again, and render our verdict. | But, it will not end there... | After all this, we will accessorise our new and improved Colt with almost every conceivable accessory available on the market, and then test her again. | | | | | | | | According to Mark, manufacturers design and build vehicle along mass-manufacturing principles, with products aimed at the public at large and not at the individual. | The fact is, just about every production vehicle has the potential to become far more powerful and fuel-efficient when individualised in the hands of a true expert - without compromising quality or durability. It is this philosophy that underlines the fascinating world of Steve's Auto Clinic - the nationally established group with arguably some of the best expertise, experience and credibility in the technically challenging Power Enhancement industry. | 'In fact, a carefully researched and developed power enhancement packages may sometimes render a vehicle more reliable than the mass produced version, especially in cases where the non-optimum design of a part has been carefully identified and subsequently upgraded or replaced during the enhancement process, ' says Steve Fischer, founder and director of the group's trademark parent company, SAC Holding. | | So what enhancements can one do to a vehicles engine for more efficient power and fuel consumption delivery? | | 'Well", says Mark, 'the fact is, not every car is a race car'. In an after-market 'conversion' industry that so often gives little consideration to reliability issues of power enhanced vehicles, SAC takes the opposite stance. 'Reliability is of utmost importance when it comes to your vehicle' says Mark. | | | | | | | | | | | | |
