|
This is fantastic! I hadn't considered that all of the accessories would be on the correct side of the car from the hybrid's use of an L series engine.
My biggest beef with the HCH1 was the steering feel. I'm not sure if all of them are this way, but the one I owned and other I've driven had very heavy EPS. They were quiet and comfortable cars though.
Tires: I expect the two biggest differences you'll see are availability of tires, and gearing. The width difference probably won't have much real impact on traction or fuel economy. The taller tires will net you slightly better economy and slightly worse acceleration. I have 185's in the front of my Insight and they're not particularly sticky tires - a ~400 treadwear all season - and I don't have traction issues with a K24 now that they've broken in.
Take this with a grain of salt as I'm no engine tuner, but I'm a bit skeptical of such a high CR with a large-ish turbo like that. With the ~1bar of boost you'll need to hit 300HP, you're going to be pulling a *lot* of timing to keep from knocking on pump gas. Sure, it can be made to work with enough timing pulled, but timing is efficiency. Pulling timing flushes power out the exhaust unused as heat to keep cylinder pressures down, and getting timing perfect is probably your best tool for good fuel economy. I'm sure the 11.7:1 will net another 1-3% fuel economy at part throttle but you may find your tune to be on a knife-edge and will have to be very conservative with ignition timing, netting less power and economy (while under boost) than had you gone with a lower CR.
Anyhow, subscribed.
|