Performance Parts for the Prius

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kryuenger @ Jul 15 2007, 05:21 PM) [snapback]479237[/snapback]</div>

A tire change might make you feel a little more zippy. You can apparently get 205 width tires on this (see the tire threads) which may give you more grip and a zippier feel. Also increase the tire pressure - many folks run 42 front 40 rear. Finally, lighter wheels will help out, and not hurt your fuel economy.

Most performance minded folk around here consider that the OEM tire (Goodyear Integrity) as not so hot.

 

There's not much, if anything, you can do to add power to the Prius. You can make it go faster around corners with some chassis/suspension upgrades, but that's pretty much it. It's the wrong car for the 1/4 mile. Auto-x is a better route to go.

 

Gold spinners and fuzzy dice.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kryuenger @ Jul 16 2007, 12:24 AM) [snapback]479438[/snapback]</div>

See the mod list in the signature in the post just above yours.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher @ Jul 15 2007, 09:45 PM) [snapback]479448[/snapback]</div>

ROFLMAO! :lol:

 

Parts you want? Parts we got. If you want a real racing Prius, use only part number 4 from the big picture, and put the part from the second picture where the back seats used to go. All you need then is the window sticker that says 'Yeah, it's got a hemi' [attachmentid=9782] [attachmentid=9783]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Jul 16 2007, 12:04 PM) [snapback]479623[/snapback]</div>

haha thats a nice layout of the prius and its parts i like it... and the idea does not sound bad at all... hahaha


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kryuenger @ Jul 15 2007, 05:13 PM) [snapback]479230[/snapback]</div>

as for performance just the TOMs exhaust... not such a good request, not for the prius.. you can find almost anything for any other new toyota out there but not for the prius... you can tune the suspension components and work with the exterior a bit...

 

when you say rally grip... i mean seems kinda oxymoronish.. no ... prius and performance?

did you drive a wrx... or like an alltrac or something???...

 

I wouldn't bother. It's never going to be fast and the effect on milage is not worth gaining a few 10ths of a second if you can even do such a thing in this car.

Your best option is to try for weight reduction so you drop ET and raise MPG. That will likely increase interior noise and may look ugly but you are trying to go against what this car was designed for.

I drag race and come from a history of fast cars and even I don't bother modifying this car for performance.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Nov 7 2007, 12:53 AM) [snapback]535985[/snapback]</div>

I'm learning, the hard way, that this car can actually seem like it's designed to confound any attempts to make it go faster.

It's a really well balanced package, overall (for what it's designed to do), but as soon as you change pretty much anything, the balance begins to go away and I'm not sure the overall effect is always pleasurable. At least, be aware of it; that the balanced nature of the car as a whole can be easily disrupted...and is surprisingly noticeable in its absence.

---------

There was the Prius GT; basically, what they did is upped the battery voltage from 201 to 278 (or whatever it is in the Camry hybrid) and replaced the Atkinson cycle engine with the conventional Otto-cycle mill from I think it was, the Echo.

But that's Toyota; they're the factory and have the computational horsepower and knowhow to make these new systems speak to each other and actually work together...I for one, don't have that knowledge and am not willing to spend the money to employ someone who does. The cost/benefit tradeoff simply isn't worth it to me.

And there was that turbo'ed Prius Classic...which, even the folks who did the swap said was a LOT of work.

I did, however, own a Monster Miata for a time...you know, the Miata with the pushrod 5.0 Ford V8 shoehorned into it by Monster Motorsports...that one, also, sacrificed a lot of the "balance" of an otherwise well-rounded car...but was absolutely, positively worth it in every respect (at least for a while).

 

There ought to be a way of pressing a red boost button to give extra electric torque when needed

 

I thought the guy/group that turbo'd the classic then took that off, supercharged it, didn't like that and then turbo'd it again. That was a NorCal guy. same one, or different?

 

Then we would only need a cool LED display in the dash that spoke the words...

KITT: Don't touch Turbo Boost. Something tells me you shouldn't touch Turbo Boost

We've got nearly all the other gadgets. We just need the turbo

 

It's good to see that I'm in the same boat with a bunch of doctoral candidates. It makes me feel like I've found my element.

Performance tweaks on a Prius... I've heard of a turbocharged Prius, but to me that's a massively bad idea as turbos don't like being stopped and started without a warm-up / cool-down period. I'd rather see it supercharged, but either way you must keep in mind that a Prius has a low-RPM engine and as such is best suited to nitrous oxide injection.

That having been said, this is not now and never will be a performance automobile. Someone else discussed drag racing, and I used to hobby race ( my convertible is not track legal anywhere anymore ), and the Prius is really really not an easy car to enhance, acceleration-wise.

~ dan ~