How to squeeze more power from the Gransport

I am considering a Gransport as my family will get larger and a Scaglietti is too expensive right now.

I drove a factory-owned Gransport, probably "tweaked" internally to make it more aggressive for magazine tests, and it was an absolute monster. Not as fast as my F550, but not massively slower either. I then drove another one (an '06 MC Victory) and it felt very slow in comparison (ok it did have only 900 miles on the clock).

I have been doing some research on tuning for the Maser 4.2, and I have come across the following options:

1) Eurotek chip + BMC filters + free-flow exhaust = 450BHP, uncertified ($2500)

2) Modena Performance (very serious German tuners) ECU + air intake + valve timing mods, limiter 7700rpm = 432BHP, certified ($8000)

3) Modena Performance twin compressor kit 551BHP, over 190mph top speed ($30000)

Now, has anyone tried the Modena Performance packages? Is the Eurotek improvement "real"? It seems too cheap for what they promise. Does anyone have measured dyno curves before/after?

Thanks
Andrea

 

hopefully this link will work:

http://www.************.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1921

MVP seems to do a lot of this work, if link doesn't work he posts here as well as ************.com

 

Wow, 500 BHP without turbos? I am very skeptical, unless they rev it up to 8500 rpm or so. With a normally aspirated engine the quantity of air you can suck in is proportional to engine speed - and to get 119 BHP/litre you must get peak power at around 8500 rpm (see Ferrari F430 and F360, or Honda S2000). It's physics.

What worries me is whether the engine can withstand 8500 rpm for a long time, considering it was not designed for this purpose. Specialists say that engine wear increases exponentially above 8000 rpm.

We'll see, but to get 500 BHP out of the Maser engine I think that a mild turbo- or super-charging is probably the best way, if you also reduce the compression ratio at the same time.

 

Where are you getting that number? The maximum claimed without boost is 450 BHP.

 

People have doubted us in the past and that's fine, they said we wouldn't get any power out of the Ferrari F355 and we showed 17rwhp with manifolds alone. MVP had the first 8 second 1/4 mile import in the United States, we're not new to this and we know what we're doing. All of us here are diehard car enthusiasts and drive Ferrari, Maserati, and even high hp imports including Dusty Womack's 1,100rwhp (1,300bhp+) daily driven Toyota Supra.

We are an authorized Modena-Tec (Modena Performance dealer) and while supercharging and turbocharging is the easiest way to get power $30,000 is not what most Maserati owners including myself are looking to spend.

I own a 2006 Coupe GT and have owned a 2002 Spyder so I can relate to most Maserati owners in our quest for affordable power. I am not allowed to go into detail about our plans until the R&D stage (will start January 6th) but I can gurantee you that we will achieve 500bhp and offer it for less than $10,000USD. The current Maserati market is overpriced, you may not be the average owner but most of us can't afford to spend $30,000 on our cars.

Regards,
Kevin

 

Kevin, if you can get 500BHP out of the Gransport I'll be a VERY happy man indeed. I do not doubt your capability, and if you are a Modena-Tec authorised dealer, I've seen the quality of the work of these guys and I trust them 100%. However, so far they only offer up to 432BHP without supercharhing.

I've been looking today at fast 4-seaters and I am still looking.

1) Ferrari 456 - too old and too delicate, I need something that handles better and less expensive to run.
2) Porsche 996 Turbo - cheap to buy, ferociously fast with the Sportec 500BHP chip but also very boring to look at, and the plasticky interior is cheap and as dull as dishwater, nothing compared to the style of an Italian car.
3) Maserati Gransport - looks fabulous, sounds awesome, handles like a dream but needs another 100BHP - MVP, that's where you come in . I'll be in line for one of your kits if you succeed, I look forward to seeing your dyno curves. Good work!

Best regards
Andrea

 

Try better tires and a performance driving school...the tires and driver are usually the two most performance limiting parts of an OEM car...more HP is great, but it is the rare driver who can drive a performance car at 70% of its capability...better tires and a performance driving school or two will go a long way to getting the most out of your GS...

 

You may be right about track driving school, but let me explain my point:

I drive a Ferrari F550 with modified intake/exhaust system, which pumps out 515 BHP and enormous torque at any speed. I don't use the power all the time, but believe me, I've driven it enough to the point that now virtually every car I drive feels slow. I drove a Gransport recently and although I found the handling excellent I found it lacking in power.

It's not that I want power to show off on the dragstrip, I couldn't care less. 99% of my fun driving is on mountain and hill roads where I mostly use 3rd gear. We have roads here on which I drive all the time, of the kind that in the US you can only find in certain parts of Colorado and Montana. The fact is, I am totally "spoiled" by the 550 experience and now anything without the monstrous push of that car feels tame and "easy".

 

Any reason you would not be able to do this on the Quattroporte too ?

 

Parts of the kit will fit on the Quattroporte other parts won't, we will have a QP specific kit in summer-fall of 07.

Regards,
Kevin