I have recently bought a 200 BRM to use on track days. I used it last week but found it slightly lacking in power.

Has anyone carried out modifications to the VVC to gain more power whilst retaining the engine?

Yes they can be modified.

What are you comparing against, so we have an idea of whether it is your car in particular or nit.

Comparing it to a ZR 160 that looked standard but I couldn't get hold of the owner when we finished to ask if it had been upgraded.

but isnt the 160 already more powerful?

but isnt the 160 already more powerful?

Yes it is, as the name implies it's 160ps as opposed to the BRM being 145ps

I know it is that's why i'm asking if the it is easy to upgrade the 145 vvc to roughly 160bhp and what work it would involve. Don't need a massive amount of power I think an upgrade to around this figure should be enough.

Not really as the 160 gets most of it's extra power through better head porting
Easiest way to get a bit more is
1. Fit an enclosed Induction kit (Pipercross Viper is supposedly the dogs)
2. Nice sporty cat-back exhaust
3. 52mm throttle body
After that your looking at head work or a swap for a 160 head

Not really as the 160 gets most of it's extra power through better head porting
Easiest way to get a bit more is
1. Fit an enclosed Induction kit (Pipercross Viper is supposedly the dogs)
2. Nice sporty cat-back exhaust
3. 52mm throttle body
After that your looking at head work or a swap for a 160 head

The head on the 160 is not much different to the standard VVC head and doesn't give you the extra 15 BHP. The 15 BHP comes from a bit of fine tuning.
Better induction, better exhaust, bigger 52mm TB and a remap. However you can get the 145 BHP VVC engine to more or less the same figures by doing the same bar the remap.

TBH the 160 isn't really much quicker than the standard VVC engine on paper and the torque figures are the same and only 0.1 secs quicker to 60.

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=204444
http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=204539

52 mill tbody, magnecor leads, janspeed manifold and system, ITG filter even in stock box should yield you another 10-15 horsers.

With the head off, porting will help and help torque too, but the manifold, although it looks good as atubular item as stock, is not as good as it should be. Look at the entry to it from the head, its quite restrictive, janspeed one much better.

I did a trackday or two in my BRM some years ago and found it was great fun, and handled very well for a stock car, great trailbraking to the apex, its very precise and easy to keep momentum up