K18 where's the beef?

[george_chick]

As fitted to a 200 3 door.
Where's the grunt supposed to be in this lump, when does it climb on the cams?
I've been turned over more than once and struggled the other day vs a 'cooking' Focus.
Bleedin lights up the front tyres for fun if suitably provoked. i.e. I don't back off once it loses traction.
How do I drive it if I want to make some progress basically, do I have to get used to 'nippy' rather than quick?

[Stevo135+]

It's a K16 actually.
The 1.8 K16 is a nice and tractable engine in 120ps form, and it has some useful low down and midrange torque. It does really start tailing off in power delivery after 5500rpm, and it's a complete waste of your time to push to 6000rpm+ as there is no power at all after this point IMO. Change up earlier, and enjoy the midrange where it's strongest 3000-5500rpm.

The 1.8 in a R200 is not quick more like nippy, and as such it is not a warm/hot hatch, but not bad for a std 1.8, and quicker than say a Focus 1.8 for example. (0-60 is 8.6sec with about 122mph top end).

[bgunn]

VVC is much better in a lot of ways, which is mainly due to the much better head (porting, valve sizes and chamber shape); the VVC gubbins just provides the extra tractability really..

[george_chick]

Thought I was clutching at straws, to be honest.
Memories of 827 and Vitesse power.

Sooner I get LPG on it the better, I'll rev the nuts off it and row it along on the gearstick then.

[Punx0r]

The VVC is ~25HP up on the solid-cam 1.8 and even that doesn't have the go of a vitesse sport, despite the large difference in vehicle weight.