my friend is buying a t5 as a track car

[andrewc1267]

Which engine is better to tune the me7 t5 or the earlier type

[Axionknight]

They are the same essentially, unless you are going for monster power as the dizzy cap and rotor arm of the pre ME7 models can only cope with smaller (but still good) gains. If your looking at anything larger than a 19T turbo I'd suggest he looks for an ME7 car. The bores on a pre ME7 car will also likely be more worn as they used different piston rings, can't remember when the change from one type to the other happened.

Is he rebuilding the engine??

[acshortt5]

Tim Williams 850 is pushing out over 400bhp, with a rotor arm/dizzy cap...

The me7 T5 does come with a better exhaust manifold, better turbo exhaust side & downpipe, and variable valve timing on the exhaust cam which all go to improve performance. The engine management is also better in that the protection measures can better protect the engine from blowing up. However they can suffer from cracked heads around the spark plug holes, the electronic throttle is also prone to failure.

Pre me7 has the traditional cable throttle which is much more reliable than the me7 etm and at £35 for a new cable is cheaper to fix as well. All the good ancillary bits from the me7 cars can be bolted on.

Maybe an idea would be to go to some meets, particularly the T5D5 castle Combe track day, to look at the different engines and chat with the owners.

[thealchemyst]

On a slightly different note if its going to be used purely as a trackday car I would suggest a gearbox swap from a 2ltr model as they have a lower final drive more suited to track work than the standard t5 box
And it would give an acceleration advantage before even starting to tune the engine.

[RiPsTa33]

Has he bought one yet?