Citroen C1 Tuning

"Thank you for reading my Citroen C1 tuning guide."

There were initially just 2 engine options but both felt lively and well suited to this small light chassis.

It shared much with the Toyota Aygo and Peugeot 108

• 1.0 L 1KR-FE I3 (KGB40) 68bhp 93 Nm (69 lbf⋅ft) at 3,600 rpm
• 1.2 L EB2DT I3 (PAB40) 82bhp 130 Nm (96 lbf⋅ft) at 1,750 rpm

The C1 is a good project car to have. Think carefully and research C1 tuning to avoid making the usual tuning slip ups we see and create the ultimate C1 project.

We will look at all aspects of tuning the C1, from engine mods to suspension and handling upgrades.

Turning our attention to the C1's engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Tuning modifications.

The following sports mods are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

Getting the best tuning upgrades for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport mods just won't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Remap.

Stage 2 mods: Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injector, Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch.

Stage 3 mods: Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam, Sports gearbox, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Engine balancing.

Your goal when tuning the engine should be a flat and wide torque curve. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end unless you are creating a competition car.

The aim of our guides is to give a little insight into the world of modifying modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best modified modifications and all aspects of modding cars.One of the best mechanical modified modifications you can do on your NASP engine is to fit a fast road camshaft .

It maximises the intake and exhaust durations and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a performance chip. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling.

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after performance parts are done can usually be traced to fuelling or timing issues.Upgrading the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If you are increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is usually a small power gain obtained by fitting an induction kit, they only work well and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for C1 engines you should just fit a high performance panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

Getting the head polished and ported will allow you to get more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a professional with a flow bench. A good multi plate fast road sports clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or expect your standard clutch to cope. The best mods in our experience for your C1 are Remapping or piggy back ecu, fast road cam and air intake and exhaust.

Remaps offer phenomenal power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a chipped ECU on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. Adding forced induction will see phenomenal power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is generally simpler to add a supercharger than it is to bolt on a turbo. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with revs.

It is simpler to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engines compression ratio .

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the C1.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you C1 radically improving your drive.

We suggest that you fit performance suspension and lower the car by 24mm - 38 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with motorsport suspension.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

As alloys are less heavy they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good track legal slick tire can really enhance your cars handling. We'd like to point out although they can look cool on the C1 big alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Although some people have fitted larger wheels without problems we would stick to a 15 inch rim size as the maximum but you will probably need to fit spacers and alter the suspension geometry, even with ultra low profile tyres.

There is a more updated version of this C1 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss C1 options in more detail with our C1 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Citroen tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Citroen. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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