Suzuki Swift Tuning

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The Suzuki Swift, a popular choice among car enthusiasts in the UK, offers a fantastic platform for tuning and modifications.

Swifts are popular first cars and often chosen for their fun factor and ease of drive. Many performance parts are now available for the Swift allowing you to customise and tailor the handling and performance to suit you.

Whether you're looking to enhance its performance, improve handling, or simply give it a more personalized look, this guide will walk you through the key aspects of tuning and modifying your Suzuki Swift.

We review Swift tuning and report on the best mods that work. Suzuki Swifts are popular cars and with the optimum uprated parts you can substantially maximize your driving pleasure.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are top of many to do lists for the Swift.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you Swift dramatically enhancing your drive.

Suspension Upgrades:

• Coilover Kits: Brands like AP Coilovers, BC Racing, H&R, KW (Variant 2 & 3), Spax RSX, and ST X Coilovers offer adjustable settings for fine-tuning your Swift's handling.
• Lowering Springs: A drop of about 25 to 35mm is recommended. Opt for brands like EBC Black Diamond and Greenstuff for road use, or Yellowstuff for higher power models and track days.
• Rear Anti Roll Bar: Installing something like the Ultra Racing Rear Anti Roll Bar will reduce body roll and improve cornering.

Bushings:

• Regularly check and replace bushings to maintain optimal handling.

Our aim in Swift engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end.

Sadly with smaller engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.

Brake Upgrades:

Upgraded brakes are essential for safety and performance, especially in tuned vehicles.

• Better Pads: Consider EBC (Black Diamond, Greenstuff, Yellowstuff) or Ferodo (DS, DS2500, DS3000) for different driving needs.
• Larger Rotors or Discs: Opt for larger rotors for better heat dissipation.
• Drilled and Slotted Brakes: These enhance the removal of heat and gases.
• Big Brake Kits: Recommended for heavily tuned Swift models.

Engine tuning mods.

These are the sports kits are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.

Getting the right tuning parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

Please watch TorqueCars Video tutorial on car tuning. And be sure to subscribe and support our new channel.

Stages of Tune

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

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

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

You should keep as much low end power as possible and aim for a wide power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.

In this article we shall give an overview and introduction to the best upgrades for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance modification.A fast road cam usually proves to be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

The intake & exhaust flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU for the best performance gains.

Don't forget to pay attention to the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

If you find you suffer from flat spots and surges after your performance kits you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. To get sufficient fuel you may need to improve the injectors on your engine.

If you've uprated your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Please note that WE DO NOT SEE IMPROVEMENTS WITH INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car extensively and are finding that the standard air intake has become the bottleneck.

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Induction Kits:

• Generally beneficial for heavily tuned engines.
• Brands to consider include Green Suzuki Swift Single Cone Induction Kit, Suzuki Swift 1.6L 16V Jetex Induction Kit, and K&N 57i Induction Kit.
• Performance panel filters are advised for less extensive modifications.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow through the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Exhaust Systems:

• Upgrade the exhaust system to improve airflow. Keep the diameter between 1.5 to 2.5 inches.
• Recommended brands include Fox, Janspeed, Jetex, Piper, and Remus, depending on your desired sound and performance.

Polishing and porting the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge and exhaust flow, this worked well on older engines but newer engines are already quite nicely designed when it comes to flow. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools

Your clutch can slip as you increase the power if it starts to suffer and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%. Fit a performance clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods we would do for your Swift are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

Turbo engines are just pleading to be flashed. You will see phenomenal power gains on most modern turbocharged cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and phenomenal modifications for your money.

We've also seen some tuners toying with twincharging applications and making some very high power hikes.

Adding forced induction will see significant power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos provide boost in exponential proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice directly proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them more straightforward to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the compression ratio of the engine .

• Focus on increasing peak power and torque, especially at the top end.
• For smaller engine sizes, consider an engine swap before applying other modifications.

5. Cosmetic Enhancements:

• Personalize your Swift with body kits, custom paint jobs, and alloy wheels.
• Always ensure modifications comply with UK road laws and safety standards.

6. Maintenance and Legal Considerations:

• Regularly service your car to maintain the modifications.
• Check the legality of each modification in the UK, as some may affect your vehicle's roadworthiness and insurance. Catalyst, Filters & general noise are current considerations for road legal cars.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brake cooling and are generally less heavy than steel ones. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good soft compound tire can really enhance your cars handling.

The downside to large alloy wheels on your Swift is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration.

Although some people have with bigger wheels without problems we would stick to a 16 inch rim size as the maximum.

Modifying and tuning your Suzuki Swift can transform it into a more enjoyable and personalized vehicle. However, it's crucial to balance performance enhancements with legal and safety considerations.

Use high-quality parts and consult with professionals if you're unsure about any aspect of the tuning process. Enjoy the journey of making your Swift uniquely yours, and most importantly, have fun on the road!

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Swift options in more detail with our Swift owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Suzuki 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. We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which mods were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our guides and tips are kept up to date.

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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 Suzuki. 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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