Very little, it may be slightly less restrictive but you're not going to notice any real improvement. The only time when it's worth to go for a better filter as far as I can see is to get a tiny advantage in competition when you're restricted to standard intake or for endurance rallying, where extra filtration and the ability to clean the air filter at the side of the road is essential.
They're usually just the same old K&N style performance filters, or on serious short distance closed surface racers no air filter is often used, but obviously it is at a huge risk, go through kicked up dust and gravel and bill is substantial.
Jamie - If he wants to do it, then let him, when he comes to sell it he'll realise himself if hes wasted money or not, if it makes him happier with the car then so be it.
ajp - I think theres some sort of tristan stalking with you, i don't know if anyone else has seen it but most of your posts are only when Tristan has posted in the same thread not too long after. I know hes a super hero but back off a bit, if i was Tristan id be thinking about taking out an injunction...
If thats the case, just sell the damn thing, and get something like a 106 GTi or Saxo VTR (VTR is pretty much the same car, but cheaper to insure.). While the performance is'nt staggering, they are still quite nippy so you would be happy with the performance.
As for sticking a K&N on your proton, go for it if you want abit more noise, but dont expect any noticeable performance increase.
That is part of the problem, people associate noise with speed. If you were to take a stock rice crispy and give the driver earplugs before driving it, then slapping on the rice crispy engine mods, they won't notice any difference when wearing the plugs, however once they hear the louder "VROOOOM!" they think "wow, this is rapid as fook!" it is a placebo which only ups your insurance premiums.
Exactly. Thats why i told him not to expect anything from just a bolt-on filter. If i was him, i would'nt bother doing anything to the proton tbh. Its still gonna be a OAP mobile with wheel trims. Save your money jack and get a nice motor next year or something.
I recently had to drive a green R reg Proton saloon that looked suspiciously like yours, it was the single most incompetent motor vehicle I have ever driven approaching a round about without even trying to drive it quickly I was suprised to be greeted with huge amounts of understeer, without being accompanied by any sense of loading or even comical body roll before reaching such a state. Having just come out of a 1978 shape Mitsubishi Colt (don't ask the Lada was definitely the best motor I drove that day) I couldn't quite believe this thing was so bad to drive, with an awful knackered torque converter the only thing it could do was maintain a reasonable pace in a straight line, other than that it was truely horrible to drive and be in. A car like yours is a device to get you from A to B the chance of actually getting any satisfaction from driving it is non-exsistant, don't bother spending money on it, I'd take the Colt anyday at least it was an entertaining experience!
I am sorry to correct you there Tristan, but the Nordschleife sticker is worth WAYY more than 200bhp, I had my bike Dyno'd both before and after the sticker, and I got at least 300bhp.
Also, the Nord sticker knocked 10 secs off my Snetterton laptime.
Now a NO5 sticker, blimey, you are getting close to 500bhp there.....
Was the road wet at all? I will admit that in the wet it understeers like crazy (although on saying that I got flamed for driving too fast!)
Yes it body rolls like a bitch.
But at the same time if you compare it to a beaten up 306 I think it's better.
"R" Reg would be '98, in which case it would be the Persona instead of the newer Wira. The Wira should have suspension modified by Lotus - but they gave Lotus a car, Lotus gave the data and recommended settings to Proton, who in turn gave the new car neither setup :X
I have had the pleasure of driving several Korean econoboxes from the last 90s, and I have owned a '98 306. To say that they are even comparible to a 306 is laughable, let alone better. The 306 would understeer quite easily (a FF config always will), but the Korean cars all seemed so much worse. Except a Hyundai Getz, which wouldn't go fast enough to understeer, even on a mini-roundabout in the wet (to be fair I only tried that in the day, in the dry, but still... )
But he is suffering from buyers remorse. He knows the Proton is utter arse (you should see the trouble Humberside Police have with them), but is going to defend it to the death, most likely caused by the Proton understeering into the path of a lorry.
It will be, because he would have glued on rice crispies.
I didn't really pay for my car (well, I paid £300 but I wasn't allowed my money back and the only thing I was allowed to spend it on was my car...) and I certainly wouldn't defend it to the death - but I do think they are under-rated.
No the road was bone dry and I was following behind an old Talbot minibus (that had no issues negotiating the roundabout at this speed).
This car didn't, which is strange, the steering geometery/camber gain must be so bad that turning the steering wheel just resulted in tyre squeal there's no hint of body roll or a lateral force on you before it decides to understeer which most vehicles built in the last 100 years have managed to achieve.
On what possible grounds? Although very front wheel drive and a big too light to drive 306s maintain some connection between you and the car, are pretty agile and don't just understeer before giving you some warning they're going to.
Aside from driving satisfaction which the 306 can provide some, the Proton doesn't even have any to measure, the trim in the Proton is horrible compared even to a 306. If you're going to buy a car for something other than driving satisfaction then it should at least be comfortable and give good fuel economy, both of which the Proton fails badly at.
I paid £350 for my car and reckon it's underrated. I'm not going to consider paying its scrap value on air filter though. Although there's a natural desire to spend money on any old heap I'm only going to spend money on things that are actually useful or make it better to drive. My wish list of things I'll spend money on/make for my car would be a sump guard (will sort one as soon as I my insurance comes up for renewal and I switch to a specialist company), bushes (modified standard ones = no cost a bit of a hassle), a larger anti-roll bar (can be done with attaching two standard ones together = low cost a bit of a hassle), new seats (some tatty old buckets will do nicely), a rollcage (adapted from something), and spot lights in that order. Bearing in mind I rally the thing every item has got a definite purpose, either to protect the car, its occupants, or actually make a noticeable difference to the handling. All of that should be achieveable for less than the price of the car.
If I ever wanted to do anything to the engine (which I currently see no need to do) and wasn't building it to specific regulations the standard unit would come out and a 2 litre Fiat Twin Cam would fit in nicely, doing an engine swap is the only way to get a substancial cheap boost in power without fully rebuilding the current engine to a higher spec, which whilst you can get a lovely engine as a result the power increase is always minimal and the cost even of a self-build (unless you happen to have a fully equipped machine shop in your shed) is going to be in four figures.
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