Before the 2.0 TDI engine snuck under the hood of every model within the Volkswagen Group's range, it was the 1.9 TDI unit that did the same thing. You couldn't escape them on any car, starting with vehicles as large as an Audi A6 to something as small as... well, this SEAT Ibiza.
The Spanish hatchback is virtually a Volkswagen Polo in disguise, but thanks to the hot-blooded nature of its home nation, even though the two models shared the very same engines, they always put out slightly more power when stacked behind a grille with a SEAT logo on it. It was nothing spectacular, though—we're talking differences of 10 hp or so—just enough to give SEATs a little something extra to set them apart from the rest of the VW Group bunch.
For instance, the best you could hope for from the 1.9 TDI in a VW Polo was 130 PS (128 hp), yet it could magically deliver up to 160 PS (158 hp) in the Ibiza Cupra. Take away some sound deadening as well, and what you got was a car that felt a lot sportier, if slightly less refined.
Well, this Ibiza right here is basically what you get if that recipe was cooked by a mad man. The man in question is Luis Silva, and he's the guy running the commercial side of SkillaTurbos, a tuning company from Portugal specializing in making, you guessed it, turbochargers.
However, the turbo is not even half of the story behind what makes this small hatchback go like crazy. That is if it wants to, because the diesel engine can still apparently return 52 imperial mpg (that's 43.3 U.S. mpg or 5.4 liters per 100 km), which is something Luis often takes advantage of as he daily drives this thing.
The 1.9 TDI is now actually a 2.0 TDI after a bit of cylinder boring, and apart from the new pistons to go into the larger holes, not much else of made the original engine is left untouched either: connecting rods, camshaft, head gasket, injectors, valves—all are either bigger or better in some way.
Photo: Officially Gassed - OG/YouTube screenshot
Another thing the turbo needs to work its magic is lots of cold air to feed into the combustion chamber, so Luis had a one-meter-wide (over three feet) intercooler fitted, complete with three-inch-wide pipes to help speed the air movement to and from.
Two NOs bottles sit in the spare wheel well, and they're the ones responsible for taking the power output from "ridiculously-high" to "are you kidding me-high." Without the help of nitrous oxide, the Ibiza sends 420 hp to the front wheels. Luis knows that because he tested it on a dyno. However, when he wanted to see how far the NOs pushes the output, the dyno owner refused to try it, afraid it might break his setup.
That means the 600 hp is a guesstimate, but it also means it could be a conservative figure. Whatever the case, it's surely more than any FWD car could ever possibly need, especially one with the high torque and violent power delivery of a diesel engine. Speaking of that, Luis also mentions the need to add a limited-slip-differential for the front wheels and reinforce the gearbox—particularly the fourth gear.
It looks as though they did a great job with the car, apart from that last bit. Things were going along nicely—the UK countryside had just experienced a great hike in particulate pollution thanks to Luis and Jamie pulling a few runs and the Ibiza rocketed straight to the top spot of the 0-60 FWD leaderboard—but then Jamie took the wheel.
In his defense, he did take it gradually, and he never did anything crazier than what Luis had done before him. However, it was just his luck to have the gearbox snap while he was at the wheel. It doesn't look like Luis took it badly, though, since he told Jamie to floor it with NOs, even though they only had the odd-numbered gears working. Legendary car from a legendary guy.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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