Buying a mapped or PPP car

Right, bit of back ground, basically been looking at buying a blobeye sti for a bit. Done some research and decided to go for a PPP one to get the 300bhp mark. After looking I've noticed some turning up on the market with out PPP but have been remapped to 300+bhp.

So the questions are - which would be the one to go for? PPP or remapped?

And what do you look out for when buying remapped cars, engine mods wise? What should it have done to compare with the power its running or does it depend? Plus if it's been mapped to the previous driver is that not going to be useless to me if I bought it?

Sorry if too many questions have been put in here but I've left loads out for now!!

Thanks in advance as my head is getting fried with all the reading up I'm doing!

If the car has a PPP on it has a standard prodrive map to suit the PPP, if the car has been remapped the car has been mapped to suit exactly what has been done to that car.

As a starting point I would look for a full decat exhaust, panel filter, upgraded fuel pump and remap, this is what you call Stage 1 and should get you 330bhp ish.

The remap is not for the driver but for the car.

So just checking, but some times the sellers will not list many mods but then claim its been remapped. So the engine must have some upgrades (that their not listing) else the remap is pointless?

The last Q on the remapping I meant live mapping. One I've seen for sale claiming a live map done. Would that be useless if it's been mapped to his driving?

Cheers

A standard car can be remapped and gains can be made from fine tuning the ecu. But you get the best from the car if its got modification.

You can only live remap with aftermarket ecus like a simtek or solaris, ecutek and open source mapping is done by reading the parameters and then changing the setting via a upload / reflash to the ecu.

Like i said the map is not done for the driver its done for the car.

So which is the best to go for.. on the basis that most of the time the PPP is put on early in the cars life and reaching 'stage 1' is later in regards to mileage? Or is that swings and roundabouts?

Is PPP a lot safer to be running or is Stage 1 better because its more tweakable///specific to whats been done?

If you buy your car standard / PPP / mapped the longer you keep it and the more you come on here and the more members you meet you WILL be modifying it and you will most probably be getting it mapped again.
So worry less about PPP & maps now and more on condition and mileage of your new car that you will be buying.
Enjoy.

Good sound advice from 2 lads who have & have had big power cars.

Agree with Martin (j555hks) that you should be looking for a well looked after car and improve from that.

+1

Whatever has been done to the car you choose you will almost certainly want to put your own personal stamp on it. As Martin said, go for a good condition well looked after car and you'll have a good foundation to work on. Alternatively check out any cars for sale on here which at least can be vouched for.

I agree, if it was me I would buy a good low mileage standard car and start from there. That's what I did, then as KGT says you can put your own stamp on it. You can then spend as little or as much as you want on mods.

As for remap versus ppp, I would all ways get a car mapped than put a tweaked standard map on, even ppp cars have been known to have detonation which is bad for turbo cars.

iddysti wrote:

I agree, if it was me I would buy a good low mileage standard car and start from there. That's what I did, then as KGT says you can put your own stamp on it. You can then spend as little or as much as you want on mods.

As for remap versus ppp, I would all ways get a car mapped than put a tweaked standard map on, even ppp cars have been known to have detonation which is bad for turbo cars.

When I started looking 4+ months ago I was after a standard, low miles car. So I knew where I stood with the car and could build on that. But in reality there's not many go for sale (at a sensible price) Granted it's a crap time of the year to look for cars but also the market is all over at the minute. Anyways I figured some thing would have to give so instead of just looking for a base car I was looking at PPP and Mapped cars, hence the questions on them.

Quote :

+1

Whatever has been done to the car you choose you will almost certainly want to put your own personal stamp on it. As Martin said, go for a good condition well looked after car and you'll have a good foundation to work on. Alternatively check out any cars for sale on here which at least can be vouched for.

I'm always on here looking for cars but the only forum that has out for sale at the minute is scoobynet. At the minute all the good cars for sale are in London which is a bit too far to go to find out that the cars naff. I prefer buying from enthusiasts forums as its a 1000 times easier to dig up history on the car/owner etc.

Cheers lads, as already said good advice and a bit of peace of mind

was working at a blokes house 5 mins from my house last week who has an 05 plate sti with 26k onthe clock who is thinking about selling!! thats a bloody good place to start as he has had a few impreza's and knows it not worth much!! will pop and see him if your interested

Be patient Bigup, I know its easy me saying this, but the right car will be along soon.

By the way, both Steve71 and Liam are selling cars at the moment, (unless Liams has been broken already) - ok they arent STi's, but have you considered either of those two ?

https://nesf.forumotion.co.uk/t8178-my-bugeye-going-up-for-sale

https://nesf.forumotion.co.uk/t8617-02-wrx-blobeye


I'm sure theres more, but those two spring to mind at the moment.

kgt wrote:

Be patient Bigup, I know its easy me saying this, but the right car will be along soon.

By the way, both Steve71 and Liam are selling cars at the moment, (unless Liams has been broken already) - ok they arent STi's, but have you considered either of those two ?

https://nesf.forumotion.co.uk/t8178-my-bugeye-going-up-for-sale

https://nesf.forumotion.co.uk/t8617-02-wrx-blobeye


I'm sure theres more, but those two spring to mind at the moment.

I have looked at them mate but just in a nosey way. I'm after as new as possible. I was originally saving up for a hawkeye but after literally years of saving and not a very happy missus, I've had to stop and just sort of say well this is the budget. Plus 3 year ago I had the money to buy one, but I had just bought the house I live in now and it didn't have a garage, so I got a garage built with that money If thats not patience I don't know what is I'm not hurrying into out, just asking questions now so if a good motor comes up for sale I'm already clued up. (ish haha)

discodaz wrote:

was working at a blokes house 5 mins from my house last week who has an 05 plate sti with 26k onthe clock who is thinking about selling!! thats a bloody good place to start as he has had a few impreza's and knows it not worth much!! will pop and see him if your interested

Yer mate thats the sort of thing I would look at. If he is interested in selling, I'll defo have a look and a chat with him!

Mate think it's best to buy stand car and make it the way you want least you know what's been done and Been done right that what I did mate look for good condition low miles with history and vin check it or fined someone who know Scooby and bring them with you. There lots out there modified but how can you tell if they been done right every time you change thing on engine a map its high recommended ans some people don't do this which is not safe if I bought a modified car I would get map straight away to be safe ans peace of mine