Suzuki Swift Sport 2006. JWRC homologated but cheap!

Update Feb 2007

Update Jan 2007

[UPDATE]

I have some shots of the Swift JWRC Super1600 taken during the Singapore Motorshow 2006. Managed to get some good shots of engine bay. I was extremely surprised that the rally car has a single throttlebody rather than a quad (the single's big though, maybe 60-70mm like the Nissan SR16VE N1, with supersized intake plenum), carbon air intake and oil cooler.

SUZUKI SPORT Racing 2006 Catalogue (excerpt fr. SuzukiSport site) http://www.suzukisport.com/english/sales/catalogue/inquiry.html
The all new SUZUKI SPORT Racing Catalogue 2006 is now on sale. All the parts including the scheduled parts coming out until 2006 May is published. From all new Swift Sport to Escudo (Grand Vitara), Cappuccino is covered in this catalogue. All pages are in color print. Surely satisfy the owner of the Suzuki.

If you have any questions, or would like to have the quote, or purchase, please contact to us with parts name, parts number and your address: info@suzukisport.com We will answer to your questions, give you the quotation including the shipping fee. Please note that product shipping fee needs to be covered by customers.

[END OF UPDATE]

This car is S$59,000 in Singapore. That's roughly the price of a Honda City 1.5 Vtec, Toyota Vios 1.5G, Hyundai Accent 1.6 or Proton Gen2 1.6 Highline Edition.

But hang on a minute.. it has 128hp, a 6800rpm rev happy engine, VVT, ABS (Antilock Braking System), EBD (Electronic Brakeforce Distribution), 5-stud wheel hubs, 5-speed close ratio gearbox, sports suspension and ARBs and does a 8.9s century sprint topping out at a mfr 200kmh. It has 4 disc brakes (F: ventilated R: solid, I'm still trying to find out the rotor size and the pictures look like single pot calipers) and 6 airbags. The front splitter, side skirts, rear spoiler, rear bumper extensions and valance all designed to reduce lift.

How else do you know it's JWRC homologated? It's got variable high cams (I need to find out the specs), 4-1 extractor, polished intake manifold, shot-peened! + FORGED! pistons, piston oil coolers!, 11.1 compression ratio and 200mm clutch (standard is 190mm). You only see engine specs like that on turbo engines, Honda's legendary B16As, Type Rs or Nissan SR16s. Maybe the much maligned Mivec 4G92. And you'll be hard-pressed to find shot-peened, forged pistons on any unmodified engine. Certainly not in a sub S$60K road car!

Yes, the best of all is the Swift Sport's $S59,000 price tag. Remember, the price competition are Cities, Vioses, Gen2s, Wajas, Hyundai's, Kias.... and that means no competition at all!

Seriously, with engine specs like that, I'm surprised it's only 128hp. Honda gets a standard 160hp with roughly the same specs and compression in 1.6L B16A engine - without the extra tough pistons, mind you. I haven't seen one cracked open yet... but I'm fairly sure with some judicious high rev remapping and a wanton disregard for emissions & fuel consumption, the MA16 has plenty of modification potential.

I suspect if you move the powerband right up to 7500-8000rpm (like for the B16s and SR16s), you could potentially be looking at similar 100hp/litre output. The size of the throttle body should be a very good indicator. Anyone have the measurement or a picture of that? In any case, the forged, shot-peened pistons with piston oil coolers practically promise lots of untapped potential from what seems to me, to be a seriously over-engineered engine. It simply makes no economical sense for a manufacturer to put all that icing on a 128hp cake without an ulterior motive.

The only reason you'd want components like that in an engine is if you want lots of compression (which it has) or boost, lots of revs and run very aggressive ignition and/or valve timing. I can only think that Suzuki's built the headroom into the engine so that the JWRC rally car (which has to run the same base engine as the road car) has the best possible base to ramp up power from the rather pedestrian 128hp to JWRC levels (typically low 200s for the Super1600s). And homologations have the added advantage of making available a good range of aftermarket parts from the big brands with the express objective to do just that.

Based on the specs alone, if there's one car on my Christmas list, it's this one! So instead of spending over 50K on a practical Honda City or homely Toyota Vios, Proton, Kia or Hyundai, I'd much rather put it into a Swift Sport.

Forged pistons are S$1,000 a set for something cheap like JEs, 50-100% for more refined Tomei or HKS, shotpeening at a machine shop costs around S$800 for 4 pistons and rods, plus you'd have to pay another $1,000 for blue printing after that or risk some unwanted resonance. Retrofitting piston oil coolers is anything from $1000-2000 if you can find a tuner who knows what he's doing. I'd say you'd probably pay S$5,000-6,000 in Singapore to get all that engine work done (plus the labour). And you'd lose the 3 year factory warranty. By that reckoning, the S$5,000 extra you pay to upgrade from the 1.5 Swift GL(A) to the 1.6 Swift Sport is worth every cent. You get 100cc more, the better seats, rear disc brakes, 16" wheels and directional tyres, better stereo, bodykit etc for free.

The next driver's car up the price bracket, worthy of being competition (ie. possessing a similarly good base for modifications) to this 2006 Swift Sport, is the 4WD turbocharged S$85,000 Subaru WRX.

A brochure with some good detailed specs is available from http://www.suzuki.co.nz/auto/whatshot.html?featured=1

This is a 14 second NZ tv ad of the 2006 Suzuki Swift Sport. FWD but shown oversteering through the bends with a quick heel&toe shot. Fantastic.


The Swift Sport being put through its paces on the mountain roads of Japan. Mt Akina maybe?


Swift Sport reviewed by Fifth Gear.