[Raptor]

Hi all!


My name is Marco, walking this planet for 47 years now, and I'm the proud owner of a black 500X Lounge.
My job is to keep the IT environments of a pretty large company alive.
I'm married and father to a now 7 year old who also seems to like cars and everything (just name it.. ) else that can go fast.


I owned an ABARTH Punto Evo for over 5 years but it was time to change my ride to something more family like.
The 500X proved to be very usefull on our last holiday and it handles quite well I might add. It is quite capable of a lot more than the looks of the car let you think >


My dealer, which is also ABARTH dealer, gave me an excellent price and his in-house tuning specialist (RVCorse) had some fun tweaking the cars motor management to produce a nice 165bhp.
Fun, yes, but not quite the raw power produced by my ABARTH wich was gradually upgraded to 200bhp with 300nm torque at 5000 rpm. My car was known as 'the beast', totally black as night with a clear but modest noise coming from it's G-Tech exhaust system.


My callsign 'Raptor' was given to me by friends. So I like meat too...
And yes...project 500X was started already. Now a standard 500X with an upgraded motor management will become a chique looking road animal.
My idea is to keep the Italian style unchanged but some minor modifications will be made... A fast wolf in Italian sheeps clothing


I'll be reading your posts for now and hope to be in touch!
Nice to be here, and if you have any questions, ask them!

 

[Raptor]

Just a pic, and new rims to be fitted soon

Just a nice pic to show. My ride.

And when the rims come off.....new ones will be fitted soon.
Meet the BROCK RC22 (By RC Design) rims.

The BROCK rims are exactly the same in size (18inch, 8J) but have ET35 in stead of the current ET41

 

[Ant]

Welcome to the forum, I look forward to seeing what you can do to your car. Those wheels will look great, you'll have to show me some pictures when you get them fitted!

 

[Raptor]

Here she is..

Hi All, and hi Ant!

It took a while but here it is.... The entire appearance of the car has changed and I am very satisfied with the result!

Other work will be done when I have time. Just upgrading the interior with stainless steel door sill's front and back and alu pedal covers.
I also have a friend in Italy who makes beautifull things from aluminium. He is a true artist and will provide me with an identity plate wich will be fitted next to the 12v plug and the rubber footrest will get a unique cover.
Curious? So am I..
Just wait for the pic's...and Italian artists do not rush 0

 

[Moonie]

Looks fantastic, great work. How is having black wheels? Do they get dirty as much or do they stay clean most of the time?

 

[Raptor]

Hi Moonie. Not a very quick response from my side but there were some troubles with my account.

Having black wheels does make you go to the car wash more often>
Although with this semi winter weather there is no point and a waste of good money.
Rinsing the rims with high pressure water does the trick.

But really, when you have a lot of dust from your (factory basic) bracking pads you can do 2 things.
Wear 'm down and spend a little extra money on decent breaking pads. Green Stuff, Red Stuff or Ferodo pads.
My ABARTH had FERODO F2000 pads Combined with Tar-Ox discs.

The better pads are a little squeekish because they contain more metal but they also give you a desirable 30% more breaking power even when combined with standard discs
And this is no sale trick. It is true.
When installed you need to learn to break all over again and hope the person behind you keeps his or hers distance.

Second, you can apply a nice coat of high quality wax on your rims. Making them so smoothe dust won't stick.

 

[lovelyred500x?]

Hi Marco


You say you have remapped the engine to 165 BNP, is that a 1.4 Multiair? Was that a custom remap, as the same engine in Alfas goes to 170 BHP. Is it more drivable and has MPG suffered?


I had an Alfa 159 Diesel remapped from 150 to 200 BHP, obviously more gains from an oil-burner than petrol.


Nice looking car BTW!

 

[Raptor]

Hi Keith,

Thanks. I like the looks of it too

The Multiair 1.4 engine has a small turbo. It might be able to squeeze a 170bhp but 165 was good and safe enough. All is done by RVCorse, former SAVALI. The Alfa Romeo racing team.
The Chief Engineer and master tweaker of car CPU units is doing what he does best.

Next year a large GARRET turbo will be installed. Together with a custom made stainless steel airpipe and a carbon dynamic airbox (BMC).
The CDA was also installed in my ABARTH. Sounds great and floods the turbo with loads of pressured fresh air >
Calculations done by RVCorse take the engine up to 200Bhp.

A few weeks ago I was able to take a ABARTH 500C 595 Turismo out to play for a few days.
RVCorse had a go on this little insane animal and brought it at 210Bhp.
Considering the weight of a 500C, well, let's just say I had a tons of fun >

See yah!

 

[Moonie]

Hi Moonie. Not a very quick response from my side but there were some troubles with my account.


Second, you can apply a nice coat of high quality wax on your rims. Making them so smoothe dust won't stick.

Thanks, going to look at some wheel wax for mine I think.

 

[Raptor]

Hi all,

Winter is gone, summer is in. Time to pick up the plans and execute some.
My car is doing just fine. No troubles of any kind at all! Enjoying every mile.

The new GARRETT turbo (MGT1446Z) is ordered and a date will be set soon to replace the current small turbo.
Also my CarbonDynamicAirbox (by BMC) will be added. Below a picture of the first look&see of how this can and will fit.
Great news; The airpipe needs to be made a little shorter but does not have to be replaced. The diameter of the air intake side on the new turbo is the same.

The tailpipe won't be replaced by the announced ragazzon set. I've decided upon userstories to contact EPS.
EPS is a Dutch company that custom builds anything from tailpipe to fender that you can think off.
The design is equal to the rectangular double set on the 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet.

This will be done after the fine tuning is ready with the new turbo installed. We can then determine the sound and pressure needed to build a optimal muffler.
The muffler itself will be build to sound like the ones usually fitted on the Subaru Impreza. Not very noize. Just a nice, deep and dark growl.

So...a lot of pictures to come.

 

[Kristoff]

Following this thread with interest, love what you've done so far and what you've got planned.