crap! now im even more indecisive...?

[sketchman]

I vote B8. Looks at home in the engine bay, only one cam, and you still get 16 valves and plenty of engine. I'm kinda biased towards SOHCs, though.

Bustiva's B8 hotness.

[FestYboy]

nice air filter!!!

[MiltonHavoc]

Where'd you get the invisible come filter :-)

[MiltonHavoc]

Bp seems like a good beefy start.
Is it any harder to turbo than starting with the b6D and upgrading to?

What mpg's are you b6t guys getting, and what fabrication is involved?

[Festevil3]

go BP

[bhazard]

Don't go big power without going bigger trans.

[MiltonHavoc]

I read the stock auto can take it.(?)
But Matt said he could upgrade the tq converter for me.

[bhazard]

Auto is bigger than a stock manual...so...yeah they hold power too just keep them clean and cool.

[Bert]

It's curious that most of the over-powered Festys inevitably wind up having 'for sale' signs on them within a year or two. Is this merely from frustrated owners trying to keep an otherwise ordinary car together or from scaring themselves one time too many? To me the 16Valve B6 is the way to go by virtue of ease of swap, not suddenly having a scary DD, and not constantly having to maintain/repair overly stressed suspension/clutch and brake components. I have never driven a 100+ hp Festy myself but I'm thinking the additional 25 hp and 500rpm of a B6D would already be a remarkable improvement and likely quite a reliable engine platform too.

Whatever engine you do choose the whole package will include Aspire/Rio brakes I hope.

And for the overall amount of work that is involved, get rid of the 3-speed while you're at it. Maybe it's just me, but I get no joy from flooring an auto nor piloting one.

[MiltonHavoc]

Bert: yes I wonder too about the built festy.
Makes me want to ask advancedynamics what his maintanece is like.

Yes, Rio brakes and suspension upgrades are in the works.

I would love to have a five speed but from what I read of the writeup, you have to weld. I cannot weld.
I do plan on buying a fivespeed Festi and going all out with its build.

I need to hear from the b6d guys what kind of improvement it is, and what league of cars they are able to beat!!

Also I need to find someone to make a mount for me.

[Damkid]

[Bert]

Bert: yes I wonder too about the built festy.
Makes me want to ask advancedynamics what his maintanece is like.

Yes, Rio brakes and suspension upgrades are in the works.

I would love to have a five speed but from what I read of the writeup, you have to weld. I cannot weld.
I do plan on buying a fivespeed Festi and going all out with its build.

I need to hear from the b6d guys what kind of improvement it is, and what league of cars they are able to beat!!

Also I need to find someone to make a mount for me.

Charlie is 'the' consummate experimenter and engineer, and also has considerable experience with performance vehicles; I don't think you want to know how much time he devotes to his craft. Swap to 5 speed ought to be easier than doing the reverse. There is a mounting tab missing under the dash for restraining the clutch cable but that shouldn't be a huge obstacle and you're going to be under there adding a pedal and changing the ECU anyway. Performance-wise a stock B6 auto won't be a heck of a lot quicker than a mildly-tuned stick B3, I would think, and once you get into turbos and intercoolers and all that stuff you'll want to have a thick wallet and lots of spare time. You won't even be able to adapt an over-the-counter exhaust system.
By far the fastest, easiest and cheapest thing to do is buy Maxtiva's car; he's collected, customized and installed every wild part going and would get you an instant fire-breathing dragon with 200+ hp.
Many forum members talk about 'weekend swaps' but nothing I do ever gets done that fast. Took me a month just to install and fine-tune (alignment issues) an Aspire suspension/brake swap.

[MiltonHavoc]

I don't want anything quite that wild as 200hp. A bp right now will suffice until I get used to the car. When I build my monster I'm going b3 full build. Right now I just need maximum stock fun. While retaining some dailyabilty. B6t sounds like it fits that. But the BP fits it without all the extra fab and having to worry about turbo parts breaking.

Ill try to make that make more sense later. Right now I'm dealing with family stuff.