Amen to that.

A properly maintained healthy Scoob should be producing around the same power or, in some cases, even slightly more than the factory figures. The key is looking after them properly and trying to keep your engine in a healthy state of tune.

Absolute tosh, I think you lot are getting confused with modding the car to get it back to standard figures! Someone show me a 9 year old Subaru with 110k on the clock with NO mods on it, I will eat my f*****g hat if it hasn't lost power! Just not possible!

personally I wouldn't trust anything I see on Top Gear

as discussed in numerous threads it’s an entertainment show -- and not a bad one at that -- but at the end of the day it’s TELEVISION

in my limited inside knowledge of how they make TV programs -- its all "smoke and mirrors" anyway

this was one of the more stupid top gear stunts... with all the handling mods and brakes it only brought it up to the (arguable) same level as the Evo but without the 80-100hp hike the Evo had... it was impossible... even with Nitrous or some serious mods it was unlikely to ever match the lap time...

some fair points there thanks all - I agree with the whole television thing but I do like it! - I'll just try to continue to keep my scoob on top form - its good to hear that they dont loose as much power as some other cars though -

I must admit I would expect some loss of power from even the best maintained example, any car with an engine whos pistons have covered 100K+ are going to have some wear, some loss of combustion/compression and ultimately some loss of power somewhere.

A valid point, but i still maintain a well maintained car can produce there or thereabouts the factory figures.

A mate of mine had a Fiat Coupe 20v turbo a couple of years back. It was then 8 years old with 92k on the clock and he decided to RR it (totally standard) and it produced 224bhp (they're 220bhp standard) so, i can only put that down to religious servicing and taking care of it.

Yes, some cars will always be down on power but a surprising many will still put out good figures in standard form:)

Don't forget people that rolling roads are always accurate ;)

all the cars ive put on the rollers have had about the same bhp as they was rated at. come to think of it they've all been na fords with at most exhaust and air filter mods.

still modded tho!

Any idea's what wheels they stuck on the Renault? looked cool imo.

IIR topgear won an award once for best Non-Scripted Show.

however they couldnt turn up to collect the award stating "We are too busy writing next weeks script"

:)

I've noticed with this thread people mention how much power has been lost since the car left the factory, but has any one considered how much power you could gain once its left the factory? Is it plausable that once the engine has been run up for a few thousand miles and as such "loosened up" it could actually gain power slightly before reaching a "sweet spot" where power starts dropping again as components wear?
Just a thought!