Making a car go faster than it’s designed to is an easy thing to do. Just slap on a free-flowing exhaust system, some flashy decals and a set of lowering springs. Just ask any recently-licensed, pimply-faced driver.
Hopping-up hatchbacks designed only to carry small loads of groceries and a passenger or two has become a billion dollar industry, and boy racers the world over are hurriedly flipping burgers to earn the buck they need for their next must-have mod. But now, South African aftermarket vehicle tuner LupiniPower has taken all of the fun out of it for the kids and is selling a pre-modded version of Suzuki’s not-so-swift 1.5-litre Swift hatch.
Yes, we’re talking about the same tuners who tweaked the SS Chevy Lumina Ute we at Motoring evaluated a few weeks back, but the Lupini Swift you see here involves horsepower gains on a much smaller scale. Unlike that blown SuperUte, the Swift features no costly turbo or supercharger conversion and all the extra power’s been wrung out by way of cylinder head work, a branch-back Wildcat exhaust and a reprogrammed control unit. Interested hot-hatchers can pick one up for R199 750 and can get a kiff set of black 17-inch wheels too for an extra R6000.
Lupini quotes power outputs of 100kW and 155Nm – respective gains of 26kW and 22Nm compared to the standard grocery-getting 1.5-litre Swift GLS it’s based on. Turn the key and the Swift’s starter motor whirrs over just as it would on the showroom floor, but once the little four-pot starts pumping you’ll notice a deeper, more baritone hum coming from the exhaust tip. It’s immediately evident that the car’s heart has been toyed with, and if you listen closely you’ll hear a lumpier idle than standard. We’re just not sure if it’s the reground camshafts or a slight misfire that caused it.
The engine spins with ease when revved in neutral, but pull off from a stop and there’s a huge flat spot in the power delivery until the needle’s past 3 000rpm. I suspect an oversight in the ECU reprogramming process. Trying to accelerate uphill with the airconditioner running results in a bucking bronco until the Swift clears its throat enough to rev sweetly.
The ailment also hindered the Lupini Swift’s test results, and our satellite-based Vbox test equipment just didn’t agree with LupiniPower’s 0-100km/h claims of 8.7 seconds. Our best time was just over 11 seconds and to put that into perspective, Suzuki claims 10 seconds for a showroom stock model (albeit at sea level).
Unfortunately we’ve never put a standard Swift against the clock, but a 1.6-litre 3-door Swift Sport with 92kW and 148Nm (all 100 units allocated to SA are sold) did a best time of 10.6 seconds when we road tested it in August. In gear overtaking acceleration from 60-120km/h suffers even worse and the Lupini Swift took almost four seconds longer than Suzuki’s own Sport.
Also disappointing is the tuned Swift’s ride. While the car’s stance, coupled with those perfectly sized rims looks the part, the thing bounces over every undulation and even simple highway expansion joints send the car, and its occupants airborn.
I also scraped the front bumper on my driveway no matter what angle I took it at or how slow I approached, although pimply-faced youngsters probably won’t mind as much as we did. I have no doubt that cornering G forces are improved over the everyday Swift GLS’s, but the compromise is just too great for my liking.
VERDICT:
The Lupini Swift, especially in blacked-out trim like this one, looks fantastic, but the go simply doesn’t match the show. Worst of all, I think that the target market for a souped-up hatch would rather do the work themselves.
In other words, choose their own exhaust systems, springs, wheels, chip tuning and camshafts. A kid could buy himself a standard Swift GLS for R163 900 (even less for a GL model) and then have R41 800 to go crazy with at Autostyle.