How Good Is A Suzuki Swift Sport As A Race Car?

As we sat on the starting line waiting for our turn, I cursed my lack of track experience. I was at the wheel of a race car that wasn’t mine, and was about to drive it around Curborough Sprint Course in Lichfield, a soaking wet track I hardly knew.

The car in question - a track-prepped Suzuki Swift - belongs to modified car component supplier Part Box. With a new Swift Sport on our long-term test fleet, I was naturally intrigued to find out just how good these little cars can become.

The company has used this little Swift as a test bed for many of the parts it sells, and the spec list is so big, we’d be here all day if we went through the whole lot. The 1.6-litre four-pot engine has been bored out to 1.9 litres, sporting individual Jenvey throttle bodies and Wiseco forged pistons.

It kicks out 170bhp, nearly 50bhp more than standard, and it sends all that power to the front wheels via a Cusco plated diff. That isn’t the only Cusco item on here, either: trick ‘Zero-3’ suspension from the Japanese tuning company has been fitted, as well as front and rear strut braces, plus a roll cage in the car’s partially-stripped interior.

It all makes a huge difference. Compared to our own Swift Sport, which I’d used for a few sighting laps, the driving experience is simply unrecognisable. The roll present in the stock car is almost completely eradicated, the steering gives a big increase in feedback thanks to the diff, and the engine is so much more urgent, with a wickedly sharp power delivery.

This was abundantly clear as I shot off the line on the first occasion; careful as I tried to be, the throttle pedal was like an on off switch, causing the front wheels to excitedly light up as I pulled away. My worries about wiping out had gone by the second corner: the grip on offer in the wet is simply daft, and the Cusco diff made powering out of corners a joy as it performed its witchcraft.

It feels nothing like the geared diffs such as the Torsen items you’ll find in the likes of the Renault Sport Megane and Peugeot RCZ R. It’s a little unnerving at first, but you can feel the change in the amount of torque sent to each wheel as you’re dragged out of every corner without even a hint of understeer.

With Part Box’s Paul Dolan - a regular at Curborough - in the passenger seat giving me a few pointers, I was getting faster and faster around the small track. I relished clattering over each rumble strip, and was braking as late as I dared using this Swift’s hefty AP Racing stoppers.

We weren’t timing the lap, and the only basis of comparison I had was the speed at which I crossed the finish line - determining how well I’d nailed the hairpin at the far end of the course, which I’d found the hardest part. I crossed the white stripe on my last trip around at the highest speed yet, leaving me with a warming sense of satisfaction.

It all seemed over too quickly as I jumped out of the machine, but it was time to put Paul in the driver’s seat and get some footage of what this car can really do. I was glad not to be riding shot gun at that moment - when I’d swapped seats with an instructor earlier this year at the Lotus test track, it made me feel inadequate as a driver - but seeing that little Swift take everything that got thrown at it was brilliant to witness.

After hopping back in our standard Swift and starting the drive home, our humble long-termer seemed rather sedate in comparison. I was certain I’d be back another time to get back behind the wheel of this car’s track-spec cousin, particularly after Paul mentioned a sequential ‘box going in and a targeted power output of 200bhp.

Overall, though, I understood better than ever why people choose to spend so much time and money on modifying their cars; if you get it right, you can create something very special indeed.