Engine Upgrades Overview

Now that we have built a solid vehicle foundation, we can now start upgrading the engine. Here, the aim is to maximise power and torque figures for the least amount of Performance Points (PP). Before adding any parts, i reduce the Power Restrictor to minimum (70%). This gives me the most amount of  PP i can now spend upgrading engine performance. Remember, reducing the Power Restrictor doesn't limit torque at low RPM, so any upgrades that greatly increase torque are essentially free performance.

The way to prioritise engine upgrades can be made simple by using this simple table of all engine performance upgrades. With this we can single out which upgrades should be prioritise for more torque. Each upgrade has a percentage range of how much power, torque and RPM is increased in accordance to the original engine power, torque and RPM.

There are 2 upgrades; Computer and Exhaust Manifold that both increase engine power and torque. Both of these upgrades increase the added performance when the overall engine power and torque is low. When the overall engine power and torque is high, both of these upgrades increase performance at a slightly lower rate. The limits and range have been given in the table below. The power and torque percentage increases are independent of each other.

Table showing the rough percentage increase range for both power and torque of each engine upgrade

Table showing upgrades that favour increased torque

The next upgrade would be the Turbo or Supercharger. Supercharger selection is simple, the most powerful one without exceeding the PP limit is the best. The Supercharger has no change to on throttle engine response, unlike a turbo with no applicable Anti-Lag System.

Turbo selection should be narrowed down to if the vehicle has a Anti-Lag System or not. There is a noticeable amount of turbo lag in Gran Turismo 7. So without an Anti-Lag System, the bigger the turbo equipped the longer it will take before the turbo produces maximum performance. So you may find a smaller turbo will perform better than a bigger turbo.

If you can equip an Anti-Lag System, any sized turbo is viable.

When maximising power gains from these upgrading techniques, you may experience limiting factors that stop you from finding hidden performance. The obvious one being, the tyres. When accelerating the tyres will experience tyre slip when transferring engine power to the ground (more is discussed in 2 Tyre Slip Angle). With this discussed, high amounts of torque is best, however to a point. From having tuned all engine swapped vehicles, I've noticed Sport Tyres can efficiently handle up to~50kgfm / ~360ft-lb of torque. Racing Tyres can efficiently handle ~90kgfm / ~650ft-lb of torque.