[grease.monkey]

Disclaimer :
- There are quite a few well written reviews about the S-Cross 1.6 on T-BHP. I don't think I'd be able to come up with an equally good ownership review. Hence, I'd be covering only the modifications done on the car.
- All the mods/add ons, right from the smallest bulb change, have been mentioned in the thread.

Like all car-enthusiast, I've always dreamt about owning the perfect car


Previously Owned Cars :

1) Maruti 800

2) Hyundai Santro Xing

3) Hyundai i20 1.2



4) OHC Vtec



5) VW Polo 1.2 TDI




And now, presenting my Shooting Star a.k.a Panda.



The S-Cross isn't a looker, to be honest. The rear and side profiles are pretty decent, but not the droopy front. So, the cosmetic changes had to be done carefully.

Modification Details :

Mod 1 : De-Chromed Grille
The car was already looking funny with the out of proportion headlights and on top of that, a huge chrome grille? No, thank you! I'm not a fan of chrome.

There was a sticker shop just adjacent to the showroom and I had the grille wrapped in Satin Black, before delivery itself.



Mod 2 : Horn
I've always been a fan of Hella Red Grille Super Tone horn. They're loud and sounds good too. A very much needed upgrade, from the stock horn.



Mod 3 : Tyres
The car came with JK Elanzo tyres and alloys which almost looked like wheel caps. With the kind of power the car had, I felt that it could use a better set of rubber and definitely better rims too.

Managed to get a nice set of 17 inch 8J Gold/Bronze Lenso rims and went for 225/50 Pirelli Cinturato P1 tyres. Had to use hub centric rings.



Mod 4 : De-Badge
I prefer minimum stickers and badges. Hence I removed all the badges except the front/back Suzuki logo and the 1.6 badge.



Mod 5 : Lights
The output of the stock headlights is a joke. It's fine on narrow roads, but once you get on the high-ways, it's almost as if there are no lights. S-Cross uses D5S bulbs. They're quite hard to get and the only direct replacement is Morimoto D5S bulbs which are quite expensive and has to imported from U.S.

Spending so much wasn't an option, so I got HID foglights. Some Chinese brand. I'm not sure about the colour temperature. Well, it didn't make much difference, to be honest. At least, it looks good!



Mod 6 : Proper De-Chrome
As I had mentioned before, I'm not a fan of chrome. So, the next plan was to eliminate as much a chrome possible. The wrap on the grille had started to come off. I had all the chrome bits (grille, logos and 1.6 badge, foglight surrounds) painted to Piano Black.





Mod 7 : Painted Cladding Bits
Had all the silver cladding bits repainted to Semi-Matte Gunmetal.



Mod 8 : Painted Brake Calipers
The stock silver brake calipers were painted to Glossy Black.

Mod 9 : Wheel Spacers
The upgraded wheels were tucked in the rear fender and looked puny. So got 20mm spacers, with studs, for the rear wheels. Hub centric rings were required for the setup.


Without spacer


Spacer along with the painted caliper


With spacer

The stance has improved, but everything comes at a price. The rear wheels now rub the plastic cladding on the wheelarch, on full load.

Mod 10 : Remap
Okay, so the 1.6 is a beast. Well, not as fast the germans, still was quick! But then, I was hungry for more power!

Choosing the right tuner is crucial. I had considered Pete's Performance, Code6, Redband Racing and Wolf Moto.

Pete's Performance : Primary choice, as they've been in the tuning business for a long time and have good coverage and service. But, remap for the 1.6 wasn't available back then. I still don't know if they've come up with a remap for the car now.

Redband Racing : They said they could remap the 1.6 and have a good map for the car. All of their tuned cars perform well. Decided to check with the other tuners before finalizing.

Code6 : Code6 had already tuned a few 1.6s before mine and has a good map with good top-end. They are based in the same city too. Huge plus point.

Wolf Moto : Rajiv, the tuner, has been working on Fiat engines for a very long time now and I've heard really good reviews about his maps. Dr. Naren's review about this tuner made me want to try out a Wolf Tuned 1.6. A fellow 1.6 owner, who's based in Kochi, was kind enough to lend me his car for a test drive.

The tuned car was faaast! The mid range was punchy and top end was better. Since Rajiv has tuned a lot of Fiat engines and I got to drive one of them, I decided to get the car tuned by them. They're Kochi based, too. Perfect, it was!



The car has covered close to 15k kms post the tune up. I'm running on their V3 map, which has power right from the low end, all the way till about 4,500 RPM.

More on the remap has been covered in this thread :
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...o-remap-3.html

Mod 11 : Dashcam
I travel quite a lot and have had a few close calls too. Hence, I decided to get a dashcam. Got Blaupunkt BP 3.0 cam.



Mod 12 : De-Cat Downpipe
Again, thanks to Dr. Naren, I knew from where I had to get the de-cat done. Blackworks, Bangalore had made a downpipe for doctor's car and it looked perfect, with really good finish.



The car now revvs more freely and turbo spool is more prominent. More on the de-cat in the link given below :
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...ckworks-3.html

Mod 13 : Re-Routed Air Intake System
I've been trying to source replacement filter for the car, for a while now. Sadly, no brand has replacement filter for S-Cross. Although, CAIs are available. CAIs are expensive and I don't think they make any noticeable difference, apart from the suction noise.

I've switched to S-Cross 1.3 air filter as well. The dimensions of both the, 1.6 and 1.3, filters are the same. Just that the 1.6 filter has an extra layer of cotton at the bottom. 1.3 filters costs only a fraction of the imported 1.6 filter too.



Venkat, at Blackworks, re-routed the air intake system. Apparently, the stock intake pipe is set just behind the radiator, from the factory, sucking in hot air. The stock pipe was altered and a silicon hose was attached to it and directed to a vacant spot behind the headlight. The hose isn't placed low, so there wouldn't be any problems during monsoon.



Mod 14 : Custom Painted Rims
I managed to scratch one of the rims badly and decided to get all the four rims repainted, as getting the original colour code would be near to impossible. Decided to get a Semi-Matte medium Gunmetal/Grey shade.



Mod 15 : Sleeper Mode?
The 1.6 badge can be bought for less than Rs.100 and even a lesser powerful 1.3 could impersonate as a 1.6. That thought made me want to remove the 1.6 badge, as well. Currently, the car sports just the 2 Zuki logos and a Wolf Moto badge on the right fender. Sleeper much?



Future Mods Planned :

- Brakes : EBC Greenstuff pads are on the way. Trying to get a good set of drilled rotors.
- Suspension : Not even a single performance suspension setup is available for the car. BC Racing and GAB has coilover setup, but not very keen on getting them as they'd make the already hard ride, harder.
- Replacement Filter : As soon as they're available.
- Intercooler : Soon. Searching for options.
- Lights : Projector fog lights and smoked headlights.

Why no audio upgrade? I'm happy with the stock audio setup. Not an audiophile.

Gradually transforming the Big, Fat Panda to the Dragon Warrior


Moral Of The Story : Modifying a S-Cross isn't as easy as VWs, Swifts, etc. Aftermarket parts are hard to get. Not many options are available, period.


Cheers

[grease.monkey]

Few more pictures of The Panda :


The only thing which differentiates the 1.6 from a 1.3, externally!


Looks the best from this angle


Stock Vs Panda Vs Wagon R?


De-Chromed grille with equally spaced, visible Hella Super Tone


Supernatural






The night I decided to get the remapped by Wolf Moto. With the other Wolf Tuned car.


Mile Muncher


Panda trying to fit in with the Big Boy


A friend made this pendant for the car along with my T-BHP handle


The current look


Super clean A**


Garage-mates!


The perfect key-chain

[Prathiiik]

Just a Minute, let me pick my jaw off the floor!

That S Cross looks amazing with all of your modifications. I just love the way you have transformed a somewhat ordinary looking car (IMO) into this wonderful beast. Your modifications do complete justice to the 1.6 under the hood.

Wishing you many happy miles with this beast. Enjoy!



Prathik

[Jaggu]

Congratulations and very neat build you got going here.

Originally Posted by grease.monkey

Mod 9 : Wheel Spacers
The upgraded wheels were tucked in the rear fender and looked puny. So got 20mm spacers, with studs, for the rear wheels. Hub centric rings were required for the setup.

The spacers looks interesting and of good quality, are they available in India? Or if you can share where to procure the same and cost, it would be great. I have the same issue with my Grand Vitara and always felt it would overall work better with a set of spacers.

[grease.monkey]

Originally Posted by Prathiiik

Just a Minute, let me pick my jaw off the floor!

That S Cross looks amazing with all of your modifications. I just love the way you have transformed a somewhat ordinary looking car (IMO) into this wonderful beast. Your modifications do complete justice to the 1.6 under the hood.

Wishing you many happy miles with this beast. Enjoy!

Prathik

Thank you. Modifying a car is a never ending battle

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Congratulations and very neat build you got going here.

The spacers looks interesting and of good quality, are they available in India? Or if you can share where to procure the same and cost, it would be great. I have the same issue with my Grand Vitara and always felt it would overall work better with a set of spacers.

Thank you.

I bought them from a shop in Kochi, for around 7k. They're not of any leading or popular brands. Found them to be of good quality, though. These spacers should be available in most of the car accessories shop. If not, there are a few dealers who ship car parts. You could check with Autopsyche. They have good quality products.

But do make sure you get the ones with studs and the hub seating is proper.

[The Brutailer]

Nice mods on one of the most wicked cars to ever come out of Maruti Suzuki! I love that you’ve removed all chrome and blacked out most part. Would suggest you smoke the headlights and get a black wrap on the roof as well.

And, how’s the ‘pushed into the seat’ feeling after the remap?

[grease.monkey]

Originally Posted by The Brutailer

Nice mods on one of the most wicked cars to ever come out of Maruti Suzuki! I love that you’ve removed all chrome and blacked out most part. Would suggest you smoke the headlights and get a black wrap on the roof as well.
And, how’s the ‘pushed into the seat’ feeling after the remap?

The thing is, chances of water getting into the HL post opening and closing the HLs, is quite high. That's sort of keeping me away from it. But, I'd do it eventually. The HL is quite huge and painting the entire assembly Black would be too much, IMO. Trying to workout out a design, with a little bit of Chrome (Matte or Semi-Matte, definitely not Glossy Chrome) retained.

Not a fan of the Black roofs. Plus, the Alpha variant has Silver roof rails, which would stand out with a Black roof.

The 'Pushed Into The Seat' feeling is addictive mate. I've done close to about 23k kms now, and the brake pads are almost done.

[Dr.Naren]

Neat build Rahul . Waiting for the dragon warrior .

Moral Of The Story : Modifying a S-Cross isn't as easy as VWs, Swifts, etc. Aftermarket parts are hard to get. Not many options are available, period.

True. After market support for S-Cross is poor. All I need is a good OE replacement performance air filter now.

[grease.monkey]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Neat build Rahul . Waiting for the dragon warrior .

Thanks doc. The build should be complete in a year, hopefully Besides, no matter what warrior it is, your car would be faster, any day.

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by grease.monkey

Thanks doc. The build should be complete in a year, hopefully

Great. Do consider bigger turbo and stage 3 remap .

Besides, no matter what warrior it is, your car would be faster, any day.

Oh yes, thanks to your 225/50 R17 tyres .

[smuniswami]

Dear Rahul,
Is there any chance for me to meet you at Kochi to see your car? If so, you may let me know your mobile number also, please!
I am an ardent fan of S cross and closely following all the happenings with respect to the car in this forum.
Muniswami s

[grease.monkey]

Originally Posted by smuniswami

Dear Rahul,
Is there any chance for me to meet you at Kochi to see your car? If so, you may let me know your mobile number also, please!
I am an ardent fan of S cross and closely following all the happenings with respect to the car in this forum.
Muniswami s

I shuttle between Kochi and Coorg, can't say exactly when I'd be in town. But, a few of us S-Cross 1.6 owners meet up occasionally, in Kochi. I'll keep you posted about the next meet up. You could join us, if possible.

[gururajrv]

Originally Posted by grease.monkey

Few more pictures of [i]The Panda :

Oh boy! Your panda looks sweet with the subtle changes that transforms the characteristics of the humble S Cross

Well, I have one doubt w.r.t usage of spacers. Will it not hamper the handling of the car? Or is it the wide tires that’s compensating?

Can you pls PM me or drop in the price of the Lenso rims along with the tyre cost? I’m actually looking for an alloy upgrade for my ride.

[grease.monkey]

Originally Posted by gururajrv

Oh boy! Your panda looks sweet with the subtle changes that transforms the characteristics of the humble S Cross

Thank you.

Well, I have one doubt w.r.t usage of spacers. Will it not hamper the handling of the car? Or is it the wide tires that’s compensating?

I haven't noticed any difference in handling after installing spacers, period.

Can you pls PM me or drop in the price of the Lenso rims along with the tyre cost? I’m actually looking for an alloy upgrade for my ride.

I've PM'd you the details

[Rohan24]

Beautiful. The cosmetic modifications are just so pleasing to the eye, very tasteful.

The 1.6 is already a scorcher and this must be something else with the remap!
Btw, has the Panda been featured on the StayTunedIndia page on Insta? Some pics looked familiar, hence asked.

Also, IMO, you should've kept the 1.6 badge. I personally feel an instant connect when I see a 1.6 S-cross, because they are so rare. But then again, you have so many other visual cues to infer that this ain't just another S-cross.