Red-Top Vauxhalls still make excellent sense because they're cheap and they produce big power with little work - they're comparable with a Cosworth YB but without the hassle of all that port work. This isn't really surpising when you consider that this is Vauxhall's answer to that engine - it is another Cosworth engine after all: the Cosworth KBA

There are several ways to gain that 200bph goal - one's almost bolt on, while other more traditional methods don't require that much more work and are arguably about the same money. Fortunately, XE king, SBD Motorsport, gave us the benefit of its wisdom. SBD's Steve Broughton stressed that any decent XE build really relies on a full engine build since all of these engines are now getting on a bit. You really need to take this into account if you expect the engine to run the numbers.

The best basis for any engine is the earlier 'Coscast'-headed XE, which will have forged pistons in it as standard. These are ideal since doing the 200 the traditional way ideally means a cam swap and therefore pockets for the extra lift this dictates. Therefore, these pistons are better suited. Whatever, insurance comes by way of a better set of rod bolts; the rest of the bottom end will easily cope. The mod alone allows the rev limit to be raised to 7750rpm.

Probably the easiest on of the lot! The Duratec is so much like a race engine that it's not surprising that finding the power is extremely simple. The only weak link is the cast components - although that's hardly a weak link since they'll take the punishment to about 225bhp before they need swapping for steel. And that's only because the safe rev limit's gone beyond that of regular cast components.

Really, an induction change is all you need to make a Duratec produce 200bhp - but, it's the type of induction that does it; not all induction is the same! Again SBD gave us the whole story.