I recently found out that we the Philippines, are the Hi Ace capital of the world, having sold more units than any other country. I know it’s a shocker, but spend 5 minutes just looking at the flow of traffic and you will see a lot of the refrigerator shaped Hi Ace Grandia and the wider Super Grandia playing the streets.
I get the appeal, we own one and as a people/stuff/luggage/school bus transport, it makes a lot of sense. It basically maximises the available parking available per slot in every dimension.
So why power up such a utilitarian vehicle? Well for the same other reason why people come to the shop, because a more powerful car is simply a better car to drive. And when you’re hauling 10 people, that extra power is used A LOT.
The Hi Ace has either the previous generation 2.5 or 3.0 engines and getting more power is exactly the same as the Fortuner or Hilux or Innova.
First up is a full 3″ exhaust
And no, it’s not scandalously noisy, your passengers will still be able to sleep soundly as you cruise along at 100-130kph at a low 1800rpm
A front mount intercooler by itself doesn’t add any power, but when combined with the exhaust and ECU tuning, it’s worth another 8-10hp compared to the stock one. And the assumption is that most Hi Aces will spend a good part of there time on long distance drives, where the faster speeds and airflow will definitely feed the intercooler.
And of course, Speedlab ECU Power tuning to tie it all together for maximum power gain
Dotted red line: stock 80whp
Solid red line: SpeedLab tuned 127whp
Maximum power gain of 60hp and 180 ft-lbs of torque at 2000rpm. That’s some serious pulling power.
Speedlab Performance 