Hi guys firstly a bit of background. My first car was a gorgeous K11 1.0L Micra which i dearly love. I had big plans for the little car but needed wlding put it off of the road. I needed another car quickly and settled for a nice ford escort which i also love. Now i was going to sell the micra but having driven the escort round for a fair bit it really lacks the fun and excitement that the micra gave to me. I considered dropping a 2L lump into the ford, but it will only ever be a boring family car unfortunately 
I love the micra with a passion and my aim now is to use it as a project car.
I want to turn it into somewhat of a street and track sleeper, able to turn a few heads and really shake off this idea that the Micra is a car not worth working on. I really need advice about what is going to give me the most for my money. As i said it is only a 1L at the moment, would it be worth sticking the 1.3 engine in and using that for my build? what are the potential gains of the engine in terms of bhp and torque and is it worth spending money on?
The other option is to go for a higher powered engine (ie 1.6 or 2.0) and work on that. However, does this shoot the cost up greatly? i'm more than willing to spend money on this project but do not want to spend dead money on gains that are hardly worth it. As i said my aim is to create a decent street sleeper capable of surprising people, but what would the outcome be compared to say, the corsa 1.6 GSI (a greatly tunable and quick sports engine).
What would you guys say is the best way to go about this as i'm slightly out of touch with the nissan engines now. Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!
