The Ultimate Guide to Modifying your Car for Performance
Modifying your car is both fun and hands-on project. It might be that you want to do some small modifications to the aesthetic of the car or to the bodywork, or that you plan to take your car through some more thorough modifications to increase the power and performance of the car completely. There are many ways that you can modify your car, but whether it is a small or a large project that you plan on undertaking, the first step should always to make sure that you have an end goal in mind. As you make modifications, you are explicitly changing a car from its original design. If you make changes without thinking about them, you may negatively impact the car’s performance unintentionally.
Stance vs. performance-focused.
The two main modifications that most people are interested in are starting a car or increasing its performance. A stance car is one that has been lowered to the ground. To do this, you’ll need to look at the exterior of the car to make sure that the bodywork is as low as possible, as well as investing in the suspension and correcting the wheel setup. To increase performance, then the changes are going to be under the hood. To get every ounce of performance that you can out of the engine, then a new turbo and cooling system will be needed. Combine this with a good set of performance tires and a firmer suspension, and you’ll feel the difference.
Here are some of the more common ways that you can modify your car. You don’t have to do them all or do them in any order. It all depends on your goals and what you are trying to achieve.
The air intake system
If you are interested in performance, then this is one of the first things that you should consider. Look for a full air intake kit that you can install, or if this is too expensive, then try just adding a performance air filter. This works to increase the performance of your car by allowing more air into the car’s system. Air and fuel are what creates power, and the more you have then, the better the performance. A great place to get parts like air and fuel injectors is Goldfarb inc, so make sure to check them out for any parts that you may need. If you choose to replace your air filter, you may feel a small increase in power, but you’ll also be able to hear the engine much better when you give it some gas. Air filters are a fairly easy thing to install, so this can be a good place to start increasing the performance of your car.
Induction kits and short ram intakes
The next step up from replacing your air intake system is to look into an induction kit. This will have a new air filter in the shape of a cone, as well as some new pipework and air box. This will increase the horsepower of your car, but on its own will only go so far. Because induction kits suck air from where the engine is, this is often hot, which impacts performance. When you get the car up to speed, this will be replaced by cold air rushing through the engine, but you will also want to take advantage of that performance boost at lower speeds. This is why a cold air intake is a logical next step.
Cold air intake
A cold air intake is a long pipe that modifies the system so that air flows into it away from the heat of the engine. This might be from near the floor or around the front bumper of the car. This allows for cold air to be sucked into the car’s system all the time and allows for consistently higher performance from the air intake. This requires more work than installing an induction kit, though, as the new pipe needs to be installed. They are also a bit more expensive, so you will need to decide if this is worth the investment.
Modifying the exhaust system
As well as an increase in performance, many people are also looking to make their car sound more powerful and make more noise. Most modern cars are designed to reduce noise as much as possible, which all comes down to the exhaust system. If you are going to change the exhaust system, the first thing to research is the correct size for your engine. In general, a larger exhaust may actually decrease the performance of a car if you go too big. The trick then is to find the largest exhaust your car’s engine will be able to handle unless noise is more important to you than performance. If you have already added a turbocharger to your car, or plan on it, you can go much bigger. For most cars without a turbo, a 2.5-inch exhaust will be about right.
Removing the muffler or resonator
Another way to increase the volume of your car is to delete the resonator or muffler in your car. The best choice here is generally to delete the muffler. This will minimize any additional noise that you don’t want as the resonator will still be active and will maximize the engine noise that you do want. To take things a step further, you can look at installing a custom straight exhaust pipe. This may result in noise complaints through, the increase in sound will be considerable!
Adding a turbo kit to your car
A turbo kit will make the most significant increase to a car’s performance of all modifications you can make outside of completely replacing the engine. If you are planning on installing a turbo on a car that doesn’t already have one, then it is recommended that this is the first thing that you do. After you have your turbo installed, you can start adding around it. Turbo kits also usually come with a new air intake system made for the turbo, so it makes sense to install this all at once.
If your car already has a turbo as stock, then this makes the job easier. You can simply check the air intake and upgrade this as necessary to maximize the performance of the turbo and add in a cold air intake if needed. After the turbo, air intake, cold intake, and exhaust have all been modded; you can start thinking about tuning up the engine.
Remapping and tuning the engine
Along with a turbo remapping your car can make a huge difference in the performance of your car. Similar to the exhaust, manufacturers try to build cars in a way that will appeal to a greater audience. This means prioritizing things like comfort and minimal engine noise over performance. Because of this, there is often a significant amount of power that if not being fully utilized but can be brought online with a good remapping job. The main trick in remapping your car is to find someone to do it for you. Look for someone that has significant experience and good reviews if you can find someone that has used the same tuner before try to contact them for a more personal review if possible, like a bad tuning job and cause long term damage to your car’s engine. If you want a car that has already been modified and the idea of getting someone to mess with the mapping of your car makes you uncomfortable, you might want to buy a pre-modified car instead. There are lots for sales, and it can make your life much easier.
Suspension modding
When modifying the suspension of your car, you have a choice to make about the look and performance of your car. For performance, you will want to look at lowering the car slightly and then increasing how firm the ride is. This will come from wither lowering springs or performance springs, or somewhere in between. When you lower the springs of your suspension, you will also want to think about adding new performance dampers to handle your car’s new ride. You might be able to get away with using your stock dampers for a while, but they will often wear out faster. To save on having your car worked on twice for a similar reason, it is recommended you get your springs and dampers replaced at the same time.
If you want to take things to the next level, you may also want to look at coil overs. These will generally give better performance than a new spring and damper combination and are also adjustable, meaning that you can lower them for days you want performance like on track days. These are more expensive than just the springs, though, so you need to make a decision about your priorities. If you just want that look of a lowered car, then springs are probably all you need. If you want to maximize performance, then coil overs are a better choice.
