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Affordable Mods You Can Make

...and your wallet can take

If you're a car guy or gal you may already have the very common yet unfortunately incurable performance affliction. Be it new or old, big or small, car, truck, minivan, or even an SUV, you can't leave well enough alone. You want your ride to go faster, handle better, stop quicker, sound cooler, and look better than it did when it left the factory—and you'll get it there by any means possible. Like the old saying goes: Speed is just a matter of money—how much do you want to spend?

If you had the all the money in the world the answer to that question would be a no-brainer. As fast as possible! While this is an easy order if your name is Donald Trump or Bill Gates, if your bank statement is closer to reality you'll likely want to squeeze the most performance possible out of your dollar. Remember that if for some reason you don't have this common performance affliction, it's never to late to get started with upgrades and modifications you can do yourself!

Open the Door

One of the easiest and most popular ways to increase engine performance is to simply open the front door and let in more air. Since the engine under your hood functions essentially as a giant air pump as it revolves round and round, letting more air in simply helps make more power. Increased airflow means more air and fuel flows into the cylinders.

While a performance air filter can be an effective upgrade, further performance gains can be realized if the entire intake system is replaced. Since engineers at the factory design modern intake systems to be a compromise between quiet operation and optimal performance, the tradeoff in installing a performance air filter is an increase in engine noise. With all the air baffles and silencer tubes removed, the engine will finally be heard!

Don't expect massive horsepower gains from an air filter upgrade alone. Do expect improved throttle response, a bit more power, beautiful engine music, and the ability to clean and re-use the air filter many, many times. There are a world of filters and intake kits out there for almost every vehicle on the planet and most every last one of them can be installed with basic hand tools.

Uncork the Bottle

Just as air enters the engine, it must exit. If more air is coming in, it needs a bigger route out. In this reciprocal relationship, the faster air can exit, the more can come in. And so it goes.

Retire Early and Often

Right along with brake pads and discs in the going-to-have-to replace-them-anyway department are the tires and suspension components like struts, shocks, and springs.

Nothing can affect the handling and performance ability of your vehicle like the right, or wrong, set of tires. The caveat here is to do your research. While a softer compound tire will grip the ground like a gorilla, the soft rubber will also wear out faster. An ultra-high performance summer tire will turn hard as a hockey puck in winter temperatures, and slide across the ice just like one too. A tire with a stiff sidewall will improve cornering but give a stiffer ride. The solution is to honestly determine what type of driving you'll be doing and get tires to match.

The same holds true for suspension upgrades. Unless your name is Michael Schumacher or Jimmie Johnson, save the race suspension and stiff spring rates for glass smooth race tracks. A plethora of performance suspension companies offer replacement shocks that provide a significant improvement in handling while retaining spine-friendly road riding characteristics. If it's time to replace, why not upgrade?

Team Up Your Efforts

The real trick to getting the best out of your trick bolt-on setup is to make sure all the parts work together as a whole. A systems approach to performance will yield the most noticeable seat-of-the-pants gains and provide the absolute most for your money. While an intake or an exhaust upgrade by itself won't yield a massive horsepower increase, the combination of the two with the addition of a piggyback engine computer reprogrammer or reflash can extract the most out of the improved intake and exhaust flow for truly respectable horsepower gains. A set of stiff sidewall sticky summer tires will generate greater grip if combined with a strut, shock, spring, or sway bar upgrade. An aggressive brake pad will grab more aggressively combined with the improved cooling provided by a performance brake rotor. By taking a systems approach to performance upgrades you can increase the smile-per-mile factor without breaking the bank, and make your bolt-on mods both effective and affordable.