Modding for looks or gadgets is one thing. Modding for real performance is another. My standard answer is to spend the money on driving schools, autocrosses and track days. The driver is the biggest most effective and fun mod. All that other stuff will be wasted and just another reason for warranty denial, unless the driver can take advantage of it.

The first thing the target application (road racing, autocross, drag racing)? The car is pretty high performance already. To really get gains you pretty much have to optimize for an application and give up something.

My ultimate goal now is a streetable track car. Give up ultimate autocross, and some comfort. I also have my own "keep with the spirit of the design" philosophy, so no power adders or crazy engine swaps. With this in mind, most of the mods I'm looking into have nothing to do with the powertrain and have more to do with tires, suspension, safety and reliablity stuff. It's almost 2 years of serious driver "training" before I feel that I can tell or take advantage of mods. Right now all I'm doing is replacing wear items with performance wear items, like tires, brake pads, synthetic fluids.

There are easy cheap stuff to do. Weight reduction, remove the spare and tools. Get a performance wheel alignment. Get good tires in a prefered stagger (you probably know that ) and find the best tire pressures.

 

Fongu...I'll agree with you 100% that before I start modding the car to fell like you have total understanding of the limits of driving the car, and how to keep the power under control is probably what I have to do more. I will take one of the driving schools sometime after the second week of August.

In autocross last year in Winnipeg it was a god starting point to feel where the limits were. A few of my fellow Winnipeg autocrossers told me that drive it and take the corners as hard as you can on the track. That's how you will learn where the thresholds are. Then you will have a better understanding of how you can drive.

The first mod that all the Autocrossers mentioned will make the first difference is tires. I was amazed after driving with some friends with R compounds how much difference they made.

I'll look into some of the schools. I saw that the Saab school one is going on today I think at Mosport? would be a good wet weather day to feel for the car. I remember doing some autocross events in the rain. Some people woiuld be pissed off, but it teaches you tp adapt to different conditions .

 

Damp track is actually good. You drive the same way, the only difference is that the grip limit is lower. Slower and safer.

Tires are the ultimate limit for performance. All the car setup, driving and even the engine stuff is about maximizing and using all the tire's grip. Get better tires and everything is better, acceleration, cornering and braking.