Best Budget Upgrades For The Enthusiast

If you're like me, then you're an avid automotive enthusiast. We constantly day dream about how we would build a certain car if we had the right amount of money and time to do so. We find ourselves researching other cars that we don't even own and probably never will. For me, I'm in my early twenties and have owned and modified about half my age in cars total. The feeling of actually working on each and everyone of those vehicles and spending what little money I had on them was something I felt like I just had to do. Of course I was on a budget, but not modifying my car was not an option.

One of the first modifications I always did to all of my vehicles was changing up the suspension. And let me tell you, it is way better to it right the first time around. I learned that quality products and not tampering with important suspension components was the way to go. I'm sure that the engineers that designed the stock suspension in your car did a good job for every day comfort driving. But as enthusiasts, we like to push it and be able to feel the road and get the most out of our vehicle's handling or even just slam the hell out of your car for looks (I'll admit that I'm guilty of that). One of the best things you can do is get adjustable coilovers, which of course allow you to change the ride height and stiffness of your ride. Those may be expensive though, so I suggest looking around at your options online through forums and even on Craigslist, you may be able to score a deal. If coilovers are not in your market, a cheaper alternative would be to get lowering springs and some aftermarket shocks. These tend to be a bit cheaper, and you can actually call shops and have them make you a custom set in which you can get whatever spring rate you desire.

HID's would be next on my list of important upgrades. A lot of people upgrade their headlights to run HID's for looks and to better help their visibility driving during poor light conditions. I run a XenonSupply kit in my car and it was a big upgrade from my normal halogen lights. Not only does it give my car that cool factor, but the difference is night and day. Plus, they are more efficient than halogen lighting. I strongly suggest you get yourself and HID kit, they're not that expensive (under $200) and you'll be happy that you upgraded.

Tires! An absolutely huge upgrade for your vehicle. I'd suggest calling local tire shops and looking in newspapers for specials is one the best thing you can do. Buying them online will save you money as well. Getting a good set of tire on your car will drastically improve your cornering. Sometimes you can even find deals online of people selling their wheel/tire combo. Install a lightweight track wheel with a set of sticky summer tires and your car will feel like a whole new machine.

Performance wise, one of the easiest things to do is and cheapest things to do is installing a cold air intake. Allowing your car to breathe more cold oxygenated air will give you a small horsepower gain and can easily be achieved. Even used cold air intakes can be purchased online from forums and Craigslist might even run you less than $100. Installing an aftermarket exhaust will help the flow of the exhaust out of the car which will help improve horsepower, gas mileage and give your ride a nice sound. That's an all around win for you! Getting custom made piping is your best bet and will run you a few hundred bucks, but I promise it's worth it. Just be cautious not to get a ticket for it being too loud.

And probably the absolute best thing you can do to make your car perform better while out driving spirited, is the driver mod. Yes, I know that's been one of the biggest jokes for how to improve your vehicles performance, but think about it. If you invested some money into and autocross program, the experience you'd get from it would make you an all around better driver because it will fully allow you to understand the way your vehicle moves under different cornering situations.


- Kyle @ XS