Most people don’t care about how quick their car is, they want comfort, safety and good fuel economy. When you buy your new car, you’ll obviously be satisfied with the new pace. When you get further into ownership however, you may discover it’s not quite the speed demon you thought it was. There are expensive tuning packages available from a number of retailers and car dealers, but unless you have a few thousand pounds to spare and additional cash for an increased insurance premium, they’re just out of reach. There are however, a number of cheaper mods you can perform on your car at home, they may not make your car a rocket ship, but they’ll certainly help!
A cold air intake may not be the most inexpensive item, but it’s incredibly simple to set up and will help the engine perform better by supplying it with denser, colder air; perfect for combustion.
A further modification that can make your car seriously fast doesn’t alter the engine at all. Fitting harder suspension can help you corner flatter and more accurately, giving you more confidence to go into a bend at speed. However, as full suspension re fits are thousands of pounds, just changing the bushings is more than enough to start. Stock cars normally feature rubber bushings, as you can imagine these are softer and stretch over time, resulting in a loose handling set up. Polyurethane bushings then, are a cheap way to stiffen suspension without replacing the full system.
It seems counter intuitive, but upgrading your brakes is also very important. Having all of this extra speed is great, but if you can’t slow down for a corner or stop at a junction then it’s incredibly dangerous. This doesn’t mean you need a full set of ceramic brakes like you see on supercars though, sport brake pads will suffice for anything that’s not majorly fast, an actual sports car however may need something with a bit more stopping power.
There’s no better feeling than red lining your engine then slotting it in to the next gear, it can quickly be undone however by launching your shift hand into the dashboard as a result of a long gearstick reach. This can be combatted by installing a short throw gearstick. Not only does it save your poor knuckles, but it’ll also reduce shift times and can make the changes smoother.