How to and how NOT to tune your car.

Every day I see Camrys and E-Class Mercedes with giant rims and body kits. What those people don't realize is that by adding all that stuff, they make their car suffer. In this post, I will try to prevent other people make those same mistakes as I go over little upgrades.







1. Rims.

I have to see this every day. I see Impalas and Civics with giant rims on them, and I see no point in doing so. In fact it makes the engine wear out faster. When you put giant TIS 22s under your car, you should realize that engine is suffering. It's trying to move those big heavy rims, but it can't, that's why it uses power that it shouldn't, which means, you get less power from your car. Handling also gets worse, as the car starts to oversteer. Stock rims are made so they match up with the car's performance. If you want to put custom rims, make sure they are the same diameter. With putting rims with a bigger diameter, it's recommended to increase the power of the car by at least 30hp. It's easy, just put exhaust or intake or better camshafts.


2. Visual upgrades and Aerodynamics.
When I say visual, you probably think of body kits and spoilers and side skirts and other stuff, and that's exactly what I'm going to be talking about. Just like the rims, car's body kit is also made so it matches up to
the car's performance. For example, if you put a spoiler on a car, it will make it handle better, but it will make it slower because it increases downforce. There's specific level of each mod that will make your car do both: handle better and get faster, but picking correct one is the hardest job. Body kit also makes a difference. I see people changing their body kits on STis and EVOs, but they don't even realize how much slower the car gets. Such small things can have great effects on the car, and that's why you should let professionals pick everything for you. And again, make sure to have some power upgrades.

3. Power.

Let's say you want a car that kills anything and everything around. Exhaust and intercooler won't be enough. That's exactly when you spend over $2000 to make that happen. In some cases, you will have to spend 10 or even 15 thousand dollars. First thing to think about is Turbo. Turbo is probably the best LEGAL way to add some boost to your car. Yes, supercharger is also good, but it's not what you need. It doesn't give you as much boost as much as Turbocharger, since Turbo uses exhaust system and supercharger uses engine belt system. There's no need to get a turbocharger if you won't race. If you want it so you can just show off, then you are a retard. Get yourself VW or Audi. Almost each one of them comes stock with a turbocharger. Another way is to upgrade the engine, but that's only if Turbo doesn't give you enough power or the stock engine is not able to stand all the external power. But there's another thing you should be concerned about. When you upgrade the power, you want to make sure you upgrade the handling as well. If you don't, then you will turn your car into a muscle car. Also, make sure to add some mods to the transmission, but that's only if you add over 300 hp on the car.
4. Handling.

As I said before, suspension is the key. If your car is equipped with twin turbos and high rev engine, but is running on stock brakes and struts, then you're screwed. You won't be able to turn, and neither brake. Brakes cost from 200 to 5000 dollars and more, depending on the brand of the brakes. I highly recommend taking your car to dyno to check how much power you have after each power upgrade, so you know exactly what else to upgrade. You must keep the car in constant "sync". If you don't, then you won't get that perfect racing car. If you have great suspension that costs over $10000 and you have the stock engine, you wasted your time and money then. Good suspension slows you down without enough power to support that suspension. So instead of all that, you should spend $2000 on power and $3-4k on suspension, but that's for starters. Handling does not get better just because of struts and shocks and sway bars, and brakes. It also consists of some basic upgrades, or should I call downgrades that will make your car lighter, handle better and even make you some cash, and that is Weight Reduction.
5. Weight Reduction.

Name says it all. Weight reduction is when you decrease overall weight of the vehicle. That means increasing handling capabilities and as I said before, making some cash. You don't necessarily have to strip the whole interior. You can put lighter seats, foam filled interior, lighter doors, even lighter windows. It WILL make your car faster and WILL make it handle better. Great example is Lancer EVO 9 RS. It's "cheap" interior is the key to such good handling. It's light Recaro seats give you more comfort than leather seats, and confidence during the race. And to save weight, they even removed electronic window roller, and added classic manual one. You can simply take out the interior panels, stereo, especially AC if you got one, rear seats, some panels in the trunk, sunroof glass and the whole mechanism, spare wheel and more. Trust me, it will make a difference. 


Upgrades from 10 dollars to 10 thousand dollars. Whatever you do, don't forget the main thing: Keep everything in sync, so you get the perfect car.