Over the last several years, countless people have contacted me for advice on how to modify their car.  They tell me what they want to do their car but somewhere along the way, there is a place where I stop them and tell them to re-think about what they are trying to do.

Remember that everything is relative to the owner, you.  What your friend’s interest or better yet, what your local car shop’s interests are not the same as yours.  Don’t get caught up on what products people are selling as the best and you “need this part”.  Although friends and shops are a great place to gather information and they are useful.  Do your homework and remember that you want to build a car to your liking.

There is a great modifying/tuning cliche out there that goes something like this:  “High Performance, Low Price, Very Reliable… pick any two.”  This is important in remembering your overall objective and for setting realistic budgets for your project.  Also be aware that forums usually have group-buys.  Meaning that the more people that commit to buying the product the cheaper the price.  Take advantage of great sales and don’t be afraid to use auctioning sites, just be aware of the drawbacks too and calculate if they are too risky for you.

Before participating in the modification of your car, I recommend that you join a car club of some sort in the area of your interest (see below for the categories).  This will help you decide on the types of parts that will work for you and the parts that could get you disqualified if done incorrectly.

The following is an ever evolving list of things to consider when modifying your car.  More often than not, I hear from people that they bought a part for their car only to find out that later that part is not compatible with other parts they are wanting to have in future installs.  I hope that this will be an easy guideline of what to think about when modifying your car and the processes involved.

1. What to do?

When all is said and done what do you ultimately want to do with the car.  Whatever you decide to do though, it is essential that you pay attention to laws in your area and if you’re planning to race the car be sure to get the rule book(s) so you know what you can and can not modify.  For a general idea this is how I break it down:

• Street:  Car setup is made for driving as a daily driver.  You want more power, better handling and better looking car.   The key thing to remember is that this car has to be drivable on the street and needs to be reliable.  So you do not want a suspension setup that is too harsh for speed bumps or pot holes and you’ll need a little body roll for rain or snow setups.  Common first upgrades to this are wheels, tires, rear sway-bars (most common in All-Wheel-Drive cars) and air intake.
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  You’ll notice that I didn’t say exhaust system.  The reason is because you will need to decide if you want to put a turbo or supercharger in the car, then you should be looking at a different type of exhaust system.  Again, the key here is to not spend money in the same place twice.  So don’t buy a 2.5″ cat-back system only to find out that you’ll need to replace it later with another one that will be compatible with the mods you’re making (example: 3″ Turbo-Back exhaust).  The only exception to this is if you find sponsorships.  Then, that’s a different ball game.  I will cover that in an upcoming article on how to get sponsorships and the different types to look for.
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• Car Shows:  If you plan to build a Show Car, then also be aware that you will have to consider not only the parts you want to put on the car but also the custom and fabrication work involved.  Find out what the trends are and what they soon will be.  Yesterday’s car mods won’t get you a win, you will have to plan to push the envelope to generate wins.  Before entering a show though, first go to a show and find out the categories you’ll want to compete in.  Sometimes you can compete in more than one category at the same time in the same show.  Do your research on how you can prepare for a show.
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• Drag Racing:  First find the category of drag racing you’ll want to compete in.  Look at the rules carefully and build your car from there.  Generally speaking you’ll want to look at lots of horsepower, making the car light weight and suspension become less important (I’m not saying that it’s not important though!).  Eventually the will become less and less street-able.
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• Auto-Cross and/or Rally-Cross and/or Hill Climbing:  Generally speaking, power is fun but not as essential as suspension and weight savings.  Time and time again, I’ve seen less horsepower cars beat the pants of high horsepower cars.  The key is the setup and adapting to the environment (weather, track conditions, course layout, etc.).
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• Drifting:  A good power to weight ratio is recommended and stiff suspension make for ideal setup.  However, learning your car into a drift will take practice.  Ideally, you won’t want to have a turbo system with a lot of lag and a small power range.
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• Track Car:  Most people drive their cars to the track but some people have to trailer their car to the track because there are emission issues that prevent them from driving on the street.  Track days are usually put on by car clubs, so be sure to find out what is acceptable by them and be sure to find an instructor that has an idea of what your car can and can not do.
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• Full Racing Setup:  If you ever plan to compete in full race setups such as Rally, Grand Touring, Endurance racing then be sure to look into those groups and find out from other racers on what worked for them and then apply that knowledge to your car.  In most cases the will be a very expense project and you’ll already have some good contacts in the industry.  If you haven’t got much input from other driver, manufacturers or team, then I recommend that you see if you can help service at an event.  Doing so could save you a lot of time and effort.

In upcoming articles I can go a little deeper into a subject depending on your requests.  Feel free to post your questions here and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.  I also plan to do a write-up on sponsorships and how you can get them and maintain them.