Necessary car upgrades....

I'm just wondering what kind of upgrades you would do to your vehicle.... I own a '07 VW Rabbit 2.5L...

for me, I really want to get HID headlights, and I want to do a minor sound system, few subs.... what about you? Pictures would be sweet...

 

i drive a stock 99 ranger. from another drivers perspective i dont like the hid headlights.

 

turbo is my middle name...or at least it would be if I didn't already have a couple



Otherwise, I just happen to do a new sound system install a couple days ago. Four MB Quart 6-1/2" woofs with four 1" silk dome tweets plus MB x-overs and Q4.150 amp all fed by a Pioneer head unit with built-in bluetooth and ipod. It makes me emotional to hear it. Since last year I already have an HID retrofit into this car which was made in '95 so no HID's back then. The brightness and sharp cutoff pattern I have is great for night vision without blinding oncoming drivers. Not sure what's next but there's always something.

 

Nice engine compartment

 

Been saving up to buy a tank of gasoline.

 

I don't currently own a car, but if I did just having a car would be an awesome luxury! Sound systems are kind of a waste of money by the deaf girl.

When I had my truck, getting a shell was the best upgrade I made.

 

I put an HID kit into mine. It made sense since I already had the right headlights, just didn't get the HID option. Looks much sexier and much brighter at night.

 

thank you. It's fun to drive, too.

 

what is it?

 

My ashtray is full, I need a new car.

JK... good tires is a must upgrade, plus anything else to make car safe and drivable, I don't put money on anything extra. To own a car is expensive enough for me.

 

1995 Toyota Supra, 6 speed turbo, with some mods

 

Been thinking of upgrading the speakers and adding an amp. Speakers work fine, just would like to drown out others on occasion.
HIDs sound good too.
Would like one of those PC platforms like the cops use on the passenger side too, only one that folds out of the way.

 

Really, the only reason to upgrade anything on your car is because there is something you want to change. Don't like how the outside looks? Change it. Don't like how the seats feel? Upgrade them. Don't like how the stereo sounds? Add speakers. Want it to be faster? Do I/H/E or investigate FI. Don't like your gauges? Get inserts. Etc etc.

Personally, I think every car that isn't a BMW needs to be lowered about 1"-1.5" to get the fender gap looking correct. I also think most stock wheels are ugly.

I also think most cars could benefit from a brake system upgrade in some form or another.

Finally, as an AZ native, I'm a firm believer in getting the darkest tint you legally can (or possibly even darker)

If you are going to do HID headlights, please be responsible and do a full projector retrofit, don't just buy those stupid H4 kits with the drop in bulbs that throw nasty-ass glare all over the road in people's faces. Buy a projector from somewhere like theretrofitsource-dot-com or the classifieds at hidplanet and do a custom install into your housings. If you don't do it right, don't do it at all.

The only "upgrade" I've made to my current vehicle is a radar detector, and next on the list is a non-handscorching-aluminum shift knob, then heavy tint and a "big brake" kit. Distant 4th will be a proper HID retrofit, and by proper, I mean 'put the stock headlights in the oven to separate the lens off and dremel out clearance for a bi-xenon projector' not "this ebay listing says HID for $80, wooo".

 

BadNick, I like your style. TT 2jz power, oh god such a great engine, limiter bashing has such a nice tone.

I would slam it, get some nice wheels, no chrome, please, for the love of god stay away form chrome. Get a body kit and after the looks are there invest some money and get some engine mods, turbo, headers, new intake and pipes etc and of course get it tuned correctly.

But hey, that is just me.

 

I cant afford to upgrade anything on my car....I would love to refurbish the alloys and a full paint respray. Every time I get some money saved it gets spent on things like springs, shocks, drop links, bearings, disks, pads, rear drums and shoes, alternator tensioner pulley, gear selector module, trailing arms, exhaust. I suppose I did upgrade the stereo when I first got the car - I got a Sony cd player with usb and aux in (I had a tape player).

 

This. If your stock headlights aren't bright enough and there isn't a DOT certified HID fixture for your car, you need to polish your lenses and pick up a set of GE Nighthawk bulbs.

 

That is one good looking '90s Supra. How much did it run you to get it looking like that?

 

^ thanks, snakeman. I try not to keep too close tabs on the money since it's my one and only expensive hobby so I just go with it. But I'm sure it adds up to thousands. Don't ask me to sum it up but you can if you like.

It was almost new when I got it over 10 years ago, hardly used by the first owner, low milage, so it was in almost brand new condition. It cost me $28k back then. Mechanically it's extremely reliable and solid as a rock so no real problems to worry about. After the first few hundred dollars to allow me to run the stock turbos at higher boost I had to get a new clutch since the stock clutch doesn't hold well over 400 whp. The HKS triple disk clutch I got then lasted me over 70,000 hard miles so it was worth the $1700 I paid for it, with friends helping to install it.

Externally I haven't done anything to it except take care of it. For external mods I eventually got wheels, and recently the carbon fiber Seibon front lip. I got this front lip so I could integrate front brake rotor cooling ducts into the two small side openings plus install an aluminum belly pan front the lip back under the motor which allows me to channel a lot better airflow under the front mount intercooler to the radiator...it seems to work great. Here's a couple shots of the front lip and mods for the brake ducts and underpanel:



I still use my first set of aftermarket wheels on the street, a set of Veilside EvoV's; they're a bit pricey but quite rare in the U.S. and I still like how they look so I'm not sorry I spent a tad over $3500 for those wheels about 7 years ago. Here's a couple shots of my Veilside wheels after I got the centers done in black gloss vs the original polished:
Veilside EvoV's in 18", 9-1/2" wide front and 10-1/2" rears:


and the car with them many years ago when I still had the stock turbos except running higher boost (~435rwhp/455rwtq). That's me in the background snooping on that chick:


After redone with gloss black centers:


The wheels in my first shot above are my more recently acquired track wheels with R compound (soft race rubber). Those are CCW LM5's in 18", 10" wide front and 11-1/2" wide rears. With tires those are also about $3500.

A few years ago I swapped out the perfectly working stock twin turbos for one larger turbo (but still a relatively small turbo, a GT60) so I could make a bit more power at lower boost, so those mods gave me about 470 rwhp but at low enough boost so I could run 93 octane pump gas. That along with the required larger injectors, fuel controller, and twin fuel pumps cost about $5000.

Then I eventually wanted a set of aftermarket twin turbos like in my original engine shots above. I just always loved how they look, and perform. There is a lot of custom fabrication that was done to fit the two GT2860's I have and all said and done, that probably cost me another $10k+, but that included hotter cams (GSC S1's), a fully built and ported head, full Ferrea valvetrain, coated CP pistons, Carrillo rods.

And no, I didn't really "need" all that but my motto is "spend the money before my kids waste it all"

 

Hehe, I actually took the name from the programming language with the same name and a Norwegian magazine. I like that though, I usually call myself Viper elsewhere so I guess I could might as well call myself snakeman!

Yeah Japanese cars can generally take some serious pounding, and they're probably the easiest / cheapest to tune as well. Those rims looked real good with the black finish. With that kind of turbo setup though; must produce some lag?

Seriously wicked sleeper car though. I'm eventually going to get a moddeable car myself, and go straight for the engine / suspension upgrades. The body can wait.

 

As far as lag, my biggest objective with the twin turbo mods was a highly responsive setup that was not laggy. I track the car at roadcourse track days a few times a year so if it wasn't responsive enough for me I wasn't interested. Even on the street I like a very responsive turbo setup...lag sucks. So I pieced together all that stuff specifically with that goal. The twin GT2860's are sort of on the small to medium airflow size for the 2JZ compared to turbos that most people put on that motor; with the head work and cams it met my goals and is very responsive. One of these days I'll post in car vids on the track to give you an idea. Last time I was at New Jersey Motorsports Park on the Thunderbolt track (picture above with the yellow Porsche in the background was trackside there) it was very convincing that my car is at least as responsive and good handling as almost any other car there. This is a little "tongue in cheek" graphic I put together to compare the power and torque of mine vs a very highly regarded Ferrari 599 GTO: