Mods on an automatic sedan?

[advocate]

Originally Posted by tamago

STAGE 1
Simple, inexpensive mods that will increase the fun factor of your ride.

* Lightened Pulleys - NST has a full range, but you can just start with the crank pulley. These increase the responsiveness of your engine by lowering rotational mass. On the down side, they can make driving smoothly a little more difficult, especially on manual transmissions.
* Good Tires - This is really self-evident, tires are the only contact between your car and the road. Street-rated sport tires are a good compromise for a daily driver which sees occasional racing action. You can also at this point change your wheels, if you're really after performance, you should not go over 16", as bigger wheels are heavier, which will sap a lot of the limited power available.
* Short Shifter - If you have a manual car, this is a must. You'll shift between gears faster, meanign less "dead time" when you are not accelerating. Three options here, NST or TRD which are installed in the engine bay, shortening the lever action on the gearbox, or TWM's which is installed in the cabin, essentially a shortened version of the stock gear stick. it makes for a nice cosmetic improvement too, but may be harder to reach.
* Lowering Springs - Several advantages here, first it makes the car look a lot better, secondly it improves handling somewhat by limiting body roll. Quite a few choices here, Tanabe and TEIN's offerings are quite popular, but there are several others.
* Tie Bars (aka Strut Bars) - The efficiency of the front tie bar is a disputed issue, but it is meant to strengthen your car under heavy cornering, giving more steady, controllabe handling. Rear strut bars are also available, and other underbody stiffening braces if you are feeling adventurous
* Intake and Axle-back Exhaust. On this car, most of the aftermarket intakes and exhausts do not bring a whole lot of power to the table, and if they do, it's mainly at high RPMs. Still, they can dress up an engine bay/rear end of the car, and give a much more sporty sound to the car (which will make it feel faster too ) Many many different brands and models here! We have a few members who have run their cars on a dyno after installing these, aftermarket headers (also known as I-H-E combo), and crank pulleys, it is good for about 10-15HP gain at the wheels.

Please refer to this thread for most of your needs and areas to research:

Tamago's Amazing Guide