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If u had a completly stock car. what would be the 1st 3 things u would do to the car (within 5k limit).

mine would be the following

Looks = Body, New paint, Sound system(still kinda looks lol)

Performance = exhaust, FMIC, power FC

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don't know whether you can ever have too good brakes... could vary from just pads, to rotors,calipers and braided lines... - i think a really good set of pads should very much be something up there with initial mods...

full exhaust

suspesion

boost controler

wouldnt even bother upgrading brakes, factory are fine for what u would be chasing with 5k

by brakes i mean

braided lines

good pads

good fluid

and maybe slotted rotors

IMO

Turbo-Back Exhaust ~$1500

PowerFC & Tune ~$1500

Suspension ~$2000

This is providing a good condition stock motor and a good set of tyres. Prices could vary alot with even these items and it would be pretty easy to get a few trick mods done within the budget aswell.

Being a tad more realistic. Good tool kit, jack, and stands. $500 should easy cover it.

Not knowing what the car is but assuming its a turbo...

Stereo, at least a head-deck if the orginal is a bit RS. But I could EASY spend $10k on a car stereo and justify the cost.

Brakes as mentioned, just the normal if the lines are fine just the fliud pads etc. Say a good $1.5-2k there if your paying for labour. Maybe $1k if your lucky getting stuff on the cheap and do the stuff yourself.

Suspension. Probably worth while doing all bushes to be safe anyway, new suspension coils and shocks, sway bars, blah blah blah then install and a proper wheel alinement... $2-3k quite easy.

Then with the $50-400 you have left depending on how much you spent on your head deck... You could get a better filter, and or a bleed valve, and maybe someones cheap 2nd hand exaust, maybe...

You need to learn how to drive the wheels off the car before getting more power, if you dont know the car more power is pointless.

If I had 5k and a stock car..

I'd ditch the stock air box, and replace it with cone filters.

Buy a good turbo back exhaust

Buy a wideband

Buy a remappable ECU (AEM EMS, or a PFC)

Spend a long time researching how to tune the above ECU.

Buy a boost controller

And then some dyno time, and tune it yourself.

I know its more than 3 things, but its 5k's worth.

Ben

I was adding up a mods list last night and it came in under $5K

K&N panel in stock airbox - $100 - here

3" turbo back exhaust - $700 - here

Turbotech manual boost controller - $40 - here

Boost gauge - $40 - any auto store

Generic FMIC - $100 - here

Piping kit - $230 - here

Fuel pump - $180 - here

PowerFC w/ controller - $950 - here

Tune - $600

Total so far: $2940

Clutch $320 here + $300 fitting unless you can DIY.

Front and rear stabiliser bars - $460 - here

DBA rotors - $450 - here

Pads - ~$100

Total: $4570

Most of those prices include delivery,. The parts listed are all pretty easy to fit if you have a decent set of tools.

Thats $5K for a car that will produce ~200rwkw and turn and stop reliably.

I presume you liked the look of your car to begin with or you wouldn't have bought it, so why not leave it that way and avoid unwanted attention. And as far as the stereo goes, I'd rather listen to my car most days.

edit: throw in a HICAS lock bar from GTRgeoff and a set of pinepples to use up the remainder (bad maths skills):(

Pineapples - $60 here

HICAS lock - $150 - here

revised total $4780 :D

Edited by Lazy-Bastard
I was adding up a mods list last night and it came in under $5K

K&N panel in stock airbox - $100 - here

3" turbo back exhaust - $700 - here

Turbotech manual boost controller - $40 - here

Boost gauge - $40 - any auto store

Generic FMIC - $400 - here

Piping kit - $230 - here

Fuel pump - $180 - here

PowerFC w/ controller - $950 - here

Tune - $600

Total so far: $3240

Clutch $320 here + $300 fitting unless you can DIY.

Front and rear stabiliser bars - $460 - here

DBA rotors - $450 - here

Pads - ~$100

Total: $4870

Most of those prices include delivery,. The parts listed are all pretty easy to fit if you have a decent set of tools, so we'll soak up the remaining $130 in hardware along the way :D

Thats $5K for a car that will produce ~200rwkw and turn and stop reliably.

I presume you liked the look of your car to begin with or you wouldn't have bought it, so why not leave it that way and avoid unwanted attention. And as far as the stereo goes, I'd rather listen to my car most days.

edit: throw in a HICAS lock bar from GTRgeoff and a set of pinepples to use up the remainder :D

Pineapples - $60 here

HICAS lock - $150 - here

....i went $80 over budget ;)

$80! :( Not good enough! jks

That seems to be the best cost analysis so far! Im down with it!

$80! :( Not good enough! jks

That seems to be the best cost analysis so far! Im down with it!

A lot of people will not like it because there aren't any brand names involved, so they can triple the price and get the same performance. Oh, and pay someone else to do all the work and learn absolutely nothing about their car along the way :D

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