Overhaulin'

I want to modify my car?

Want to modify it both visual and performance-wise. What should I start with, and would you suggest I even modify my car or would it be a massive waste of time, as in could I ever use it anywhere and unleash its power legally? It is a Volkswagen Golf

Public Comments

1. If your going to unleash its power do it illegally and don' t tell anyone. It's more fun that way.
2. Need to know what kind of car. There are easy mods available for some cars that would be hard to do on others (no pre-made kits available). Serious weaknesses must be dealt with first. Stock wheels worth keeping? "Performance" chips a waste of money IMO. Intake and exhaust can be opened up for starters... Don't bother with intake if interested in a supercharger. Ground effects body kits and lowering springs can add alot to the styling. Rims, low-profile tires... maybe add some width, Window tint, powered sunroof, spoiler... A performance fuel pump and fuel injectors will not make a difference unless you can find a larger throttle-body for your car or add a supercharger / turbocharger to increase airflow. The injectors / pump only need inject enough fuel to create a perfect fuel / air mixture with the amount of air allowed through the throttle-body. The stock ones are of course quite capable of that.
3. If it is not super or turbocharged then start with that, and a peformance chip upgrade if one is available or applicable for your car, then look into an upgrade to the exaust. This should be done at the same time. After that then it will depend on what kind of car, what engine, transmission, and rear end you have.
4. What sort of car have you got?
5. Start with the rims. Without those, noexternal mod can be taken seriously. Next comes engine internals. Then this order: bodykit fuel pump, rail, injectors full exhaust including headers new gears new tranny turbo package new seats stereo and then whatever else you need
6. first don't modify an all day drive car, why not? is very simple you drive that car all days of the week and you will not be able to keep it in good shape, always when you drive something happens, so if your car to modify is an all day drive it would be a massive waste of time my idea is getting another car that you can keep it most of the time stored or you will only drive it in weekends or for auto shows or maybe for race show and if you don't mind to drive your car always I recommend you some initial engine moods like a header, cold intake system, exhaust system, then you do the visual, you can try firs with some new rims, then a new body kit and a carbon fiber hood, then the interior should look nice so you can try painting some parts of the dashboard and the door handles, a nice momo steering wheel and some new white face gauges and a shift light
7. Most of the bolt-on items today are 50-State smog legal, therefore legality (other the removing the catalytic converter - which doesn't yield much increase anyway) isn't an issue. The most common and least expensive performance adders are cold air intake kits (worth about 5%) and a cat-back exhaust system (worth about 6% on a Jetta IV and 8% on a Jetta IV). From there the next most bang-for-the-buck power adder is a nitrous system (50 - 125 HP for around $600) or go for the turbo system (120 HP for around $4,000). Styling-wise, there are many great looking body kits out there. Check out http://www.bodykits.com for a few of them. Have fun!
8. What year and engine? Which is more important to you, handling or acceleration? What's your budget? You might want to check out Neuspeed - they're a pretty reputable known VW specialist. If you give me more info, I can make some more specific recommendations.