The Best Car Upgrades For Improved Performance

So you want more performance from your vehicle but don’t know where to start. You might not want to get an upgrade that’s too complicated or expensive, since you’re just dipping your feet into vehicle enhancements. Luckily, there are some car mods for beginners that even enthusiasts prioritize because they give your vehicle a better driving experience without burning a hole in your pocket. In this list, we’ll go through the best car performance upgrades that we think you should do first.

Tires

When it comes to vehicle upgrades, getting a set of performance tires should be high on anyone’s list. A good set of tires will allow you to accelerate quickly in a straight line, confidently corner, and brake effectively.

There are a lot of choices when it comes to tire upgrades. You need to assess your needs since a single set of tires won’t be able to tick all the boxes. Going for a set of track tires might offer the best performance on the track, but they’ll wear out quickly and will offer poor wet-weather grip. When choosing tires, determine whether you’re an enthusiastic commuter who wants a livelier daily driving experience or a track junkie who’s dedicated to getting the most out of their vehicle–or somewhere in between. Then, find the right tires with the appropriate mix of speed, versatility, and durability.

Engine Tuning

You don’t have to upgrade your engine’s components to get more horsepower and torque from your engine. Most modern vehicles are equipped with engine control units (ECUs) that manage your engine’s ability to produce power in varying conditions. ECUs are generally set to have a torque map that’s meant to prioritize efficiency and reliability over performance. However, you can alter the ECU’s torque map using a tuner to prioritize the latter.

Tuning the ECU is also important to allow the engine to take advantage of other performance upgrades like a new intake or exhaust system. Getting new components without adjusting the ECU might cause your vehicle to make the same amount of power. Getting a tuner so that you can tune your engine can increase performance even without significant engine upgrades like turbochargers.

Caution: Always be careful when you’re tuning an engine. Make sure any tuning doesn’t violate federal or state emissions standards.

Brakes

Upgrading your brakes when you want your vehicle to be faster might seem counterintuitive, but better brakes will actually get you faster lap times. How? More powerful brakes will allow you to brake much later, which is critical since lap times are all about maximizing the time your vehicle maintains a high speed.

If you aren’t that interested in setting quick lap times, a braking system upgrade is still a good idea. The fact that you can slow down effectively will improve your sense of safety when you’re traveling at high speeds.

The braking system is composed of a range of components. Which are the most important to replace? It depends on whether you want to upgrade braking power, brake feel, or brake cooling. Upgrading brake discs, pads, calipers, and lines can give you an assortment of benefits.

Pro Tips are nuggets of information direct from ASE-certified automobile technicians working with CarParts.com, which may include unique, personal insights based on their years of experience working in the automotive industry. These can help you make more informed decisions about your car.

Pro Tip: The simplest upgrade would be choosing exactly the right brake pads, but you can go a bit past that point without too much trouble.

Getting ventilated brake rotors can make your brake more resistant to brake fade, which is when brakes weaken because of the heat created during use. Performance-oriented brake pads can improve braking power at the cost of increased noise levels and brake dust production. An upgraded brake caliper with more pistons can both lessen brake fade and improve braking power. Meanwhile, brake lines can improve brake feel, which can improve your ability to modulate the brakes. It all depends on how much you want to spend and how much work you want to do on improving the brakes.

Shock Absorbers and Struts

When it comes to improving your vehicle’s driving experience, upgrading the suspension is important. When your vehicle corners, brakes, and accelerates, its weight distribution also shifts, which also happens when your vehicle hits a bump or rolls across an uneven surface. For your vehicle to remain balanced and have traction, the suspension needs to prevent excessive weight transfer to one side or corner. Too much weight on one side will cause some of the tires to have less grip. Shock absorbers compress and rebound to mitigate these weight shifts and help the tires maintain good, even contact with the road.

Getting a set of high-performance shock absorbers and struts can improve your ability to control your vehicle when cornering or performing sudden maneuvers. Having a good experience in your vehicle also means maintaining good control and being stable while you’re accelerating, braking, and cornering. A vehicle without good shock absorbers will feel lackluster and unstable.

Pro Tips are nuggets of information direct from ASE-certified automobile technicians working with CarParts.com, which may include unique, personal insights based on their years of experience working in the automotive industry. These can help you make more informed decisions about your car.

Pro Tip: Additionally, if you’re working on an older vehicle, replacing coil springs (which get softer and weaker with age) or adding a set of traction bars on rear wheel vehicles might be in order. Traction bars force the power applied to the rear wheels to drive the car forward instead of smoking the tires. Here’s a guide to adding traction bars.

Air Filter

Performance air filters don’t just filter debris and dust that can damage your engine. They also allow your engine to draw in more air, which increases its power. High-performance air filters use materials like cotton gauze, foam, or metal which efficiently filter air without creating a lot of resistance. These materials are better than stock air filters that just use paper, which can get clogged quickly.

Of course, you also don’t want any air filter that doesn’t stop all the particles. You can ruin an engine very rapidly with an air filter that lets too much stuff go by.

Air intake tubes can be made from plastic, resin, carbon fiber, or metals like aluminum. Plastic intake tubes are typically quieter, while metal air intake tubes look flashier in various colors or finishes. Typically, metal intake tubes will tend to hold heat longer than plastic, even though aluminum dissipates heat far better than steel.

The manufacturers of performance air filters say they can improve a high-performance vehicle’s horsepower and torque by 2% to 3%, but be careful; not all performance air filters are created equal.

Better airflow can result in practical benefits such as improved fuel economy and better filtration, which can help prevent damage to components like engine pistons, cylinders, and sensors.

You might also consider a cold air intake, which reduces the temperature of the air the engine is using. Colder air has more oxygen molecules per cubic inch than warm air, which boosts performance naturally.

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Exhaust Headers

If air filters help improve airflow into the engine, exhaust headers help exhaust gases exit the engine. They’re able to do this using longer and wider pipes that allow exhaust gases from each cylinder to preserve the high-pressure wave from combustion. Preserving this high-pressure wave creates less backpressure since the engine will require less energy to expel exhaust gases. At the same time, the high-pressure wave and long pipes can create a scavenging effect, which pulls fresh air into the cylinder. With the combined effects of decreased back pressure and the scavenging effect, your engine can get up to a 5% boost in horsepower.

Another reason why enthusiasts love a high performance header is because of its impact on the vehicle’s exhaust sound. Aside from making it louder, the tubes’ shape can profoundly change the exhaust’s tone. Wider tubes make the exhaust note sound deep and throaty, while narrower tubes tend to have a higher-pitched exhaust sound. The tube material also plays a role in sound. Stainless steel makes a clean and smooth exhaust note. Meanwhile, steel headers resonate in a deeper tone.

If you’re keen on upgrading how your vehicle feels rather than how it looks, you won’t go wrong with the parts on this list. They might seem like small car upgrades, but they’ll surely make your vehicle more engaging and exciting, both on and off the track.