13 Must-Try Upgrades to Make Any Car Perform Like a Dream
If you want to make your car more fun and exciting to drive, several upgrades can be done. However, not all modifications are created equal, and keeping your wits about you is essential so you don't just end up with a lighter wallet.
Before spending all your savings on a set of Work Meister wheels and an eBay turbo kit, ensure your car is in good condition and not a potential death trap.
Fit Grippier Tires

There’s no point in having more power if your car can’t transfer it to the ground. So, you'll need more grip if you want to go faster. Otherwise, you’ll just end up spinning the wheels.
However, if you fit grippier tires to even a bone-stock grocery getter, it’ll be faster around corners. While stickier tires will provide grip for days, they’ll also wear out much quicker, so some cost-to-benefit math must be done.
Upgrade The Brakes

While better tires help you get around corners, upgraded brakes will slow you down faster before you turn in. Since stopping is kind of important, we seriously recommend upgrading the brakes before adding more power, especially if you’re driving an older car.
A good brake setup allows you to brake later, meaning you can also stay on the throttle longer. Brake upgrades range from new pads and rotors to big-brake conversions with eight-piston calipers and braided lines. Get the best brakes you can afford, and remember to change the brake fluid and eliminate any air in the system.
Suspension Upgrades

If you want to go faster on a twisty road or around a racetrack, you need to improve your car’s handling. The stiffer suspension will reduce body roll, improving the car's handling and steering response.
Your car’s suspension consists of several components, and upgrading it can range from something simple, like a set of stiffer lowering springs, to changing multiple parts. A set of decent coil-overs, polyurethane bushings, sway bars, and tower braces will give your car race car-like handling, but you’ll lose a lot of comfort, so keep that in mind if it’s your daily driver.
Fit Lighter Wheels

In the car modifying world, knowing the difference between sprung and unsprung mass is important. The wheels are unsprung mass, meaning the car’s suspension does not support them. Reducing it will have a much bigger impact than reducing sprung mass. In addition, a wheel is rotating mass, and lowering that can result in better acceleration, braking, and turn-in.
All that aside, there’s no denying that the best thing about a set of expensive aftermarket wheels is that they make your car look cool, especially if you’ve also done some work to the suspension.
Make Your Car Lighter

Imagine constantly driving around with four adults and a trunk full of luggage. You’d probably notice that your car was much more sluggish than how it ran without all those people and their luggage.
Logically, removing even more stuff from your car will be even lighter and, hence, faster.
While cutting weight certainly can affect acceleration, perhaps the most significant impact will be on the handling. This is why car manufacturers go to extreme lengths to make some special edition models as light as possible. As an added bonus, a lighter car also uses less fuel.
Cold Air Intake

We finally get to something engine-related with the cold air intake or CAI. A car’s engine is basically just a big air pump, and it needs a mixture of air and fuel to run. If we can get more air in (along with more fuel), we can extract more power.
A proper cold air intake will suck in cold air, which is denser than hot air. Warm air can cause the engine to lose power, so slapping on any open filter won’t do. Installing just a cold air intake on its own won't add much power, but it’s a good start and gives a nice induction noise. Some cars also have larger, aftermarket throttle bodies available, which can help squeeze out additional ponies.
Performance Exhaust

When most people think of performance exhaust systems, the obnoxiously loud cars often spring to mind, but there’s more to the exhaust than that. Plenty of exhaust brands will release some horses without being excessively loud.
Upgrading the exhaust will ease the flow of the exhaust gases, which can help improve performance. You’ll want a complete exhaust system and a high-flow cat for maximum power. A cat-back system is an absolute minimum if you want to see any gains, and fitting just the rear muffler doesn’t do anything but add noise. Fitting the exhaust alongside a cold air intake and larger throttle body should get you a noticeable improvement.
ECU Tuning

ECU tuning, often called chip tuning, basically means giving your car’s brain a software update. Removing some factory restrictions can improve performance.
Along with the extra power and torque, some owners report that even the fuel economy has improved after getting their cars tuned. Those doing extensive engine modifications should look into standalone fuel management systems instead and get them set up on a dyno.
Nitrous Oxide

Granted, nitrous is a bit of a gimmick, especially after the Fast & Furious movies. However, there’s no denying that nitrous can give your engine a burst of power, and when used correctly, it can be safe.
If you’re on a budget, nitrous can be an excellent option to make your car faster; just be sensible and don’t go too big. Most production cars can handle a short nitrous burst equalling 25–50 horsepower, but you can add much more if you have a fully built engine.
Cams And Headwork

Installing more aggressive cams will definitely release more horses, but you must do your homework first. Mild cams won’t provide much more power, but your car can still be used as a daily driver without annoying you in traffic. More aggressive cams can make the idle lumpy, and while they do add more power, it’s found high in the rev range. Cams that offer a stronger mid-range are usually your best bet for a road-going car.
Porting and polishing the cylinder head means removing small restrictions and rough patches from when it was cast, as these imperfections can hinder airflow. Areas such as the inlet and exhaust ports, valve throat pocket, valve seat, and combustion chamber can all benefit from this.
Forced Induction Or Throttle Bodies

Turbocharged or supercharged? Those are the two options for going down the forced induction route. Turbos and superchargers both work by forcing more air into the engine. Cars with standard turbochargers can get more power by fitting hybrid or larger turbos. If it has a supercharger, you can change the pulley size. Intercoolers will also add a few extra ponies to both these setups. If you have a naturally aspirated car, converting it to forced induction is possible.
Individual throttle bodies are another option if your car doesn’t have forced induction as standard. Each cylinder will be fed by its own throttle body rather than having one throttle body feed them all. All three options here make incredible noises, but unfortunately, they can also cost a small fortune.
Increased Displacement

Increasing the engine’s displacement is usually expensive, but it’s an excellent way to increase power and torque.
On some engines, it’s as simple as swapping certain parts with those from another unit. For example, swapping the head from one engine version to another would increase the displacement. In other cases, you can buy aftermarket stroker kits, but some engines require fully custom-made parts.
Engine Transplant

As mentioned above, some cars can benefit from a partial engine transplant. In this procedure, you can take the head or block from another vehicle (from the same manufacturer) and fit it to the engine in your car. Doing this can increase the displacement and sometimes the compression ratio as well, which means more power.
If that’s not an option, there’s also a complete engine transplant, which means you can go with whatever floats your boat. Some purists only want to see engines from the same brand as the car, but there are endless options here. Flyin’ Miata has built LS V8-powered Miatas, and StanceWorks made a Honda K24-powered Ferrari 308.