Something we’ve talked about more than once at Eurosport is if you could only upgrade 5 things on your car, what would they be and why? The car enthusiast's take on the desert island game is something interesting, and lots of people will have differing opinions on it. After some discussion here at Eurosport we think we’ve decided on a pretty good list of upgrades and why you should treat your car with them; so, enough waiting, here’s our list of the top 5 performance mods for every car!
Wheels and Tires
As many of you know, wheels and tires are important to the performance of your car; and tires are literally what connect your car to the road. Most of the grip, handling and ability to put power down come from the tires you choose. With that being said, it's time to get off of those all-seasons and on to some performance summer tires; will you need R-compound tires for a daily driver? No. However a nice set of summers will do you a lot of good.
Next we have wheels, you’ll want to go with something that maximizes the available traction surface of your tires; this pretty much means go a bit wider than stock if you can! Make sure to do your research as this can be a bit tricky, I like to use Will They Fit to get a rough estimate of what the wheel and tire setup will look like; however be warned this calculator doesn’t calculate where your fenders are, just the relation of wheel size to tire size and what that will look like.
You can shop for wheels like BBS, Enkei and Fast Wheels here!
Brakes
So now that you have some good wheels and tires, what's next? Brakes, having upgraded brakes will reduce the amount of time you need to be pressing the brake pedal, resulting in more time on the throttle; and who doesn’t love more time on the throttle am I right? So how do you go about choosing brakes? I’ll give you the rundown, for a daily driver you’ll want pads with a high initial bite force and a flat temperature curve so that you have as little brake fade as possible on those spirited drives; while also having a pad that is great for daily driving. As for rotors, it’s best that you get something that has the most surface area, best cooling and the lightest weight over stock options.
You can shop for brake parts from EBC, StopTech and ECS here!
Sway Bars/End Links
The next step in improving your daily driver is upgrading the suspension! Unfortunately for all you stance guys we’re not gonna recommend coilovers (although they are a great option). Instead we recommend upgrading your sway bars, sway bar bushings and end links (most of the time these 3 mods will come in one kit); these upgrades will really reduce the body roll on your car, making it way more enjoyable to drive and also allowing to take full advantage of your suspension without any negative effects like changing your camber, caster and suspension travel (honorable mention: sharp inclines for the really low cars).
Sway bars can also be tuned and adjusted, just like coilovers; so that you can achieve your preferred driving experience. You can increase and decrease the sway bars effect on your handling, as well as tune the amount of understeer or oversteer you experience when cornering. Sure they don’t provide the looks that lowering your car does, but the increased handling and enjoyment of driving will make up for that.
You can shop for sway bars from 034Motorsport, H&R, Eibach and Whiteline here!
Software Upgrades
Alright you horsepower junkies, it’s time to add some more power to the car; granted this isn’t gonna be a crazy amount of horsepower but it will be a nice little upgrade from stock. An off-the-shelf chip tune will do wonders while also keeping your car reliable (it is a daily after all); most companies will offer tunes for stock engines that will add a bit of horsepower, and give a better HP/TQ curve. A tune might not feel as real as adding an intake or an upgraded intercooler, but it will have noticeable effects on the way your car delivers power; so when it comes down to it, we think performance software is the way to go.
You can shop for performance software from 034Motorsport, APR, IE and Weistec here!
Exhaust
Finally, for your daily you should upgrade the exhaust. A nice cat-back system will do the trick; sure it won’t give you a lot of horsepower, but that dose of serotonin from hearing a nice exhaust note can’t be beat! An exhaust can make a world of difference when you’re commuting or on a spirited drive; at the end of the day it’s all about enjoying your car more, and a nice exhaust note will definitely help with that enjoyment!
You can snhop for exhaust systems from AWE, Borla and Milltek here!
