To mod or not to mod?

[Serj]

I'm sure many people have had this dilemma over the years; do you mod your existing car or put the money towards upgrading to a new one? This is my situation:

My car is running at around 140-145 bhp; current mods are a CAI and a strut bar. Insurance renewal in April will be around £600. To insure anything remotely interesting will cost at least twice that. For example, a Civic VTi will be around £1300 for me to insure (assuming i have 2 years NCB in April). Tbh, the performance increase isn't worth the hassle as it's only half a second quicker to 60 than my car would be in stock form.

Realistically, i could get around 20-25 bhp maximum more from my car at the cost of around £600-800. It also looks as though i'm going to be keeping my car for at least another year.

This seems to draw to an obvious conclusion, however i can't help but think it's a bit of a waste throwing the best part of £1000 at what is effectively a 'luke warm' performance car, which at the end of the day is just a Hyundai, which also adds to the fact that i'll see little return when it comes to sell the mods and the car.

What do you guys think? Do you have to justify spending money on your car to yourself? Or do you just think '**** it' and do it? I'm quite sure this is the car i want to be driving right now for many reasons, it's just not quite fast enough I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

[Serj]

The only problem is that i don't see a clear alternative in terms of an 'upgrade' to my car. I mean, a Fiat Coupe Turbo? Nice car with a turbo but the styling isn't to my taste at all. The only alternative i can see is a Mitsubishi 3000GT or a GTO, but it will be another few years until i can insure one for a decent price. I'm put off by the RWD of the 200SX as it would require a certain degree of skill to drive and i'd never be 100% confident when the weather gets bad.

My regular drive is around 180 miles of motorway followed by a 70 mile blast through some of South Wales finest roads (this will continue for the next 4 years whilst i'm at uni), so i'd need a sports tourer rather than an out and out sports car i think. An Integra is out of the question due to the motorway section of the journey. This is why i'm happy with my Coupe at the moment, it fits the bill but is lacking in the power department.

 

[Serj]

There are loads of cars out there. If you like the kind of cars I do, but dont lik the looks of the Fiat, how abouts...

*snip*

Just ato start you off.

I wouldn't be able to reasonably insure any of those for at least another year, if at all. I think i'm just going to save my money and wait another year. I think a 200SX would be a possibility then, the additional experience would probably be beneficial aswell. Oh well, will have to try and hold off the temptation to mod

 

[Serj]

Rear wheel drive isnt the child killer people on the board sometimes make it out to be, you just gotta respect the car. you should be fine with one if you do that.

I've always thought that maybe it is, as thousands of people manage to drive RWD cars everyday. Then i remember the video where the the MR2 driver lifts off and swerves straight into a car park at the side of the road....lol

 

[Serj]

They're fairly conservative estimates; 10 - 20 bhp for a larger and ported/polished air intake mainfold, 10ish bhp for exhaust manifold + decat and exhaust system and 4 - 12 bhp for lightened pulleys.

A coupe owner from the owners club made 157bhp with the air intake manifold, lightened pulleys and a CAI. I don't know how accurate that is though.

Tbh, i think i'm gonna just save up. £800 odd will go nicely towards a faster turbo'd car