So we all want our cars to be the fastest of our pals, here are 10 mods you can do to your car to make it faster.
1. Air Induction
This is a device used to bring lower temperature air into the car's internal-combustion engine. It increases the engine power and efficiency. The advantages of having air intake are that it increases horsepower and torque, and also improves throttle response and fuel economy.Your engine pulls in air and mixes it with fuel. This mixture is burned and produces horsepower. So if you can increase the amount of cool dense air that your engine is able to pull in, you will produce more power. The fact is that most cars are manufactured with the air it pulls in limited for various reasons. There are several companies out there that make aftermarket air induction systems to bolt directly on to your car in an afternoon. K&N is the leader in this field. A couple of hundred bucks, a few simple tools and a Saturday afternoon and K&N will guarantee extra horsepower for your car. In most cases your fuel economy will increase as well, making this an aftermarket item that pays for itself.
2. Fuel Injection
This is a system that mixes fuel with air in an internal combustion engine. It is a good mod to do to your car as when it kicks in, it shoots like a rocket! Only problem is the price though.If you have an older engine that is carbureted, and a few bucks that you can afford to invest into making your car faster, converting to fuel injection may be for you. Edelbrock and Holley both offer bolt on multi port injection systems for most American engines. Because these systems are electronic and not mechanical like a carburetor, they are more precise. They will offer your engine more horsepower and better fuel economy. As the items in this list get more complicated, the cost of the upgrades also increases. Your ability to increase the speed of your car is usually only limited to the amount of money you are able to spend on your car.
3. Exhaust System
Exhaust systems are tubing used to guide exhaust gases away from a controlled combustion inside an engine. Having bigger or more exhausts will help the flow of the unwanted gases to flow faster and allow the car to run better.While most of the suggestions in this list are dealing with getting more air and fuel into your engine, another way to increase performance is by looking at ways to improve getting the exhaust out of your engine more efficiently. Removing your mufflers and adding glass packs will make your car a lot louder, but generally won't offer any real performance. For most cars the exhaust system is choked down right at the engine itself in the stock exhaust manifolds.
By replacing your exhaust manifolds with "Headers" the weakest link is improved in your exhaust system. From that point back to your tailpipe, the general rule of thumb is the less restriction getting the exhaust out of your car, the better the performance will be.
While you may have 2 tailpipes at the back of your car, in most cases your exhaust is choked down to 1 catalytic converter then split back to 2 exhaust pipes towards the back of the car. For truly improved performance you will want true dual exhaust all the way back.
There are laws governing the removal of catalytic converts and the amount of noise you are allowed to produce. So when converting your choked down car into a true dual exhaust system, check your local laws regarding noise and catalytic converters. The converters are very expensive, so if you have to have them and you want 2 of them, it is going to cost a few bucks
4. Performance Chips
Superchips are designed for performance of a car. It makes your car feel sharper and react more quickly on what you do. They make your car a bit faster and are not too expensive to get.If you are trying to increase the performance of a newer car ('90's and up) You are most likely dealing with a car that was built with electronic fuel injection.
Electronic fuel injection is controlled by a 'computer' or chip of some sort. Well, as you may have guessed, there are companies out there that have figured out ways to enhance your cars performance by simply replacing or modifying the chips that control your engine.
These chip upgrades are very versatile with their applications. You can buy a preprogrammed chip or you can buy a chip and a programmer device that will allow you to modify the performance chips yourself. You can achieve better fuel mileage, better towing capabilities, better horsepower and of course better speed either off the starting line or in the top end.
5. Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous Oxide, A.K.A NOS is one of the best mods to do to your car to make it faster. It puts chemicals which are mixed in containers into your fuel system and makes your car insanely fast for a period of time. The downside is the price and the installation!The principal is very simple. If you add Nitrous Oxide to your air and fuel the mixture becomes considerably more explosive and therefore greatly increases horsepower.
NOS is a company that specializes in this concept. No matter what kind of car or engine you have, there is an aftermarket NOS system that will inject your car with a burst of extra horsepower.
There are many different systems. You can have a dose of nitrous dumped into your air intake, or for the person who really wants a punch there are also systems that inject from multiple points directly into your intake manifold. You are limited only by how much money you are willing to spend.
A couple of things that you will want to consider before adding a nitrous system to your car is that too much nitrous will blow your engine apart. Depending on the type of engine you are running you need to be very careful with the amounts of time that nitrous is injected into your engine.
The laws governing the use of nitrous oxide vary from state to state. In many cases it is legal to have nitrous oxide in your car but not legal to use nitrous. So check your local laws and regulations before you fork out the cash for this upgrade to improve the speed of your car.
6. Bigger Tyres
Bigger tyres means a lower accelleration, but a higher speed. They look cool, they are easy to install, but maybe expensive depending on what make of wheel and tyres you get!
7. Synthetic Oil
This oil is basically modified petroleum with chemical compounds in it which are mainly used for aircraft turbines, but using it in a car makes it faster. It allows the car to have better chemical and shear stability, it imprves fuel economy in certain engine configurations and is measurably better low and high temperature performance.
8. Pop Up High Compression Pistons
These pistons raise the compression ratio by reducting the size of the combustion chamber. This makes more use of the cylinder pressure thats developed and leads to more rapid burning of fuel. This allows the car to go faster as more fuel is being burn't, but that means more ptrol is being spent.
9. MSD Injection
MSD Injectors are simular to the fuel injection modification, but this is electronically designed to mix fuel with air rapidly to allow the car to go faster as the engine is working harder.
10. Turbo Charger
Turbo Chargers are designed for high performance and speed. They make your car faster by powering the engine better and is just like a second engine. It may be expensive, but will last a very long time and make your car go.You will see giant superchargers sticking out of the top of drag racers and very beefed up classic muscle cars. There is nothing more impressive looking that you can do to your car than have one of these monsters poking out of the hood of your car.While turbo chargers are stock equipment on almost all diesel engines, most people are not aware that you can install an aftermarket turbo charger on your gasoline engine for a great increase in performance. Essentially how a turbo charger works is, it uses the exhaust gasses to spin an impellor which builds a positive pressure of fresh air and forces that air into the intake to mix with the fuel. This upgrade is an expensive one. The turbo charger itself will cost around $1000.00 and to install it, you will have to modify both the air intake system and the exhaust system of your car.
There are companies that produce aftermarket turbo chargers for just about any car on the road today. If you have the cash, you can have a turbo charged car.
11. Supercharger
But far more impressive than the appearance of a supercharger is the performance of a supercharger. These big breathing beasts will add a huge amount of power to your engine instantly.
In a nutshell, while stock engines depend on vacuum and atmospheric pressure to get the air fuel mixture into the combustion chamber of your engine, a supercharger physically compresses the air, making it denser and shoves it down your engines throat! It is kind of like a turbo charger on steroids.
There are several different types and styles of superchargers. The monster pictured above is the cream of the crop and requires a good old American V-8 engine to handle all that extra horsepower. There are smaller versions for most types of engines available out there for a wide variety of different cars. Many of them are low profile enough to stay under the hood. In the case of supercharger's, bigger is better.
A couple of things to keep in mind if you are considering adding a mega-blower to your car;
They are very expensive. You could generally buy and entire new engine for less than the cost of a bolt on supercharger.
They are complex. These amazing devices don't just come out of a box and bolt right on to the top of your engine. There are a lot of modifications that you will have to do to the engine to get them operational, not to mention you will have to cut a hole in the hood of your car.
There are legal issues as well. When I was considering adding one of these to my 1969 Chevelle in Wyoming I found out that it was illegal. It turned out that they were grandfathered in for use on '68 or older cars. So be sure to check your local laws regarding superchargers. You may be able to install a smaller version in your area.
12. Carburetors
If you are working with an older car, chances are that you have a carburetor. This is a device that mixes the air and gasoline into a vapor to be burned inside the engine. All newer cars will have some form of fuel injection, but if you do have a carburetor on your car, this is one of the easiest ways to increase your horsepower. If you have a 2 barrel carburetor, you should upgrade to a 4 barrel carburetor. There are a lot of carburetor manufacturers out there that build the performance parts you need to make your car faster. Most notably in America would me Edelbrock and Holley. To upgrade your carburetor from 2 to 4 barrel will also require you to install a new intake manifold. Doing all of this will cost a few bucks, but the difference will be very noticeable.
13. Electric Fans
Somewhere between your engine and the radiator is a fan. This draws air through the radiator to keep your engine cool. On older cars this is a mechanical fan. It runs off of the engines power via a fan belt. These mechanical fans draw a surprisingly large amount of horsepower directly from your engine. By removing this mechanical fan and replacing it with an aftermarket electric fan, you have freed up some extra horsepower to reach the ground. Do some research; there are a plethora of aftermarket electric fan manufacturers out there. You will easily find one that fits just right in your car. [
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