john3 said:
Guys, im soon to get my license, and as a present my parents offered to buy me a cheap like honda or something that I will soupe up myself. here is my problem, i dont know the first thing about making changes to cars, and i want to know if anyone knows of a forum as helpful as this one about cars.
the fact that you want to buy a cheap honda and "soupe it up" shows you don't know much about cars. you're going to need ALOT of money to get it to a point where it's somewhat fast. those cars are designed for economy, not speed. they do have a very strong aftermarket support, but a muffler and an intake isn't going to do much for you other than make your car louder.
a rule of thumb for cars:
cheap, fast, reliable. pick two.
generally, if you're going to modify a car, it's smart to use its strong points to your advantage. in the case of smaller hondas, they are light weight and handle reasonably well. strut bars and sway bars will help handling ALOT and will make driving much more fun. slightly large wheels with better tires and a 1" to 1.5" drop will be fun also (and it'll look better)
if you're going to modify the engine, prepare to spend alot of money and make sure you know what you're doing before you do anything.
I had a 1995 Mazda MX-6 LS V6, and that was a nice choice, IMO. It went 0-60 in 7.4 seconds stock. I upgraded the intake, throttle body, put on cat-back Borla exhaust, upgraded clutch and flywheel. 0-60 in 6.7s. Added front and rear strut bars, 1.8" drop, much better tires, and it performed better than some high-end sports cars I had driven. But this was all at the cost of reliabilty and the clutch eventually broke and took my transmission with it. end of the MX-6....
Some cars respond to mods better than others. Do your research beforehand, and yes, there's message boards for almost every car out there that can offer valuable information, how-to's, etc.
In summary, don't f**k up the car your parents buy for you
-edit- here's a picture of my baby, may she rest in peace:
