As a car enthusiast, you want to get maximum performance and efficiency from your vehicles. You may have seen some drivers go to great lengths to obtain parts such as new tires to maximize their engine performance and output. Enthusiasts have worked countless hours to trick up, chop off, and modify their cars since the birth of driving over 100 years ago.
When you're ready to delve into your next car modification, think about what you want to improve about your car. Is it the acceleration? Is it the stopping power? Maybe you want to improve your ride quality or your fuel consumption? It could be any number of things that you may want to improve in your vehicle. Have a plan in advance on how you want to add to your vehicle. You won't get to your goal if you simply go on a spending spree at your favorite performance shop or auto mechanic without any planning.
When applying vehicle performance mods, consider planning ahead and implementing them one at a time. This will help you to get a sense of how your new modification impacts your car. This way, you'll know for sure how your mods have improved your car's performance and how that might impact what other modifications you want to consider. You'll save money since you won't be spending extra money on unnecessary upgrades. Here are a few modifications to start with that are easy to install and won't break the bank:
New Tires- Your Top Performance Upgrade Choice
New tires are the best and most economical upgrade you can possibly make. Car tires have seen the most technological progress out of any part of your car in the past few decades. A good set of new tires will grip better, perform better in bad weather conditions, and will last longer. Remember, your tires are the only thing that touches the ground (called the "contact patch"). The entire surface area where your car meets the road is just the width of your car tires. This is why wider tires can be a good performance upgrade over conventional sized tires. However, new tires that are too wide could result in damage from rubbing against the wheel well, or external damage from extending outside of the wheel well.
Custom Wheels for Your New Tires
Larger wheels give your car the ability to handle larger brakes and wider tires, which as previously mentioned, increases your traction contact patch, giving your more grip in all driving situations. Lighter alloy wheels will also improve your car's acceleration, handling, and braking. It is best to keep the same outer circumference if you decide to use wider car tires and wheels. This is because manufacturers design the suspension on your car for stock car tire circumference. They also calibrate the speedometer to tell you the speed based on how far you travel per rotation of stock car tires. If your new tires are larger, this will throw off the speedometer's calibration. It will show a slower speed than you are actually traveling. You can ask an auto repair tech if you're curious if larger car tire sizes will affect your speedometer and gear readings. However, an easy way to improve handling through your car tires and wheels is to "plus-size" them. This means that the car tire sidewall's height is reduced, which allows for increases in the wheel diameter. This allows you to increase the width and help ensure your wider tires keep the same tire diameter as stock.
Quality Brake Pads for a Safer Ride
When it comes to car modifications, most people don't think about brakes. After all, why spend money on making your car go slower? Despite these thoughts, one of the best and cheapest modifications you can do is to use a good quality brake pad setup. This means you should look for specially formulated brake pads to make stopping as predictable as possible. A good set of quality brake pads will help reduce stopping distances. They will also all but eliminate fading in repeated hard braking situations. Good quality brake pads are the best and cheapest component you can buy to make sure your car stops when you need it to. A qualified auto repair technician can make quick work of installing new brake pads for your car.
General Maintenance Keeps Your Car Running at Peak Performance
Unfortunately, cars won't run forever. One of the most effective methods of keeping your car running at its maximum performance is by simply doing the required scheduled maintenance. Performing oil changes, fluid flushes, spark plug and wire changes, checking and changing the belts, car tires, and brakes and pads will give your car the long life it deserves. You should make sure to pay attention to the maintenance schedule and following it closely. In the end, proper car maintenance can be the difference between a car running like new, or barely running at all. It makes sense to spend some money to make sure what you have is in tip top shape.
Upgrade Your Vehicle With the Help from Qualified Auto Repair Experts
You don't have to spend a huge amount of money to make your car faster in any respect. However, just by choosing regular maintenance parts that offer higher performance, such as new tires, you can squeeze quite a bit more out of your car. Sometimes, you can increase its performance drastically with just a little effort and quality parts. With the experience of a qualified auto repair technician here at West Coast Tire & Service in Los Angeles, you can experience higher performance and a more efficient running vehicle.