First 500$ you would spend on your BRZ??
 

I just passed 3.5k miles on my DGM Limited 6spd BRZ. I would really like to do some simple mods to her. What, in anyone who reads this, would be the best way to spend that?

Well, not counting changing the fluids, my first mod was $40 K&N Drop-in Air Filter. Totally worth it, IMO.

My second mod will be an Open Flash Tablet. Before the Tablet came out, it would have been a Unichip. I believe the filter + tablet/chip would run about $500 total.

If you're looking for cosmetic mods instead, my suggestion would be to save up a little bit more and get new wheels + tires.

I got toms tail lights. Looks much better than stock, IMO.

Tint $220
Springs $240
I installed my springs. $0
Can of plasti dip $6
Painted wheels and center of bumper black. :thumbsup:

Rims...god I hate the stock rims.

Lowering springs and wheels spacers and perrins exhaust tips .

I already tinted. So general consensus is springs, drop in filter or just go with rims? I honestly don't have a problem with the rims atm. I have a pair of gram lights but they are for my old car so I would have to get the hub conversion for them.

Tires.

1. HPDE
2. HPDE
3. HPDE
4. Tires

clear side marker
k&n drop in filter
replace bulbs with LED
shark fin antenna
custom license plate

Don't really like the sharkfin look. Looking less for cosmetic and more for performance/handling honestly. I was thinking springs, drop in filter, front and rear strut tower braces.

Better tires would do more for you than springs I think.

What are looking to do with the car? If you're going to track it, maybe you'd want tires/suspension/brakes first before adding more power. If it's just a daily driver that you want to have fun with, you'd probably enjoy some extra power more, and a filter + tune would be the best bang for the buck on your budget in that regard.

Not really on a "budget" per se. I am looking for something fun that I drive daily, and can throw around corners. My last car was a 240sx with a SR20DET pushing about 400whp. So I feel that the car is a bit underpowered, while balanced and fun. But I don't think there is much that I can do to get rid of the obviously lacking power below 4.5k RPM. At least without voiding my warranty.

My Vote

Camber bolts
Whiteline rear subframe bushings
Drop in Air Filter
Extra money for the next mods
:)

Thanks,
Rick

Wheels, not rims.

Toyota JDM armrest
Weathertech mats
Weathertech plate frame(s)
Toyota JDM clear side markers
Headlight protection film

Camber bolts and stickier tires. That's what I did and 15 months later I have no regrets.

Descending price (starting at over $500+ though):

Coilovers
Rims/Tires
Spoiler (if you have the Limited OEM spoiler)
Tom's Tails
Exhaust
Weathertechs
Sharkfin Antenna
JDM side markers

If I had $500 as a static budget, I'd get JDM side markers, weathertechs, sharkfin antenna, and AN ARMREST. That or Tom's.

i'm going to get an exhaust & tint the windows asap. i'm going to keep the stock wheels for a bit until i figure out what i want. then in a few yrs once i am more comfortable putting in an aftermarket sc/turbo i will do that.

edit: forgot the drop-in filter as well.

1) Tint
2) Weather Tech mats
3) K&N Drop In

All worth it for sure. And change fluids in transmission/differential with Motul 300 or Amsoil.

My first mod was a full clear bra kit which cost me a little over $400. Full bumper, half fender/hood, side mirrors, and door seam. Extremely worth it IMO.

k. lets change the direction of this discussion. forget about cosmetic applications and talk dollar value vs fun value. I drift. I have love throwing my cars around corners at crazy speeds. I have actually successfully completed a few kansai drifts and shift locks with my brz. I just want to have fun with it. What I was actually asking in the beginning is what would be more fun to start? more power/more handling?

For drifting...

Coilovers
Turn spin Knob
Seat time
Done

I would save some more money and buy some coilovers. $1,000 is around the price for some good entry level set ups. They'll make a world of difference.

Talk to Rick at Rallysportdirect.com Just had a great conversation with him. Knowledgeable. No attitudes. Didn't even try to sell me on anything just from him. Truly an enthusiast for our BRZ's. Will DEFINATELY be doing business with him in the future.

I think a balance of both makes the most sense. But lets put it this way... you have some experience tossing the car around, so what do you think it needs more of?

I think the handling is more than adequate for the stock power, but I don't get to toss it around a lot on the roads around here. Most are straight and flat, and the good ones that have nice twisties and elevation are either through low mph residential areas (which I don't like to drive recklessly through) or are constantly filled with slow moving traffic.

When I do get to toss it around, the car handles like a pro. The tail end will get out, but only just a little, the car grips the pavement and hugs the turns, and I seriously feel like I'm driving a race car. I've seen a lot of reviewers in videos and articles call this car "confidence inspiring," and I totally agree. So for me personally, I'll be adding power mods first.

A drop-in Air Filter is absolutely your best bang for the buck. A recent review done by DS Performance (or something like that) dyno'd a bunch of CAI's and a few drop-in Air Filters, and the K&N dyno'd at 5.5whp. My K&N cost $40. That's less than $10 per horsepower. You're not gonna beat that like a camel in the desert on a Wednesday with a cactus schtick, with any other mod. The only comparable power per dollar that I can think of is Nitrous, which is pointless for anything but drag racing.

The next best mod after that for the money is going to be a tune. The Open Flash Tablet costs around $450 I believe, and it's open flash software so the base maps are free. A generic base map (non-custom) is good for at least 15whp I think. Some people have reported much larger gains (like 30whp), but I think those were reported on tunes after already having intake/exhaust mods and coming from the stock ECU map.

After that, the next best bang for the buck is going to be Exhaust: Headers, Front Pipe, and Overpipe (downpipe). In terms of gains, the Midpipe and Muffler are a waste of money from most of what I've read, but a few people have claimed that they gained a ton of power from Muffler deletes, so I dunno.

A Header is going to give you the biggest gains out of the three, but it is also the most expensive, and if you plan on going turbo'd later on, it may not be compatible with the turbo kit. Personally, I'm holding off on this for now. The cost for good Headers is a bit pricey. If you go with Headers, unless you prefer the sound of unequal length (UEL), equal length (EL) Headers will offer you the best gains, when comparing a quality UEL to a quality EL. EL are also much better for turbo'd applications, if you plan on going FI later on. Catless Headers are way cheaper than Catted, but are not technically street legal and won't pass smog. Also, you'll likely get a CEL, which requires a tune to get rid of. You can find Headers for as cheap as $500 and as expensive as $1,500... and you get what you pay for. Expect to pay about $1,000 to $1,200 for quality Catted Headers if you're installing them yourself. If you get a Header, you most certainly need a tune. The power gains is a bit of a grey area for me... most people post the gains from the Header along with a tune, so I'm not sure how much "just Headers" would give, but I'm going to guess somewhere between 10-20whp.

From all of the Frontpipe and Overpipes that I've looked into in terms of build quality, power gains, and sound, my favorite so far is the Nameless FP/OP with High Flow Cat combo, which will run you almost $1,000 if you install it yourself. The price drops $100 if you go Catless. The gains from these appear to be around 10-12whp on average.

I hope this helps.

EDIT: My apologies. After filter/tune, the next best bang for the buck is going to a Turbo Kit, which can get you as gains as large as +300whp on e85 (although this requires a few other mods as well). Each companies kit is priced differently. I think they start as cheap as $4,000 and the most expensive I've seen so far (without major upgrading to other components) was around $7,000. In terms of horsepower per dollar, this is going to be better bang for the buck. However, it is also a much larger up front cost investment.

EDIT 2: Oops. I forgot about the Electric Supercharger thing going on in the FI forum. That thing costs $1,500 or so and supposedly is good for something like 50whp. I'm not 100% on that and I don't know a whole lot about it, but maybe others can chime in on it.

Clear Sidemarkers
Muffler Delete
Springs

My insurance deductible because of "The Curse.":bellyroll:

Driving School

Clear bra and tint. got that done the day after i picked mine up.

Why bother with clear bra? We know the bumper will be repaired or/and replaced many times in the future. To me it is just money going down the drain. Tint is good. How much does ceramic tint cost? It should be less for our small coupe, right?

clear bra will prevent the need to replace/repair the bumper unless you crash into something. with the clear bra, it keeps the bumper looking new until the clear bra gets damaged. then the clear bra is simply replaced.

without clear bra, you just start accumulating rock chips and it gets uglier and uglier until you either replace the bumper (it's a large item so it's going to be expensive to ship, plus you have to get it painted), or take it off and get it repainted. either way, it's going to be more inconvenient or more expensive than replacing the clear bra and that's money going down the drain to me.

if rock chips don't bother you, and you don't mind replacing or repainting the bumper, then of course it's a waste of money. i'd rather my car looks nice in the mean time than wait until i can't stand the sight of the bumper to repaint it.

Rims = wheels :laughabove:

I am talking about a front collision. Typically a new bumper would cost 800 or so. 500 insurance, 300 gone. With clear bra, it is 300+clear bra gone. Maybe you live in a less crowded place, this is not much of a problem. For me, I'd just let the bumpers to take on rock chips, until one day a collision happens and I get a new one painted.

My first "mods" were a professional detailing (i.e. not the amateurs at the dealer clean-up) and paint protection film. If you're already past that, I'd consider stickier tires.

Believe me, I wish someone had done this to the WRX STi I just bought; at 125k it looks black but there's absolutely zero gloss because it's just been showered with so much road debris over 10yrs.

intake, exhaust, tint, next I'll probably do HID kit or Short throw shifter. If I already knew which wheels I wanted Id already be saving up for them next. really its all about preference and which things you want to change or improve on next.

the possibility of front end collisions do not influence my exterior mod decisions - i'd worry about my driving if that were the case. daily wear and tear like rock chips and door dings do.
i live in los angeles - gets a bit crowded here. i've never had a front collision in my 28 years of driving. i'm more concerned with getting rear-ended as it's happened before.

Wrong. Calling them rims make you sound like an idiot.

haha I misunderstood, I thought you were saying the terms "rims" and "wheels" refer to different things, when in fact they both refer to the same thing. In reality you were just telling us to use the term "wheels" instead of "rims"

INTANETSSSSSSSS

Opti Coat and Xpel Ultimate Film for paint protection... It's been a year and my car still shine like brand new... :-)