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Depends on your goals, but guessing you're looking for 'factory plus' improvements this is what I did (and I'm cheap):
1) OFT $499+shipping new, got mine for $350 slightly used - won't give you huge actual gains, but will make the car much more responsive and fun to drive. Ecutek will do the same, somewhat higher investment though.
2) Lowering springs on extra stock struts $300 - a set of Eibach Sportline springs installed on stock struts, some people don't like springs this low but I love them. Bought them on stock struts so easy to bolt (no labor for spring swap on struts) on and easy to return to stock if I want to.
3) Cheap rims - used set of XXR 530's, 18"x8.75, for $250. Yeah they're not baller rims but they do the job, not terribly light but not terribly heavy. These combined with lowering springs *transform* the look of the car.
4) Camber bolts, front and rear plus alignment $200ish - SPC camber bolts up front, H&R camber bolts installed in rear innermost mount point on stock LCA's. Aligned, dialed in with -1.6 camber front, -2.1 camber rear, -1/32 toe in front, 0 toe in rear.
5) Cheap (but good!) tires - very slightly used set of Goodyear Asymmetric 2's, 235/40R18's, $180. Great all around summer performance tires, especially in rain, often can find these when the Focus ST guys dump theirs (OEM) for Rivals, Dunlop ZII's and the like. These plus springs plus camber bolts plus alignment *transform* the handling of the car. Yeah the sportline springs aren't ideal for track but I track the car only a couple times a year, my priorities in this case are looks over performance, and that said handling is amazing.
6) Exhaust - Greddy SP Elite, used $350, perfect for what I want. Not obnoxious at all, makes the car sound exotic, a touch porsche like but really a sound of it's own.
7) Exhaust diffuser - $60, reproduction of factory style exhaust diffuser, sold by someone here on the forums. Fills out the area below the exhaust nicely.
7) Shift Knob - ok sounds silly, but bought a used moddiction Anvil stainless steel knob for about $40. Love the way it looks and feels.
Total so far, $1730, prob will invest in a good reproduction 5axis duck spoiler soon, that'll bring it up to around $1900 if I have a shop paint it. Overall it's a much nicer looking and much more fun to drive street car now, but still has a fairly conservative 'factory plus' look.
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