[Mim]

When talking about whether the car has enough power I think its important to understand the application. What did you buy the car for and intend to do with it going forward?

Most of my commute involves 60, 50 and even 40kph zones. I came from a string of GM V8's that would only need the lightest brush of the accelerator to hit those speed limits, which became tiring.

Like most others, I was seeking a fun daily driver. More specifically though, a daily driver that could allow me to still have fun at lower speeds so... in came the twins!

Here was a car I could wind out in low gears and still be doing legal speeds, but also had amazing handling. After owning the car for a little while though (and after much reading up on our site) I started to ponder whether it had enough power. I started to really break down the car's performance into what was good and what I could improve.

Even if I didn't increase the power level, what could I do to the car to help maximise what power it had?

In came the 4.556 final drive ratio and the aluminium drive shaft. The effect of that? A more sensitive throttle response and a little less slack in the drive train. Possibly from the one piece drive shaft and its 50% weight shedding over stock. Something I did not foresee with the change, was improving access to higher gears, which really made the car more relaxing to drive. Keeping in mind I only drive in sports mode, this mod let me pick a higher gear (more often) across all the speed zones I travelled resulting in a more relaxed drive. I had power sooner and (unlike prior) rarely needed to drop a gear to speed up more enthusiastically.

That was pretty transformative and seemed just enough to keep me happy for a good while. Then came the handling and though I originally researched new coilovers I also turned my eye to bracing, which seemed both cheaper and something I could easily fit myself with minimal fuss. Wham! A dramatic improvement to handling with the addition of a strut bar and some TRD door stabilisers. The ride actually settled down a notch or two. Possibly because the chassis was stiffer so the suspension could do its thing more efficiently.

Now everything feels a little more immediate in both acceleration and handling in general.

What I'm trying to put into words here is what if you could change and tweak your car in a way that makes it feel faster, but which does not involve massive increases of power?

Another excellent mod is a header and tune to nail the torque dip leading to more linier acceleration. If you took all these tweaks, which does not exactly add slabs of power.. wouldn't you be more happy with that power the car had?

If your throttle response, handling, feedback all got dialled to eleven, would you care that your car only had say 220 odd HP after fitting all these mods?

I think this all comes back full circle to understanding the application. What do you need your car to do in the scope of your driving that would make you crave more power?