[Capt Spaulding]

I've had my car about 10 months and, for all intents and purposes, it's still stock. I've made two changes that I recommend without any hesitation. First, a heavier than stock shift knob. I bought a Raceseng "Topology" from another list member and it transformed the car's shifting. When new it was pretty notchy. The shift knob, along with accumulating mileage made the car shift incredibly smoothly.

Second was a set of adhesive 2" convex mirrors. For me the car's C pillar gets in the way of doing good head checks in traffic. Combine that with being on the wrong side of 60 and less flexible than I used to be and the mirrors are great additions.

I also plugged the sound tube, but that's just me.

If I made a performance mod it would not be to squeeze some more ponies out from under the hood, it would be to fill in the torque dip. For my money, the dollar per horsepower figures are unattractive. Most of the power that is added shows up at the top of the rev band and most of my driving is in the middle of it. From what I read, the dip demon can be exorcised with one of several unequal length headers. I haven't decided if the dip bothers me enough to fool with it. It really is a very good car as it sits.