Whatever the reason is, we are all wishing we could find cheaper ways to make our beloved tin cans into rocket ships! Well fortunately there are actually a few things we can do to make this possible!
This article is for those looking to make the most of their cars performance for free. Not everything on this list will apply to you, but this is the “no hidden problems” guide to actually increase performance for free. This has nothing to do with looks or lousy modifications other websites recommend, this is purely what I found to help increase performance without spending a dollar.
Disclaimer
Make sure if you are going to do any of these modifications, understand that nothing should be a compromise for safety to you or others. Make sure you never alter or get rid of critical equipment, that will cause your car to fall apart like a Lego set in the middle of a turn, thanks!
1) Get Light
Chances are if we are on this article our cars are probably not performance machines, which also likely means that our vehicles are probably much heavier than they need to be. Especially when it comes to going faster!
Lightening up our builds helps with a variety of things, your Braking, cornering and acceleration will become faster and also your fuel economy gets better too. Sounds too good to be true! Well it partially is, there’s a couple things to consider when doing weight reduction.
When removing weight here is something to ponder. I am going to give you a list: Weight savings/Money savings/Drivability, pick two, you lose the third. In order to save weight you will have to pay or you will have to sacrifice drivability/luxuries.
We are talking about saving money and going fast. So plan on losing a couple of those creature comforts you haven’t used since going for your first test drive 😉. When making weight savings you can go about this in a very smart way where you don’t lose out on too much while also saving some pounds. How do you do this?
“What are you are willing to put in to get out?”
The key to saving weight while also not sacrificing your daily driver is to: Plan out what your goals are and then put in the work. Saving weight is not the most glorious process but it can also provide a night and day difference, so you must know what you can live without and what kind of work you are willing to put in to keep your wallet heavy and your car light.
Some Free things you can remove
For the daily driver:
- Unnecessary brackets(engine or otherwise).
- Cruise control box/cable.
- Glovebox(put your registration in your center console).
- Decretive engine covers.
- Rear truck carpeting.
- Some/all sound deadening (if you want, but for a daily driver… I don’t know if all is a good idea).
- Hood liner.
- Lightening door cards(taking out bin, removing deadening ect).
- Fog lights and brackets.
- Losing weight yourself.
For the daily driver/Weekend track car:
- Everything from daily driver.
- Rear seats.
- Taking out spare tire and jack.
- Taking out windshield washer fluid
For Weekend Drag Cars
- Taking out sway bars.
- Removing one or both headlights for intake(if track allows it).
Note:
These are things you can remove and put back in when you need to drive off the track!
For the daily driver/Weekend track car:
- Everything from Daily driver and weekend track car.
- Speakers and wiring.
- Stereo and amp.
- Passenger seat and seatbelt.
- Rear seatbelts.
- Center console.
- Door cards.
- Rear speaker deck cover.
- Headliner.
- Sunroof rails and motor.
There are hundreds of things you can do in order to save weight. It just comes down to what you are willing to put in to get out, what your parameters are in a build and what you are willing to sacrifice in order to save weight!
2) Porting and Polishing
Porting and polishing (same as Cut and Polishing), are tried and true yet still mostly unheard of. The concept of porting and polishing is that things on/in your engine are cut out larger and then smoothed so more of X will flow through it more efficiently. So how can we do this?
Here are the steps:
- Remove the portion/part you will be porting(please remember how you did this).
- Port out the proper proportion for maximized inlet and outlet flow (sometimes bigger isn’t better).
- Smooth it all down so you can increase efficieny of flow.
- Clean off any metal or debris left on the part or surface.
- Reinstall your parts and reconnect sensors/clips.
Please proceed with caution so you do not damage your engine in any way! Take the cleaning process serious. Failure to do so could lead to some potentially catastrophic failure of vital parts of your engine. Even if it doesn’t lead to failure it could lead to slightly damaged parts or the premature wear of parts which will contribute to a loss of power. We don’t want to do that so be smart and take these steps seriously! It won’t let you down!
A few Parts you can Port Yourself
If you are mechanically inclined there are a few parts you can definetly port yourself to enhance power.
- Throttle body
- Intake manifold(upper or lower).
- Supercharger outlet/inlet.
- Exhaust manifolds.
- Turbo piping/charge pipe.
- Most any other intake or exhaust piece that was cast which could have burs or other issues that would restrict flow.
3) Fixing Factory Mistakes
The engineers that built our vehicles are smart. The nerds that have worked on our awful cars, dedicated, since they were released are also smart, scary smart. This is good however because that means that all of the performance tweaks that the mechanics and engineers overlooked, these people found!
Our cars may not be perfect but there is a good chance that there are some things we can do to make them more perfect! This is going to be less of an exact list and more of a help guide because all of our cars are different.
Here’s what you should do: Go on to websites, forum pages and talk with people who have worked on your engine and for your vehicle. Do some research and have a conversation. There is a chance that there are free or cheap modifications you can make to your car that help to increase the performance without actually buying aftermarket parts.
This ranges from rearranging things into different orientations to larger oil filters off other engines to help refine your oil better. You’d be surprised how nerdy car enthusiasts can get sometimes but maybe that isn’t always a bad thing.
Disclaimer:
Be mindful of what you do, most of the things on our vehicles have been tested extensively. So when you hear or read something make sure that you take it with a grain of salt and that others agree with whatever modification is suggested.
4) Tuning (With What You've Got)
Another clever way to enhance your vehicle’s performance for free is by tuning the few things you have control over. These adjustments may not apply to everyone but I encourage you to read through, there may still be some takeaways that you can implement!
Throttle Tuning
Throttle Bodies
If you have a throttle body you can tighten up your throttle cable if it becomes loose. Often over time the metal cables can stretch which can leave slack in your throttle cable. This slack can create lag in your throttle or can stop your throttle plate from fully opening which could alter how well your car performs.
How-To
How can you do this? The main way to tighten up your throttle is by loosening your lock nut for your throttle cable and then turn your adjustment nut until your cable is tight but not pulling. When the cable is tight you must retighten the lock nut and it should be good to go! You can also purchase a new throttle cable too if there is no adjustment nuts and you notice lots of slack in the cable!
Carburetors
If you have a carburetor (which many of us likely won’t) you can adjust your fuel trims and your idle speed while doing timed tests in order to find the best setup for your carburetor for acceleration performance!
Suspension Tuning
On many cars the suspension can be adjusted. Even a small amount! Often times your car has been aligned to reduce wear on your suspension as well as your tires to work most efficiently. So I don’t encourage this for people who daily drive their cars or even those who use their cars on the weekend and to get to work the next day. However knowing these things could be very vital so I encourage you to read through!
Adjustable Components (In simple terms):
Toe
You must turn your tie rods in or out in order to adjust toe on your stock or modified vehicles. When your toe is straight or at zerodegrees your wheels are perfectly straight. When you adjust your tie rods for toe in the front of your tires are closer than the back of your tires. Toe in will make it harder for car to turn but you will gain stability at high speeds. When you adjust for toe out the rear of your tires are closer than the front of your tires. Your car will turn better but likely wander more, especially at high speeds. (See diagram below)
Tire Pressure
Tire pressure is an often times overlooked aspect of suspension tuning, it can play a large role on how your cars performance and fuel economy are effected. Depending on how you drive, where you drive and the kinds of tires you have will all depend on how you should inflate your tires. The air in your tires is temperature dependent which means that the air in your tires will heat up and expand so making sure you tune around the temp of your tires once they are warmed will be very important!
Camber
Changing your camber can be done by either changing mounting position of the top of your strut, or by adjusting where your strut attaches to your steering knuckle. There are a variety of ways to do this but the main way doing this cost effective is is by getting camber bolts. Camber bolts may not be free and thats why I put this last but for $5-$10 it was hard not to include this in the list. Camber is the angle in which your tires are contacting the road. If you adjust your suspension for positive camber this will create the tendency for oversteer, as well as the potential for hopping during heavier acceleration. During cornering you may also experience oversteer as you rear end may slide out from a lack of grip. If you adjust your suspension for negative camber your car will likely gain more traction and stability through corners but could also promote some understeer. Negative camber is said to be more predictable and both negative camber or zero camber are preferred set ups in the racing community!
Likely this is all you will have to work with on your stock system. Tuning is virtually endless when entering the aftermarket scene. If you want more out of your suspension for cheap check out Top 5 budget suspension upgrades! If you want to start increasing the performance of your engine check out my Stage 1 or Stage 2 articles!
Other Adjustable Components (Not Free):
Caster
Text
Dampening
Text
Ride Height
Text
5) Teqniuqe & Driving Behaviour
The car might not be the issue, it might be you….
If someone is driving a new BMW M4 and you try to pull on it with your v6 Mustang chances are you are going to give the other person a good chuckle and end up on 1320video’s. But if someone is driving an equally levelled Camaro it could definitely come down to who knows how to drive their car better!
Spending some time learning how to launch your car faster, shift smoother or corner quicker could be the difference between slow and respectable times at the track or on the strip.
Make sure you try many different ways and situations in a safe space making note of how you car reacts and what is faster. One good way to measure is by trying a technique and timing yourself to see what times are faster, this could help you gain speed tremendously!
Some Things To Try:
- Launching w/wo TCS.
- Experiment with built in features(Launch control, flat foot shifting ect).
- E-Brake launchingDifferent racing lines.
- Different shift points.
- Brake Boosting.
The list can go on but all are equally important to maximizing how well your car can preform to make sure all of the capabilities are optimized! Make sure you are being smart and choose the right places to practice these safely, for yourself and for others!
Conclusion
This sums up the end of another article! Being cheap is not always the answer although this is the optimal list!
Thank you for reading this article, if there are more modifications you would like to see here make sure you let me know in the comments below! But also don’t feel shy to reach out VIA email or any other social media platform if you want to talk me privately!
Like this article? Check out HOW TO MODIFY ON A BUDGET(WHEN YOU ARE BROKE)
