Fresh start

[addam.t]

I’ve just managed to buy a 2008 197 that’s completely stock and wanted to get people’s advice on suggested mods/upgrades. I want to keep it fairly oem+ with subtle mods that keep it driveable as a daily. Some ideas I’ve had so far are a sprint booster, exhaust back box delete (don’t want it to be stupidly loud but a slight increase wouldn’t be a bad thing), new trims/diffuser/grilles as the old ones are looking a bit tired and possibly a cold air intake. I’m open to all ideas but this is where my heads at at the moment. Please give as much details as you can (brands, improvements, downsides, links) or even just a general website link for parts.
Thank you to everyone that takes a minute and can help me out

 

[burrellbloke]

Welcome.

If you have black plastic trims that are faded use sone GTecniq C4 restorer.

Rather than get a sprint booster you could do whatever work you want with the exhaust and then get a remap to remove any flat spots and give you a smooth power curve.

If you want a bit of noise then get a KTec intake. They are loud when you accelerate and make the car sound more alive.

If I was starting again I would refresh the brakes and suspension first to make sure the car had some of its original fun driving characteristics.

 

[addam.t]

Hi burrelbloke, thanks for your reply.

I work at a bodyshop that can paint these trims pretty cheap but I will definitely look into the restorer as a cheaper option. I’ve heard that there’s some nice aftermarket trims you can get including the rear diffuser but can’t seem to find any online anywhere, do you have any suggestions for that?

That’s great to know about the sprint booster, I’d heard it was a good solution for the acceleration lag but if this can be solved through a remap then I will definitely do it this way further down the line to also sync up any exhaust/intake changes

Is it worth getting a cold air intake instead of the k-tec one? I’ve heard that u can get more of a performance increase this way but if I am to get a standard intake I will definitely go for k-trc

Finally, when you say refresh the brakes and suspension, could you give a little detail on how I’d go about doing this? Or do you just mean to replace the springs and brake pads/discs with oem parts?

Thank you very much for any further help you can give

 

[Dutch_197]

Since you have found a stock car I suggest you keep it as original as possible, never throw away original parts, do upgrades that are not or hardly visible but improve the car, or just to replace the tired parts. Doing so keeping value high and get a reliable fun car. Cold air intake I really don't see any improvement over stock, looking at the design. You could make it look a bit nicer over the stock plastic tubing.

 

[burrellbloke]

I thought you were talking about the trims on a Cup model that are just black plastic. If you have got access to a body shop you can get them painted.

I am not sure what you mean by aftermarket diffuser?

I would stick with a stock air intake, or if you want a bit of extra noise go for the KTec one.

For the brakes and suspension I meant just getting new shocks, springs, discs and pads. The OEM equipment is relatively cheap.