We hear this question quite a bit from people who are new to the performance scene. The first step in answering this question is to step back and truly analyze yourself, your car, and how you intend to use it. Every car, like every driver has a personality, which means there may be aspects of your car you like, and aspects you don’t. Having a strong understanding of where you personally feel satisfied with your car and where you are disappointed will help direct you down your modification path.

For example, do you use your car as a daily driver and occasionally take a “spirited” drive? Do you plan to do some weekend auto crossing or road racing or make occasional trips to the drag strip? Do you want to learn or are you involved with drifting? Is this your second car, your toy, and you want it to be more purpose built, rather than well rounded in all areas? All of these things need to be considered before you head down the path of modifying your vehicle so that the decisions you make early on start to lay down a strong foundation for you to build off of.

One of the places we recommend starting, even when your goal is more power, is starting with the brakes and suspension first. A car that handles and stops great, but is a little down on power can be much more rewarding to drive than a powerful car that does not stop or handle well. For most makes there is a good shock and spring package that can give great performance without the cost or complexity of a coilover. This is a great option, especially if your car sees primarily street use, as coilovers are generally overkill for street applications.

In addition to shocks and springs, stiffer sway bars and a quality end links can do wonders for the handling characteristics of your car and they generally don’t effect ride quality much as they are normally only working when the car is turning. If your suspension upgrades drastically lower the ride height of your car, you may need a camber correction kit or a roll center correction kit. The reason for this is because when a car is lowered the original suspension geometry is lost. As the suspension moves up (or your car moves down depending how you look at it) negative camber is increased and the roll center changes. The kits mentioned above, along with a good alignment will bring everything back within spec.

Brake upgrades should match how much you are increasing the power of the car. If you don’t plan on increasing the power output of your car drastically, you can add a more sporting feel to your braking system by simply upgrading the rotors and pads. If you plan on increasing the power of your car significantly, you’ll probably want to consider upgrading the entire brake system - calipers, rotors, pads, and possibly braided lines.

Once you have a strong foundation, you’ll be ready to turn your attention to the performance aspect of you car. Modern day turbocharged cars normally only need to have the exhaust system upgraded and the ECU tuned to extract an additional 25%-30% more power safely. Contrary to popular belief, most factory intake systems are designed well enough that little power will be gained if it is upgraded, which is why we recommend starting with the exhaust first. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, so on some makes, changing the intake system will help make more power.

If you are looking to upgrade performance past what the stock turbocharger is capable of, there are more systems that you will need to look at upgrading. At this point an aftermarket intake or a larger MAF sensor may be needed, as well as larger fuel injectors, a higher capacity fuel pump, and possibly new fuel rails. In addition, a larger intercooler may be needed, and depending on your desired power levels don’t forget to consider if you need to upgrade the pistons, rods, bearings, cams, and opt for a better oil pump.

For handling and performance, we feel what we have outlined above is a good place to start. Of course there are a myriad of modifications you can do to go above and beyond what we have discussed. But for most people, these serve as strong foundation level mods to make, that will not go to waste as you get further and further into your build.

Headers: wrapped/coated vs. unwrapped/uncoated

Exhaust manifolds on turbocharged cars are used to channel potential energy to the turbocharger. Any energy that is lost to the manifold or ambient air is not getting to the turbo which means turbo performance will be reduced since the energy can not be used to spin the turbine wheel. This loss of energy means it will take the turbo longer to reach target boost.
Wrapping and coating manifolds is all geared to the same thing, to keep as much heat, or energy, in the exhaust system as possible. Exhaust wraps and coatings achieve this by acting as insulation between the hot manifold and the cool ambient air rushing around the manifold. By stabilizing the exhaust gas temperature reaching the turbo with the use of exhaust wrap or a coating, turbo performance will become more stable. Deciding whether to use exhaust wrap or a coating is ultimately up to the end user, but generally cast manifolds take better to coating than tubular manifolds, just as tubular manifolds and headers are easier to wrap than a cast manifolds since they have a more open design. One last note on wrapping or coating exhaust manifolds, be sure to check with the manufacturer of your manifold to see if wrapping or coating it will void the warranty as different manufacturers have different policies.

So how should you decide what size wastegate to run on your turbocharged vehicle? Well, let’s first look at how a wastegate works. For purposes of this discussion we will reference two very popular wastegate sizes, 38mm and 44mm.
The purpose of a wastegate is to vent exhaust gas pressure away from the exhaust wheel of the turbo in order to control shaft speed. The more exhaust gas the wastegate vents, the slower the turbine wheel will spin.
For a turbocharged car that sees primarily street use, most people think the smaller 38mm wastegate would work best, and although it is not a bad choice, ultimately the 44mm would work better for most street applications. A street car will not be running the turbocharger at its peak efficiency all the time. Because of this, boost will be kept on the lower end of the turbo’s efficiency range. Since the boost will remain generally low, a larger volume of exhaust gas will need to be vented prior to the turbine exhaust wheel. That is why the 44mm wastegate would be a better choice for this application than the 38mm. It can more efficiently vent excess pressure from the system with the same valve lift as the 38mm.
If you were sizing a wastegate for a race application, a smaller wastegate would generally be a more efficient choice. In race applications, boost pressures are higher, so a turbo is more likely to be operating in its peak efficiency range for longer periods of time. That means you would want to keep more exhaust pressure going through the turbo, which means you are venting less exhaust gas. In this instance the 38mm wastegate, since it is smaller, will vent less gas and keep more pressure in the system to spin the turbo.