Performance Options

[lex8623]

I've had my lancer for about 2 years now and i want to fix it up. i want to make it go pretty fast. I need advice on what GOOD performance parts are out there, i already have the front sway bar, and would love to stiffen the suspension even more so. I just want to unlock the cars full potential. Im not concerned with upgrading my stereo and all that bullshit, thats not important to me. so please if you can point me in the direction of some all around good upgrades for the 2008+ Lancer ES

[SiR Will]

there are no bolt ons for this car thats gonna make it fast. to get good hp gains your gonna have to turbo your car. but what you can do is make your car be a great handling car with no problem if you got the cash. but fast is something our lancers will never be.

[lex8623]

well i can't say that's what i wanted to hear but. handling is good and i plan on having the car for awhile so i guess i could save up for the turbo, its only $5000. lol! i really want it AWD, any thing on that yet?

[SiR Will]

prolly come out cheaper buying a evo. awd ? everthing would have to be custom. no parts can be used from the evo or ralliart. the only thing that they have in common is that they look almost alike.

[EngRWW33]

Front sway bar?? Do you mean front strut bar???

If you are looking to not spend big $$$, intake, headers, exhaust, tune. Really that is our only option next to turbo. It will definitely come out to more than $1k.

To stiffen up the ride, go with SWAY bars. A new front strut will be for cosmetics only. Rear sway, coilovers, wider wheels, stickier tires, etc. etc.

[lex8623]

i have the front strut tower bar. i want to first work on my suspension right now, i plan on getting either the G.R.I.P springs, or the Tein, if i go with the Tein springs then i'm going to get the KYB shocks with them cause i heard that if i go any lower then 1.5 then my stock shocks will get destroyed pretty quickly. after my suspension is good then i want to move onto getting a cold air intake, (or short ram) then its onto the exhaust, im thinking of going with Greddy for this, after that i plan on going with the headers that RRM offers because so far that is the only one i can find.

[trini tuner]

i have the front strut tower bar. i want to first work on my suspension right now, i plan on getting either the G.R.I.P springs, or the Tein, if i go with the Tein springs then i'm going to get the KYB shocks with them cause i heard that if i go any lower then 1.5 then my stock shocks will get destroyed pretty quickly. after my suspension is good then i want to move onto getting a cold air intake, (or short ram) then its onto the exhaust, im thinking of going with Greddy for this, after that i plan on going with the headers that RRM offers because so far that is the only one i can find.

Check PM

[dm916]

Trade in for a Ralliart. It has the turbo and AWD that you want already. You can probably negotiate a good price and get one for around $24k or less. Trade in your ES if you want to go fast.

[NY-09GTS]

I have a different perspective on things. I don't like when someone says our lancers will never be fast, because ANY car can be built to go fast, you just need the know how, time, and lots of money. There's a guy at the local track here with a P.O.S escort, all beat up and primer grey, running 12's in the 1/4 mile. Under his hood he has $10,000+. I just read an article of a buick skylark running high 9's, low 10's, naturally aspirated, no turbo, supercharger, or nitrous, just pure muscle. No one would think a skylark is a fast car, but there you go.

So first, you have to ask yourself some questions:

1) how fast do you want to go, what do you think is fast? (do want to run 14's, 10's or somewhere in between)

2) do you want to buy speed(a fast factory car) or build speed into a car?

3) how much money are you willing to spend?

I assume you have a manual, the CVT(auto) puts you behind the 8 ball from the start.
You have the 2.0 engine so your already 16hp's behind a 2.4, but anyway, first thing you want to do is buy every bolt on you can get your hands on, get a ecu tune or piggyback and a tune. You should be able to add 30-40 hp's at the crank. Will that get you into the 14's, maybe but its hard to say (maybe a 2.4 will). Add a turbo and nitrous for lots more power. Add a stroker kit for the 2.0 for more power and to handle the power your adding. An LSD, if anyone ever makes one, will also help. I saw a video of a ralliart running low 13's, high 12's with a bunch of mods, so if you added all this I don't see why you couldn't then run 12-13's or quicker. Now that's not 10 second fast, but it quick enough. Of course all this will probably run you $10,000. Or you can spend 8-10,000 more than your es and get a ralliart, put 2,000 into it and be in the same spot, but have awd. Or you could spend 20,000 more than your es and get a EVO and be fast with no work needed. Engine swaps and things like that are always an option too.
You just need to know how fast you want to be and how much money you want to spend.
If you go with the every bolt on and ecu tune method you could get away with spending $2000-3000 and be a lot quicker than you are now. Enough to have fun.
Good luck.

[SiR Will]

I have a different perspective on things. I don't like when someone says our lancers will never be fast, because ANY car can be built to go fast, you just need the know how, time, and lots of money. There's a guy at the local track here with a P.O.S escort, all beat up and primer grey, running 12's in the 1/4 mile. Under his hood he has $10,000+. I just read an article of a buick skylark running high 9's, low 10's, naturally aspirated, no turbo, supercharger, or nitrous, just pure muscle. No one would think a skylark is a fast car, but there you go.

So first, you have to ask yourself some questions:

1) how fast do you want to go, what do you think is fast? (do want to run 14's, 10's or somewhere in between)

2) do you want to buy speed(a fast factory car) or build speed into a car?

3) how much money are you willing to spend?

I assume you have a manual, the CVT(auto) puts you behind the 8 ball from the start.
You have the 2.0 engine so your already 16hp's behind a 2.4, but anyway, first thing you want to do is buy every bolt on you can get your hands on, get a ecu tune or piggyback and a tune. You should be able to add 30-40 hp's at the crank. Will that get you into the 14's, maybe but its hard to say (maybe a 2.4 will). Add a turbo and nitrous for lots more power. Add a stroker kit for the 2.0 for more power and to handle the power your adding. An LSD, if anyone ever makes one, will also help. I saw a video of a ralliart running low 13's, high 12's with a bunch of mods, so if you added all this I don't see why you couldn't then run 12-13's or quicker. Now that's not 10 second fast, but it quick enough. Of course all this will probably run you $10,000. Or you can spend 8-10,000 more than your es and get a ralliart, put 2,000 into it and be in the same spot, but have awd. Or you could spend 20,000 more than your es and get a EVO and be fast with no work needed. Engine swaps and things like that are always an option too.
You just need to know how fast you want to be and how much money you want to spend.
If you go with the every bolt on and ecu tune method you could get away with spending $2000-3000 and be a lot quicker than you are now. Enough to have fun.
Good luck.

i feel what your saying, with the right amount of money and time u can do alot. but why not just go with the evo or ralliart and save a lot of money and headaches.

[lex8623]

I can not afford an EVO or Ralliart. I, am a poor college student, so buying these parts individually is really the better bet for me

[dm916]

Well converting your FWD to AWD and adding a turbo will be about the same cost (if not more) than if you were to trade your ES in for a Ralliart. Plus you will have a brand new warranty. If you were to do all the things you wanted, you will have voided every warranty we have for the car. But I guess if you were thinking about doing all that stuff, you probably weren't thinking of warranty in the first place. Just my thoughts. Good luck on your upgrades. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.gif)

[EngRWW33]

i have the front strut tower bar. i want to first work on my suspension right now, i plan on getting either the G.R.I.P springs, or the Tein, if i go with the Tein springs then i'm going to get the KYB shocks with them cause i heard that if i go any lower then 1.5 then my stock shocks will get destroyed pretty quickly. after my suspension is good then i want to move onto getting a cold air intake, (or short ram) then its onto the exhaust, im thinking of going with Greddy for this, after that i plan on going with the headers that RRM offers because so far that is the only one i can find.

The KYB struts on RRM's website are direct OEM replacements. They will be NO better then the OEM struts. Also, they are cheaper on tirerack.com. Wait for some better struts/coilovers!!

I would not recommend strut bars before upgraded SWAY bars. You will notice a difference with the sway bars, not so much the strut bars.

[NY-09GTS]

i feel what your saying, with the right amount of money and time u can do alot. but why not just go with the evo or ralliart and save a lot of money and headaches.

True you could just get a ralliart or evo, but what fun is that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Modding is fun and for me and many others it's not just a hobby or the cool thing to do, it's part of my lifestyle. It's one thing I've done for a long time. Plus I'm sure you could build this car for less than a evo. A bottom of the line evo is like 32k, a top of the line is closer to 40k. A ralliart is a better price range, but for 25k you don't get the sun and sound package, which I love and no manual option, I need three pedals lol. My 09 manual base price is 18,790, ralliart 26,690. So why not have a lower monthly payment and take that 8000-10000 and over a few years pour it into the gts. Sure you eventually lose the warranty, but honestly I've never heard a dealer honor the warranty after 3-4 years on major stuff, they always come up with some excuse. If in 6 years with 90,000 miles on your car you blow the engine, you think you're going to get a new engine or get it fixed for free, I doubt it. But you do have a good point, if building a car is not for you, then get a ralliart or evo and have fun.

[SimmoES]

so tired of meaningless threads.. same subject, different thread.

Guy, if you are a poor college student why bother saving up $5k for turbo. Again it sounds like the thread opener has no idea what goes into customizing car's performance yet we're sitting here giving him options. A $5k turbo kit is going to cost you another $2k to install properly and tune since you'll have someone else do it for you. so now you're talking $7k for turbo, a few more $k for other parts, i.e. suspension, exhaust, etc. so after all, I take a stand with everyone that suggested buying a Ralliart or Evo.

NY-09GTS

True you could just get a ralliart or evo, but what fun is that. Modding is fun and for me and many others it's not just a hobby or the cool thing to do, it's part of my lifestyle.

- thats a true statement if you are the one doing the modding.. if u dont do the hard work yourself - where's the fun in that? I'm all for modding a car if people know what they're doing or willing to learn and have someone knowledgeable guide them through the whole process.

I say go for easy stuff if you want a little more GRRR out of your car, like intake, exhaust, suspension, pulley - dont get into turbos just yet.

[NY-09GTS]

NY-09GTS - thats a true statement if you are the one doing the modding.. if u dont do the hard work yourself - where's the fun in that? I'm all for modding a car if people know what they're doing or willing to learn and have someone knowledgeable guide them through the whole process.

Well said. I'm not a big fabricator / builder, but I'm always learning new stuff even after so many years of modding, so I'm down for the DIY. I can't do machining or lots of R&D because I just don't have the equipment or knowledge to build parts, but I am now actually doing research on putting together my own turbo setup.

[lex8623]

Well said. I'm not a big fabricator / builder, but I'm always learning new stuff even after so many years of modding, so I'm down for the DIY. I can't do machining or lots of R&D because I just don't have the equipment or knowledge to build parts, but I am now actually doing research on putting together my own turbo setup.

i know what i'm doing, before i went back to school i used to do auto body. while i do not know how to do it all i am always willing to learn more. and as far as the turbo goes i have a friend that is a good mechanic and has helped me before on my old car, so i know he's not going to charge me to much especially if i'm helping him do the work.

[NY-09GTS]

i know what i'm doing, before i went back to school i used to do auto body. while i do not know how to do it all i am always willing to learn more. and as far as the turbo goes i have a friend that is a good mechanic and has helped me before on my old car, so i know he's not going to charge me to much especially if i'm helping him do the work.

There you go.... have fun. DIY FTW

[dm916]

Are you still going to try and convert it to AWD? Do you have another car you can drive while you are putting this car down for work or can you finish everything in a weekend. I'm not trying to bust your bubble or anything. I just wouldn't want you to start the project and realize.."Oh shit, how am I getting to work?" I'm not the best mechanically inclined so I know if I were to do a build, it would def take me more than a weekend. Plus I need to have paper work in case anything goes wrong. Good luck with your installs. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.gif)

[EngRWW33]

Even the highest quality professionals don't finish custom builds over the weekend. I'm sure this has been considered.