[adamB]

Hey all. Newbie here. I bought my SS 3 weeks ago and have wasted no time with mods. All the mods listed in my signature I have installed in the time I have had the car. Prior to my SS, I had a 2002 Nissan Sentra Spec V. For a sport compact it is a quick car. It is especially good for autocross. I took it out once and fell in love. It was at this event I rode with my friend in his 93 Z28. I wanted an all around faster car, and I wanted to get more chicks!! So to one of my dream cars I went.

It seems almost everyone around me is all about drag racing. It is fun and cheap (until you snap your rear end), but I just don't find it near as enjoyable as autocross. My SS is my first step to rear wheel drive (except for a couple of trucks), so I am trying to gain as much experiance as I can. Front wheel drive just wasn't challenging anymore.

My immediate plans for the car are: exhaust cutout (gotta be loud), shocks and springs (need input as to what to get), and anti-squat brackets. Much more is to come, but as it stands, I don't even have the money for the cutout. I need a better job.

[sgarnett]

My immediate plans for the car are: exhaust cutout (gotta be loud), shocks and springs (need input as to what to get), and anti-squat brackets. Much more is to come, but as it stands, I don't even have the money for the cutout. I need a better job.

If you want to get into autocross (or any other form of competition for that matter), you should get a rulebook BEFORE spending money on mods. Otherwise, a mod that might make you a little faster might bump you to the next class, where everyone else is a LOT faster.

Right now, the mods you've already got put you in E Street Prepared, which is not a bad place to be (that's assuming there aren't any other mods from the previous owner). The relocation brackets would put you in Street Mod, and that's not the place to go if you are cash-flow-impaired.

If I were you, I would change the spending list to something like:

1) A performance oriented (not GM spec) front end alignment,
2) An Evolution autocross school,
3) A 35mm front swaybar, either the ST35 solid or Strano's new 35mm hollow,
4) Good (Koni, Bilstein) shocks

About the order: Evolution is the single most cost-effective thing you can do, but you still need to get the alignment first. Shocks are probably more important than the swaybar, but the bar is cheaper and easier so many do it first. Also, the changing the front shocks alone is just as much work as changing shocks and springs, so it is nice if you can swing the springs at the same time. However, you can get by fine with the stock springs.

I would focus on the alignment and Evolution first. That's where your biggest bang for the buck is.