Best project car ideas

"So which cars make the best projects?"

For a project car, you need lots of potential to extract performance.

The following cars are the most popular cars among our readers and make up a pretty good list of great project car ideas to work on.

All have large part ranges from performance makers, all have strong engine options, which make a great base to work on and most of the following are great candidates for an engine swap or supercharger/turbo upgrade.

Budget needs to be taken into account and we've tried to cover all bases and options here.

If you feel we've missed out a gem, please let us know in the comments box below and we will consider adding it to this guide.

We were hoping for a top ten, but as it's so hard to choose just 10 we kept going.

The Skyline – R32 R33 R34 and R35

You can't have a list of great project cars without mentioning the Nissan Skyline with it's plethora of tuning options.

The new GTR is awesome but weak gearboxes and high purchase cost are keeping them off this list for now.

In this article we will take an overview of the world of Skyline tuning mods … Continue reading


 

A3 tuning

 I've had quite a few A3's over the years, and the engines are usually nice to work on with a nice range of power options and upgrades for relatively little extra money. Turbo engines respond really well to tunes or remaps … Continue reading


 

Toyota GT86

Toyota GT86 FA20 Tuning Tuning the Toyota GT86 and best GT86 performance parts. A joint effort between Toyota and Subaru who were aiming at building the ultimate track day car, and thankfully opted for a RWD setup. They have created an instant classic … Continue reading


 

The Nissan 370z

The 370z is a good car tuning project to play with. Nissan took all the best bits of the 350z, improved the weak spots and produced the stunning 370z.

Criticisms of it’s earlier brother includes a lack of low down power which has been addressed to a large degree in the 370z. Continue reading


Silvia S13 Tuning

We saw the first S13 Silvias hitting the streets in 1989 winning car of the year in Japan, it quickly became very popular, and did much to establish the reputation of Nissan for making sports cars.

We review and look at Silvia S13 tuning and provide tips on the optimum modifications. Nissan Silvia S13 make for  really good project cars and with the right modified tuning mods you can certainly enhance your driving enjoyment. Continue reading


The Honda S2000

The S2000 was originally launched in April 1999. Honda engineers needed to come up with a special car to commemorate Honda’s 50th anniversary. The high revving engine lends itself nicely to tuning.

The two seater roadster features a powerful 2 litre engine with rear wheel drive layout hire a six speed gearbox. (Some countries had the additional choice of a 2.2 litre engine and there was also a hard top version available.) Continue reading


The dodge Charger

Dodge Chargers are popular cars and you can have plenty of driving fun of this awesome muscle car with the right mods.

We have seen some awesome Charger tuning projects and there seems to be quite a loyal fan base of Charger owners. If you do your homework then you can create an awesome Charger but don’t be fooled there are lots of performance parts out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first. Continue reading


The Honda Civic.

One of our most popular cars, a long production run and amazing range of off the shelf parts make the Civic a good contender for ultimate modified car project.

The solid Honda engines are pretty reliable even when pushed hard and we have seen Turbo conversions on stock engines without issue! You just have to watch your fuelling and compression ratios. Continue reading


Lancer EVO 

Now with several revisions and updates, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution remains the car tuning poster car.

Rally bred performance for the road. If you want a capable car that needs no mods look no further, but when you add mods it just gets better and better... Continue reading


 

The Subaru Impreza WRX and STi

Tuning tips for the Subaru Impreza abound as do the parts available, The stunning WRX and STi are great project cars that offer much to the enthusiastic tuner.  With their phenomenal success in rally, … Continue reading


 

Ford Mustang modifications.

We have to include some American muscle in this list and what better than the legendary Mustang. Let’s see what can be done to improve the performance and handling of the awesome Ford Mustang range, from simple engine mods to larger conversions. Continue reading


 

If you feel we've missed out a gem, please let us know in the comments box below and we will consider adding it to this guide.

We were hoping for a top ten, but as it's so hard to choose just 10 we kept going.

 

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