Any advice on "nice" mods?

starletnoob

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october house
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United Kingdom
I have just brought my first ever Starlet, its only a 1.3 12v. I know its not a speed machine or even slightly quick! I cant afford the fuel prices in the UK for a GT Turbo (would be nice tho) at £1.40 a litre!!($13 a gallon in yank money:blink1:)

I just want any tips/advice on any subtle mods or things that will just tidy her up a bit. My car history is very varied, I started with a Suzuki Swift 1.0 then a 206 1.4 then a 106 1.6 xsi then a Mercedes C280 SPORT 2.8 straight 6! (loved that car) then a mk3 golf GTI and now My little starlet. I like to think I'm pretty handy with a spanner so that's not really a restraint on what I do its only £££ that I lack.

So as i say Any tips/advice would be muchly appreciated :)
 
Hello and Welcom

First of all, I would just like to say the following on your choise of car

SWEEEEEEEET!

There, that is over. I love the starlets. I think they are great cars, similar in shape to the pulser.

There is pleanty to do with them. It all depends on what sort of money you have to spend on it. Give the guys on here a budjet and they will help spend your money!! :D
 
Welcome to TorqueCars :bigsmile:

Budget will dictate level of mods available. Are you after any performance or just aesthetics? Low budget items may include a different set of wheels and tyres (if required) on the second hand market. Lowering springs to give it a lower subtle look, check ebay for items. The trick is to do things in small steps and not overdo it. Seen too many people carrying out so much work too soon that it looks like the car crashed into Halfords! I have always liked the oval look on a Starlet, race arches and sills.
 
Hi there, I hope you are well. May I wish you a warm welcome to TorqueCars, it is a pleasure to meet you.

I'd stick with handling mods for now, there are a few good kits around for the turbo and I'm sure these can be made to fit on your car as the weights are very similar. Uprate the bushings to poly ones and lower it a bit for much sharper cornering and less body roll.

You'll find us a pretty friendly bunch and I'm sure you'll start to love and enjoy the forums as much as we all do. (It gets quite addictive at times.)

Feel free to get involved in our other threads, all opinions are welcome and as they say "the more the merrier"! (It's also great when people start new threads and discussions and all adds to the great debate.)

Keep us up to date with your project as well, we like to see what people are getting up to with their cars.
 
Cheers for all the replies guys!

My budget is probably about £200 a month, The most I want to do engine wise is pretty much only induction and exhaust. But I don't want to just go with anything I want to get a matched pair so that I can then re-map and get the best out of them. I know that i will only get about 10bhp out of it this way but I'm fine with that (keeps the fuel down).

Body wise lowering it and stiffening it was already my plan but anything else you can think of that makes it look good let me know, I don't want the boy racer "shopping list" as I think that looks a bit silly! I can see you all know what your talking about on here which is nice to see!
 
Hello and welcome to the nuthouse mate ;)

what sums you doing ? 1.40 a ltr is 5.32 a us gallon (3.8 ltrs rather than 4.5 for the uk) its only $8.63 with todays exchange lol

you dont have to get matched parts for induction and exhaust just quality parts rather than universal ones.
when lowering arr you wanting looks or performance ?
 
Yeah I know I had a brain fart yesterday when I worked out the US gallon :p my dad lives there so I have been enough times to know lol

By matched I meant made for the specific car, I made the mistake ONCE and only once of buying a universal induction kit when I was young and all I cared about was noise and have never touched them again.

Lowering for me is only ever for handling, I get why people like the look of it but I wouldn't care if it looked ugly but drove like a dream (just my opinion)

What do you think would be a good setup bearing in mind I live in the country and have some of the best driving roads in england :)

It is very nice to have found a forum that nobody seems to TROLL or go around calling people noobs and not bothering to help people! (i know my name has noob in it)
 
ya noob !!! :lol:

generally we suggest that you dont go lower than 35-40mm. but it depends on the car itself

depending on your budget a set of springs and dampers would be recommended unless your feeling flush and want to go for quality coilovers. generally id advise that you get what you pay for so if you do turn up a set of coilovers for under £200 dont expect fantastic handling from them.
have you thought about lightweight wheels and decent tyres for it as well ? a point often overlooked
 
HAHA I guess it gets that out of the way... :D

I have a JAP tuning garage down the road, they have a set of "TEIN SUPER STREET" for sale at £350 I know these go for alot more but they said one of the adjusters has been stripped so I would be stuck with that height and stiffness... I am tempted but dont know what to do.

On the wheel side of things, i'm having wheel trouble as you know from my other post u replied to. :p
 
were they not fitted to the glanza as standard ? sure it was teins.

depending on what hight they are set at might be worth a look see if you can knock some more off them
 

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