Car tuning doesn’t mean you have upgraded the sound system in the car. Car tuning can help you boost the performance of your car. Let’s learn more about what car tuning is before we discuss the benefits of tuning your vehicle and outline the various ways you could “tune” your car.
What Is Car Tuning?
Car tuning is when you modify the car to optimize it for performance in ways that the car wasn’t originally intended to operate. This is why buying a sports car isn’t car tuning – the car already comes that way.
What Are the Benefits of Car Tuning?
If you survey the available selection of vehicles at used car dealers in Charlotte, you may be able to find a tuned or upgraded car. However, it has someone else’s upgrades. This is cheaper than installing your own, but you may not get the full complement of upgrades you want, either. Then there’s the additional complexity of the system and the challenge of getting it properly inspected. It is generally safer to buy a new or used car and then tune it to meet your performance specifications.
How Can Tuning Improve the Performance of Your Car?
Tuning may improve the horsepower, speed or handling of your vehicle. Improving horsepower or the overall power put out by the engine can be done by porting the head, upgrading the engine, adding a turbocharger and altering the internals. You may want to improve the air intake in the vehicle, though this may not matter with the latest generation of cars with fuel injectors. Be very careful about getting performance chips, since they may not work properly for your car and you’ll void the warranty if you install one. Tweaking settings to improve performance in one regard can cause damage to other parts of the engine, too. Try better spark plugs, first.
A different solution is reducing the weight of the vehicle. Then the engine can accelerate the car faster because it doesn’t have to move as much mass. However, you should never remove safety devices.
To improve handling, you can use a coilover kit. Others upgrade the tires, though worn tires will always hurt the handling. Stay away from gravity caste wheels. Their heavy weight slows you down. Pressure cast or forged wheels are better, as long as they’re strong enough to take the load.
You may want to upgrade the suspension, since you tend to slow down when you feel the bumps. A better suspension system is essential if you turn the car into a lowrider. Don’t cut springs. That actually makes the car more dangerous and can destroy handling potential. Use lowering springs if you need to improve handling.
An often-overlooked handling improvement is a better brake system. If you want to go 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, get a brake system that lets you stop almost as fast without losing control.
Upgrading your oil pan can prevent oil starvation at high lateral g’s. However, a lot of people neglect simple first steps like replacing oil filters and air filters to maximize performance of the car you already have. And check your exhaust. Make sure it isn’t venting anywhere close to the air intakes. However, longer pipes are not necessarily better.
