Mad Mods

The more popular the sports car, the larger the aftermarket that exists to supply it with performance-enhancing and appearance-altering parts. An exec at a big Corvette-parts supplier recently said that although the latest Corvette — known internally as the C6 — had only been on the market for less than a year, some customers have already bought three different exhaust systems for their C6s, each costing several thousand dollars, as they discovered newer and more efficient — OK, louder — headers and mufflers that were available.

There's an aftermarket part for every whim. This lexan panel lets Porsche Boxster owners show off their engine. view slideshow >

There's not a lot you can do to personalize your Chevy Malibu or Subaru Outback apart from body-colored wiper blades and mud guards from the local auto-parts store. But buy a Miata, Porsche, Corvette, BMW or any of a variety of other sports cars, and an industry awaits your every whim. Aerodynamic bumpers, carbon-fiber dashboards, rosewood shifter knobs, specialized instrument displays, racing seats, bigger wheels, upgraded shock absorbers, supercharger kits, race car wings, oil coolers and, yes, loud exhaust systems abound. A simple Web search will spill a cornucopia of gimcracks, gadgets and even useful enhancements for your new ride.

Most affordable aftermarket additions for a sports car are cosmetic, for it's hardly realistic to imagine that some entrepreneur with an office in an Illinois strip mall can develop a widget that adds 20 hp to a BMW because the hundreds of highly trained engineers in Munich missed something. One exception is what's called "chipping." A good automotive hacker can take a sports car's engine-control computer and reprogram it to add horsepower, though often at the expense of fuel economy, tractability, the engine's longevity and your new-car warranty, which will be voided. The power gains can range from minimal to spectacular, the latter particularly on a turbocharged engine. Performance-enhancing chips typically cost between $500 and $3,000.

The Lotus Elise may be rare, but there are those who want even more individuality, like the owner of this one, who added a huge rear wing. enlarge image +

One of the most enjoyable parts of owning a high-performance car, if you're so inclined, is that it can be a canvas on which to paint the car of your dreams — the quad-piped, fat-tired, carbon-fibered, stiffly suspended, race-instrumented, supertuned fantasy you've always imagined owning. And the best part is that you can have just as much fun doing it to a Miata as you can with a 911 Turbo.

But just like installing a performance chip can void a warranty or make your car shudder while idling at a stoplight, any post-factory modification has a potential pitfall. There are many products available to unsuspecting enthusiasts, such as "cold air" filter systems or exhaust headers, that have been tested by auto-enthusiast magazines and found to either not deliver on what they promise or even impair performance.

Automotive-manufacturer engineers spend thousands of hours testing and retesting the vehicles they build. Just because a car can theoretically handle more power or a tighter suspension doesn't mean it should.

A great many details come into play when modifying any aspect of a car. Will that cool-looking spoiler create more drag and reduce fuel economy? How is the "cold air" system you just added supposed to extract cold air from the hot engine bay?

Here's a point of caution for one of the most frequent mods: If upgrading to larger wheels and tires, be absolutely certain that at least two dimensions don't change: 1.) the wheel offset (distance between the hub and the inside edge of the wheel) and 2.) the overall diameter of the wheel and tire together. Any deviation in either of these, even by a millimeter, can change the dynamics so that the suspension and brakes not only won't perform optimally but could actually become dangerously impaired.

This is just one example of the potential problems with modifying a vehicle. Thoroughly research any modification before implementing it, taking care to find out how it will affect your car's warranty or hinder its performance, handling and safety.

Lotus Elise photo appears courtesy of stickercity.com.

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