Street Legal Track Car - What would you recommend next

[mark 91 tsi]

I have a 1991 Talon TSI 5 speed which I am turning into a street legal (flexible on emissions) track car. My goal is to have a car that I can drive to the track, have a lot of fun while I am there, and then drive it back home so reliability is important to me. I have read the upgrade paths and will be doing all of the free horsepower upgrades. I am looking for guidance on what you feel is the best thing I could do next to my car. This year I am more focused on handling and learning the car and next year I will look more at top speed. Below I have what the previous owners did and what I will be doing.

Already installed:
Aftermarket front and rear bumpers (Definitely not a performance upgrade)
Aftermarket muffler on stock exhaust
Aftermarket BOV
FMIC with 2.5” pipes
Wastegate bleeder valve
2G MAF
Boost gage
Air/fuel mixture gage

Ready to be installed
1G big brakes
Performance brake pads front and rear
Whiteline 26mm rear swaybar
Shifter cable stiffeners
Turbo Timer
Manual Boost Control to replace bleeder valve
17” rims with 205/55/17 tires

Thanks for your help.

 

[1990AWD]

I'd say your on the right track, but ECMLink would be my next purchase. You can get the most out of what you have and it makes little things like diagnosing problems much easier therefore making it more reliable.

Remember, there's cheap, reliable, and fast - you can only pick two.

 

[jtmcinder]

Given the big brakes, I infer that "track" here refers to a road course. If so, #1 is always tires (and 205s won't cut it) and #2 is suspension.

 

[jpmxrider489]

I think technically, any mod to a car would be "offroad use only" But that dont matter. Once you start messing with emmisions and getting rid of safety stuff,then it becomes a problem. I removed all my emmissions stuff but that a track car.

 

[mark 91 tsi]

Yes, track use is a road course. Brainerd Raceway in Minnesota.

 

[BoostedBen]

Upgrade those 205s to a good 225-245 depending on how wide your rims are. If your at least 7.5 you could easily run a 245. Wider tires are more important than nearly anything else. Then you want to go with a solid suspension setup.

 

[AZN29]

Get Evo 8 Enkei's and slap some 235 or 245's on it. Some Ksport Adjustable Coils and strut tower bars. Noticeable difference if done.

 

[jtmcinder]

Upgrade those 205s to a good 225-245 depending on how wide your rims are. If your at least 7.5 you could easily run a 245. Wider tires are more important than nearly anything else. Then you want to go with a solid suspension setup.

The right way to do this is to plan from the ground up (literally) and buy once.

First decide on tire width. I, personally, would go with 245s, since they tuck inside a rolled rear fender lip.

Then decide on the wheel. A 245/40/17 wants to be on something around 38-40 offset and be 8.5" - 9.5" wide. Get the lightest wheel (that is strong enough to whack an apex) that you can afford. If you bought giant (e.g., Evo X) brakes, then 245/35/18 on a 9" or 9.5" wheel.

Then we need to do something about the springs and shocks.

 

[canada4g63]

A true turbo back exhaust

 

[Cmax907]

Theres only one problem with this post.... Go and look at all the lists of people saying what they are going to do when they first buy their car... Now go ask the majority of them if they ever did it? Builds take time and do not happen over night. Before you go bolting a whole bunch of after market stuff on that will help maybe in the long run, why not build your engine to support 500hp or whatever? Makes sense in my head but I guess everyone has to learn the hard somehow.

 

[jtmcinder]

Before you go bolting a whole bunch of after market stuff on that will help maybe in the long run, why not build your engine to support 500hp or whatever? Makes sense in my head but I guess everyone has to learn the hard somehow.

Why not? Because race car. No, I mean, because 500hp on 205 rubber is like two Viagras with no rubber at all: hot to trot, but ain't happenin', dude.

 

[EclipseOwner95]

Theres only one problem with this post.... Go and look at all the lists of people saying what they are going to do when they first buy their car... Now go ask the majority of them if they ever did it? Builds take time and do not happen over night. Before you go bolting a whole bunch of after market stuff on that will help maybe in the long run, why not build your engine to support 500hp or whatever? Makes sense in my head but I guess everyone has to learn the hard somehow.

A few reasons.

1. If the OP had enough experience to build his own motor, he probably wouldn't be asking what to do to his car next.

2. If he doesn't have the experience to build a motor, buying a built motor from a vendor is big $$$, not to mention, building one yourself still isn't cheap.

3. Why build a motor first ? It's already been proven time and time again that these engines can handle 400whp reliably, and upwards of 500whp without failing.

4. I've always done the complete opposite approach, push the limits of what you have, if it breaks, replace it with something better. I personally have never had a built engine or built transmission, but I've also never blown up a stock engine, and the worst I've done to my transmission was break a shift fork. All while making over 425whp, and daily driving it.

 

[simple jake]

Theres only one problem with this post.... Go and look at all the lists of people saying what they are going to do when they first buy their car... Now go ask the majority of them if they ever did it? Builds take time and do not happen over night. Before you go bolting a whole bunch of after market stuff on that will help maybe in the long run, why not build your engine to support 500hp or whatever? Makes sense in my head but I guess everyone has to learn the hard somehow.

It would be a lot cheaper for him to become a better driver and then start adding performance mods. Like others have said, good tires and good suspension will go a long way before you need to think about more power-especially with road racing. As a matter of fact, I'm looking to road race my dd as well. But the way I'm doing it is making it reliable first so I can be able to drive it home after its had a good day at the track.

 

[Leonthefaded]

I would work on your suspension and steering components next. IMO suspension and steering is sometimes overlooked until the very end and can be the most costly. Get a track suspension setup that will not effect the legality of your vehicles public road use. Get ahold of one of the vendors on the site or go with a long time trusted name from a good online source such as Amazon or an authorized retailer.

 

[GSLENK]

while you figure out suspension... try a cutout test pipe, or cutout downpipe with electronic valve. emissions might not like it if they find it though... hence the test pipe cutout.

 

[mitch rich]

I would defently go with full exhaust. The stock stuffs so restrictive.

 

[dsmlover07]

I had a few track cars, i started from the bottom and worked my way up, shooting for some nice numbers this spring, summer and fall. I started with overhaul the suspension, and go from there, this car,best i track car so far for me lost track of budget.

 

[mark 91 tsi]

Thanks for the input everyone. I will update my car info in my profile as I decide on next steps.

 

[ennioGST]

definatley get your hands on a tune... I learned the hard way.