All of my mods have been intended to improve performance, while at the same time maintaining a "stock look" under the hood so as not to attract unwanted attention from the CHP whom, I understand, are now attending training so they can clamp down on "illegal" mods here in Caifornia.
For example, I currently use the stock air box with a CAI mod underneath instead of a brightly colored or polished cold air intake - I do this because I cannot find anyone who sells a CAI that is CARB certified although I hear K&N may.
But in keeping with the "stealth tuning" paradigm, I even went to the trouble of painting my Greddy catch can and DC front strut tower bar flat black (after removing the ricey little sticker of course).
For handling, I have MoPar Stage 3 coil overs, Manny Z forged rear lateral control arms with heim joints (snap oversteer is completely solved as is tail wag problem when braking at very high speeds), prothane sway bar bushings, DC front strut tower bar and PerformanceAuto#### rear strut tower bar.
I also have Centerline Storm 17 x 7 forged polished wheels which some may call "bling" but they actually save 7lbs (14 vs 21 for stock wheels) in unsprung weight on each corner which seems to help take-off acceleration, handling and braking a bit. I'm currently using the stock Pilot tires and they work well enough.
My car now handles really well on my daily commute on bumpy, back road twisties. It definitly handes better than when I had Eibachs which would often bottom out in the front because those springs were designed for a Neon, not an SRT-4 which is 350lbs heavier.
I also have poly-filled mounts (all three, strut, pencil and tranny) which helps control wheel hop without hardly any of the vibration I had with Rex inserts (vibration that can cause the knock sensor to falsely tell the PCM that the engine is pinging and to pull timing).
For performance, I have MoPar Stage 1 (PCM, injectors), AGP adjustable waste gate actuator set to 14psi, TurboSmart Manual Boost Controler set to 19psi, MoPar cat-back exhaust (sounds perfect to my ear and helps performance also), Screamin Demon coil pack, Crane Firewires and, most importantly, new (every 5k miles) Champion RE14MCC5 plugs gapped at .035 so the spark doesn't get blown out at high rpm when using high boost.
I finally got completely studder free boost at 19psi max falling to 15psi at redline when I switched the WGA pressure source from the turbo nipple (Green line) over to a T that I made in the manifold where the boost guage connects. My car definitly make better usable power with the manifold source than it did using the Green line.
I'm looking forward to visiting Shiv at Vishnu next Monday to check my car on his ultra conservative dyno. I want to make sure the air-fuel ratio is still safe (12:1 or lower) and, of course, see what the HP, TQ and Boost curves currently look like. I use an Auterra Dynoscan (Palm Pilot with OBD-II connectors) to log metrics like rpm, spark timing, boost, O2 sensor voltage (both of them) and other metrics which I then run through some simple C# programs to produce decent looking charts - this helps me measure the effect of a particular mod without having to go to the dyno each time (I can't afford that).
Other mods I have include Sylvania Silverstar head and fog light bulbs (much better visibility at night with them) and some nice loud 130dB FIAMM Italian horns (the stock "mweeb" horn had to go), tinted windows (15% back and rear door, 55% front doors, 15% strip on the top of the windshield) to help with keeping the car cool on hot days.
I'll probably get wider 225 tires soon (Potenza) since traction is now a major problem.
I may also get an LSD since steering gets a bit busy when I pass someone on the back road twisties.
Next round of mods (already purchased, just waiting for them to arrive) will include a Greddy Type-S BOV, MannyZ Upp Pipe, BOP, Blue line source for the WGA, Quaife LSD. I also have Stage 2 on order and will install it when MoPar gets around to shipping them
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