Performance Losses: 7 Car Upgrades and Modifications That Aren’t Worth It

You can boost your performance, but you can also damage it. Some common car upgrades that aren’t worth your time or money.

Car enthusiasts get together and discuss ways to improve performance and enjoy more power and speed in their vehicles. This doesn’t mean everyone knows what they’re talking about. If you’re going to listen to someone tell you how to upgrade your car, it’s a good idea to make them show you how they’ve improved the performance of their vehicle first.

Here are seven car upgrades and modifications you want to avoid when you want better performance.

Larger tires don’t help you drive faster

The right tires can increase a vehicle’s performance, but when you go big, you’ll slow down your ride. The only time you need bigger tires is when you want to enjoy some off-road fun. Larger tires change the vehicle’s gear ratio, which slows down a vehicle. If you ever hear anyone tell you that you need bigger tires to add more speed and performance, you’ll know they don’t know what they are talking about, and you shouldn’t listen to them.

Forget the octane booster

Some people swear by bottles of octane booster to get more performance out of their cars, but this is a myth. You can’t bottle up horsepower and sell it on a shelf. Higher octane fuel allows high-performance cars to get the most power out of the gasoline uses, but an octan booster doesn’t change a tank of 87 octane fuel into 91 or 93 octane fuel. This is one of the car upgrades you don’t need to waste your money on.

Bigger rims slows a car down

Many car enthusiasts will add larger wheels, or rims, to fill the entire wheel well and use low-profile tires. These larger rims might look really cool, but they don’t actually add anything to your performance unless you want to drive slower. Larger rims require more power to accelerate, which translates to a slower drive. If you’re looking for speed, you need the right balance of wheel and tire. When filling the wheel well is important, lower the car; this is something many drivers do to improve performance.

Lights and sounds don’t improve your car’s performance

You don’t have to skip this car upgrade and might truly enjoy the modification of some cool lights and sounds coming out of your car. If you want the best performance possible, these items could add weight that you don’t want in your ride. On the other hand, if you’re trying to build a show car that can turn heads and let others see the hard work you’ve put into creating your ride, these lights and sounds might be right for your car.

Don’t ignore the exhaust

Your car’s exhaust system is extremely important in creating the right performance and fun in a vehicle. If your exhaust system has holes in it or has rusted, you should consider replacing it with a performance model. Ignoring your exhaust in favor of other performance items could become a net negative for your ride. Pushing more power through a failing exhaust won’t give you more performance. This will burn more fuel and cause problems you don’t want to face with your ride.

Forget the body kits

Unless you have the equipment to calibrate aerodynamics and lace items like front and rear diffusers, air dams, or side skirts on your car in a way to improve performance, you should avoid the body kits. Yes, these kits can make your car look cool, but mostly, these car upgrades add weight and create additional surfaces that might add more drag. When the goal is real performance, leave these kits alone and focus on items that can truly add power and performance to your ride.

Don’t add a big wing on the back of your car

Some tuners and car enthusiasts place massive wings on the back of their small cars. These wings are comical and only add more weight and drag rather than doing what they are designed to do. Unless your car is actually fast enough to tear up a track at 120 mph or more, you won’t need the rear wing on the back of the car. Most of the time, these wings are only installed for vanity purposes and not calculated for improved aerodynamics.

These car upgrades should be avoided when you want to create a performance vehicle that’s a lot of fun to drive, especially when you race other cars at the local track.