new car, low cash, need power

Just bought a new 03 coupe 4cl. and want to milk the performance keeping pretty stock as a matter of budget. I'm waiting for my AEM cold air intake to show up at my doorstep, but don't have much for ideas beyond that (not much of a car person until now). I don't want to attract the unwanted attention with a huge, loud exhaust, but could go for one that'll do the job without the decibles. If anyone's got some ideas for me on that or anything else for that matter, it'd be much appreciated :biggrin:

If you don't have a lot $$$ to spend then you shouldn't have wasted it on an AEM intake. There are much cheaper ones that will perform as well or better. Most people do intake, header, & exhaust(I/H/E) for the basic mod's.

Start with the suspension, get yourself some quality springs & struts. Don't be cheap!!!!! H&R Cup Kit is something to look into.

http://www.importreview.com/performance.html

It's no tattoo. Fully returnable. If I can get "as good or better" on the intake for less $$ I'd love to. What would you suggest?

Is there a cup kit that fits the 03's? checked around a little. couldn't come up with one.

It all depends on the state you live in, if they are strict on emisions then you will want a CARB approved intake - cost more just for the apporval. In most cases you can buy an ebay CAI(2-piece) & then purchase a K&N filter seperate. The filter will make more of a difference than any brand of intake.

As fas as the Cup Kit, H&R doesn't make it for all models. Check www.tirerack.com or http://www.hrsprings.com/ I recommend that because its a nice basic set-up including matched springs/struts from the same company made to work together. Unlike Eibach Pro-kit & KYB AGX's(for instance) each made by a different companies, they work well together but would be better from the same company. If no Cup Kit look into some H&R springs & Koni, KYB(not GR2), or Tokico for struts. Eibach & Neuspeed also make nice springs. No more than 2" drop for daily driving, you can go more but the ride will be shit.

If CARB is an issue for you (i.e. you live in Cali) then make sure you check with the maker and make sure that the part is CARB legal for your specific year. Got killed on both my intake and my MSD which are CARB exempt, just not for my year. Cali is really dicked like that. Sucks to spend the extra cash for a CARb exempt part just to find out it really not.

Yeah. You hit the nail on the head. I'm in San Francisco. Unfortunately it seems a lot of places don't know what the right parts for 03's are yet and a lot of aftermarket companies just plain don't make parts that fit. Guess I'll have to do some more research for a while before I can get anything done.
What a pain in the a$$. :disappoin

Another thing you can do if you can't find CARB exempt/legal parts for your year car, is get any parts that ARE available, and just make sure you keep the OEM parts, and put them back on the vehicle when it comes time to SMOG. Cops aren't state inspectors, they don't have the big rule books with them. If they see a CARB exempt/legal sticker on a part they wont bother you about it. Exemption numbers only become an issue when SMOG time comes around.