by Chinky420 » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:44 am
being a fellow 99 SLE owner, i gotta say...
focus a bit less on performance mods, and a bit more on style mods. the SLE is an auto tranny, which is lacking in power to make the car fall short of a real performance beast (it's right on the verge, but it'll cost some serious $$$ to bump it up to that next level).
so my list of mod's are as follows:
-audio
-debadge (remove the emblems from the sides/rear) check the tutorial section, the general consensus here is that the debadged/shaved look is much cleaner than with the badges (on a gen1/1.5)
-tint
-suspension (including, dropping ride on new struts/springs, and addition of Rear Sway Bar (RSB)) this will lower your car and give it a more 'aggressive' stance, and the rear sway bar makes the weight distribution more even when taking a turn (read: you can take turns faster with more stability)
-rims (i put suspension first, since you want to make sure the rims you get will fit the lowered setup, but it's up to you if you're even going to lower your car anyway).
-HIDs/lighting (HIDs = mods to the headlights) interior lighting (changing the dash lighting color, and neons if you like them. HID's are higher intensity lights, like what you would see on a upper-end car like BMW, merecedes, etc
-CPE makes a good air intake, injen also makes one (everyone here will vouch for the CPE over the injen) the air intake is the most basic 'bolt on' performance mod, it replaces the stock air intake box with a less restrictive air intake, making it easier for your engine to breath (increases engine efficiency/power/sound....slightly)
-TRD body kit (made by kamari, i believe there's someone on here who is selling the kits for the gen 1.5, which may or may not be able to be modified for the 1999 gen 1), there are also used kits that go on sale here from time to time.
-exhaust mod's (including header, y-pipe, exhaust, etc). this will also give your engine better breathing, and a bit more power and sound.
if you really want to jump the power hurdle first, then you can try and find a TRD supercharger, which run's approximately $2000-4000 depending on how much power you want to add. TRD stands for toyota racing development (i'm not sure if anyone explained that acronym yet), and is the racing division for toyota (similar to mopar for dodge, nismo for nissan, or mugen for honda).
turbo's are out of the question, unless you want to spend beauxcoup bucks paying to have lots of custom work done.
read through the tutorial section if you havent already, there are some interesting free mod's that can be done also, if you get down like that.
if there's anything that you didn't understand about my list and what the things do, then let me know, and i'll try to better explain them.
