Which mods ACTUALLY made a difference to your enjoyment?

Which mods ACTUALLY made a difference to your enjoyment?

Author
Discussion

Hairsy16

Original Poster:

143 posts

145 months

Monday 12th October 2015
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I'm interested to hear what mods people have tried that actually made a real difference to your enjoyment of the car in the long term - i.e. beyond the initial novelty factor?

We do lots to these car to maintain reliability but once those are sorted, we tend start doing other things to make our cars 'better'. On past cars, I've done lots of upgrades which, after a short period of initial enjoyment, I've found I forgot ever happened - small increases to power are the most common of these.

To start things off, I switched to a smaller steering wheel and I think that really helped with the feel of the car.

I also switched to semi-slicks (Avon ZZR) and I really enjoy the extra grip on track. On the road it makes no difference at all though - there's no way I would drive on the road at the limit of adhesion of any tyre.

Other mods I've done (increased cooling, uprated pads) are great but they don't make the car any more fun - just more reliable.

I'm particularly interested in those who have upgraded brakes & suspension. But what other things have you done that continue to put a smile on your face?

And, in the interests of honesty, what have you done that hindsight tells you was probably a bit of a waste of money?

stevegto3

428 posts

144 months

Monday 12th October 2015
quotequote all
Three things for me on my GTO3

1. Moving airfilters to the bulkhead from the intercooler box. No performance gain, just a but of theatre.

2. Smaller steering wheel also (flat bottomed OMP). Hated the standard wheel.

3. Protechs. This by far has been the best thing to transform my car. They really are setup for fast road, however on track they really come alive. Developed by Si, they are a great addition.

Steve

andygtt

8,345 posts

271 months

Monday 12th October 2015
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Best affordable in my option by a long way was sticking sticky tyres on the car... Even in the wet I run 888's as they are better than normal high performance tyres. I've driven the car in the snow on cups lol... I've also done over 40k miles in the car since I bought it so I've had lots of different tyres on it lol.
Everyone is happy to run their car on super plus, but won't spend a few hundred more a year on stickier tyres!

Protechs are the best affordable proper mod I'd recommend.... I also did the smaller steering wheel and can highly recommend it as well smile

Worst was getting the stock car remapped to 400bhp, car was rubbish, power came in hard early on and run out of revs when you managed to get it under control... In this spec my car was far less easy to control than it is now with close to double the power.
I have had a few power packages that I really didn't like so care must be taken to improve the car with the power mods IMO.

Best unaffordable mods I have done in equal measure is my full carbon body and single turbo package lol

Adrian W

14,414 posts

235 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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the expensive one that lets me steer with the throttle

Haydn W

87 posts

169 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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stevegto3 said:
Three things for me on my GTO3

1. Moving airfilters to the bulkhead from the intercooler box. No performance gain, just a but of theatre.

2. Smaller steering wheel also (flat bottomed OMP). Hated the standard wheel.

3. Protechs. This by far has been the best thing to transform my car. They really are setup for fast road, however on track they really come alive. Developed by Si, they are a great addition.

Steve
Looking to change my wheel, I was looking at the OMP Super Quadro, is this the one you recommend, and are you able to buy the two horn buttons as per original ? Many thanks Steve.
Haydn

stevegto3

428 posts

144 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Hey Hayden

I bought this from Rally Nuts, think it was £150 from memory.



Jed has the one you mentioned, but I wanted something a bit different.
I couldnt be bothered to wire the existing two horn wires into one for the one supplied so I bought the button kit and did it that way.

Ive since had a Noble centre button badge made to replace the OMP one.

Steve

Haydn W

87 posts

169 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
stevegto3 said:
Hey Hayden

I bought this from Rally Nuts, think it was £150 from memory.



Jed has the one you mentioned, but I wanted something a bit different.
I couldnt be bothered to wire the existing two horn wires into one for the one supplied so I bought the button kit and did it that way.

Ive since had a Noble centre button badge made to replace the OMP one.

Steve
Hi Steve Yes that's the one looks good, I'll make some enquiries, Many thanks.
Haydn

Blu3R

2,379 posts

206 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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HIDs and Bluetooth for me.

TuxMan

9,011 posts

245 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Interesting topic , for me Tyres and Protechs were a massive step forward over the std setup , M400 seats where also a brilliant step forward , M400 gearshift upgrade also well worth the money !!!
The first time I pressed the boost button with 600bhp was pretty epic too !!!
Probably the biggest decision was changing the colour from Silver to Green !!! Never looked back though .

One of the best things about Noble ownership is just how much you can upgrade/Tweek ect .

Chapppers

4,483 posts

198 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Driver training. Lots of it.

hoyin

1,233 posts

244 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Chapppers said:
Driver training. Lots of it.
I've done the car limits day. But it is not really driver training.

Anymore that you would recommend?

Chapppers

4,483 posts

198 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
hoyin said:
Chapppers said:
Driver training. Lots of it.
I've done the car limits day. But it is not really driver training.

Anymore that you would recommend?
To be honest, not really no because all mine's been done through work so I'm carrying a little bit of an unfair advantage. I know that since I bought the car, improving myself has been way more of an advantage than anything else.
There are some people around though, any decent race tutor should be able to get way more out of your laptime than simply buying something for your car can. I had Mike Cooper on a track day recently and I'd like to have some more sessions with him.

Midlifecrisis71

2,871 posts

282 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Ive used "Ride-Drive" before - they employ the police traffic instructors and qualified drivers on their "days off" and they come out with you for the day. I did 1 & 1/2 days training & 1 hour track session on car control, holding the drift !

Great fun but quite intense. You learn a lot, mainly about road positioning, reading the road ahead, controlling cars around you etc etc If you read the Roadcraft book that is the police handbook, its basically that book in practical application.

Great bunch of guys doing it tho, very interesting conversations too !!

http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/performance-driving-men...

TuxMan

9,011 posts

245 months

Wednesday 14th October 2015
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Callum Lockie of Goldtrack fame is very good .