My car is at 60k miles and I wanna start modding it and making it fast. I have a budget of 3500 and idk where to start I don’t wanna ruin the car

 

Power-wise, the engine can live around 500hp, it's really torque that will kill the bottom end. The automatic trans doesn't really do well over 400 ft-lbs of torque, and honestly I have seen people smoke them with as little as 325WTQ.

With a budget of $3,500, you really aren't going to be able to get too much done other than bolt-ons and a tune. You'd probably be in the 325-340WHP range if you do headers, full catback, 3" intakes, and upgrade the injectors/fuel pump for E85. Forced induction will easily run you in the $10,000 range.

 

ok so I upped my budget to 6k what’s everything you think I should do for the best performance possible without having any troubles.i would like to work on exterior as well. If you or someone else can give me a list of the things I should do without ruining the car that would be awesome !

 

What kind of power are you looking to make with the car? Are you chasing a number, or just wanting a little more than stock? If you start down the path to do full bolt ons for an N/A build and then decide you want to go forced induction, it's a lot more expensive then than if you decide which route you want now.

As far as cosmetics, start with lowering the car on some coilovers or quality springs like swift. Depending on how you like the wheels, that's usually a good move to make next. You can liven the front end up with custom headlights (not OEMassive, those are ugly IMO), and if you're feeling adventurous, you could go down the path of turning the car into an FIPL (fake IPL). There are a lot of cosmetic mods available for the coupe.

 

so which headlights would you recommend? Also what do you think about getting an ams hood. Honestly I think I wanna get the exterior out of the way and get an exhaust and maybe a long tube cold air intake

 

Honestly the custom route is the way to go. If you're handy with DIY, you can open them up yourself. It's pretty common to do an STI lens swap on the projectors, add halo's, remove the amber reflector and black out the inner housing before sealing back up. I haven't gotten around to that yet on my G, but I've done custom lights on every car I've had prior and it's not a hard job at all, just time consuming. There are also some shops that will do custom headlights for you, I think 1Eighty customs is one that's done some G lights before, but I can't comment on that since I haven't used them before.

I am quite fond of the way the AMS hoods look when done right. Admin intakes will make the most power, but do require a tune immediately after install as they're 3" intakes.

 

AlphaRex headlights.

 

IMO u should just get custom oem headlights and rims, mod wise u should get long tube headers, full exhaust, test pipes (motordyne art pipes), 3 inch cai, and go corn power w tune

 

This is your best bet. Put you near 330-350whp range and 270-280 ft. lb tq. Plenty safe for both motor and transmission and you'll still have a very quick car.

 

First off I'm kinda cheap. but what I'm considering to get the most HP boost for the lowest amount of money.

I have a 2012 coupe xS (auto)

it seems that the biggest restriction is the exhaust. (CATS)

my plan FI test pipes non res $300
Custom Catback - 2.5'' Borla xs dual in / out and some flowmaster flow fX pipes 71416 all and all about 600-700 welded together.

drop in dry filters, 100

that's about 1k on intake and exhaust.

Tune - about 1k

from what I've found i should be able to see about 320-330 WHP and about 275-280 tq

you may see some increases if you get a cold air intake - which would be another 5-600.

to go much beyond it seems will require much more work and $$$.