Most people upgrade a car in exactly the wrong order, starting with power because it is the part that sounds most exciting. The result is a car that goes faster in a straight line and is worse at everything else.
The sequence below is the one that gives you a quicker car you actually enjoy driving, and it has the advantage that every step is useful on its own even if you never take the next one.
1. Tyres
Nothing else you can buy changes a car as much per pound spent. Every input — steering, braking, acceleration — reaches the road through four contact patches each about the size of a hand. A car on tired or budget tyres is being limited by its tyres, not by its engine.
Worth remembering that the legal minimum tread is 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the tyre and around its full circumference, with penalties of up to £2,500 and three points per tyre below that. Wet grip falls away well before the legal limit, which is why plenty of safety bodies suggest replacing at around 3mm.
2. Geometry
The cheapest upgrade on this list, and the one most often skipped. New tyres on a car whose alignment is out will wear unevenly and never deliver what they are capable of. It is also the step that makes a car feel precise rather than vague, which is most of what people mean when they say a car feels fast. See our guide to four-wheel alignment.
3. Brakes
Before power, not after. A car that stops and turns better is quicker over real roads than one with more power and standard brakes, and it is a great deal safer.
In order of sense:
- Better pads and fresh fluid. Brake fluid absorbs water over time, and water boils; a soft pedal after a few hard stops is usually old fluid rather than inadequate brakes.
- Better discs, where the originals are worn or prone to warping.
- A bigger kit — larger discs and multi-piston calipers — only if you genuinely run out of braking, which on the road is rarer than the catalogues suggest.
4. Suspension
Dampers wear out gradually enough that most owners never notice; a car at a hundred thousand miles on original dampers is being held back by them. Replacing tired dampers with good standard-specification ones transforms some cars.
Two honest cautions. Lowering a car changes its geometry, so it needs setting up afterwards, and on a car with driver assistance systems it may need ADAS recalibration because several of those systems reference ride height and the thrust line. And very stiff springs on British roads make a car slower, because a wheel that is skipping over bumps is not gripping.
5. Power
Last, deliberately. By this point the car can use it. A remap on a car with good tyres, correct geometry, healthy brakes and sound dampers feels like a genuinely quicker car; the same remap on a tired car just arrives at the corner faster.
The practical points — insurance declaration, warranty, and the emissions line you must not cross — are covered in ECU remapping explained. The short version: a remap is a modification you have to tell your insurer about, and software that defeats a particulate filter is illegal for road use.
Two things that apply at every stage
Tell your insurer. Not just about the remap. Wheels, suspension, brakes and exhausts are all modifications, and an undeclared one gives an insurer grounds to refuse a claim when it matters most. Declaring usually costs less than people fear and occasionally costs nothing.
Fix before you add. Upgrades do not cure faults, they expose them. A slipping gearbox, a boost leak, worn bushes or a stored fault code should be dealt with first — a diagnostic check before spending on performance parts is money well spent.
Mitsiland carries out vehicle upgrades — ECU work, brakes, suspension, wheels and tyres — at our workshop in Denton, Manchester, for Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Mitsubishi. If you want to spend a budget in the order that gives the most back, call 0161 320 7788.
