Costs per HP gain unworthy for our Z's

TongMan

Is it just me or is it that we overpay for barebly any worthy gains for our Z's? I was excited to start modding my 370z, so I did some research about the parts that I was planning on purchasing. I've come to learn that for the amount of money that we spend on these parts, we barely get any worthy hp gains. For example, I'll list what I was planning on upgrading.

Intake: Stillen, Injen, or AEM Cold Air Intake
Exhuast: Stillen, F.I., HKS
Headers: HR Longtubes
Tune: UpRev Tune, Cobb AP

So, I've calculated the costs of each part and compared it with the amount of hp increase.

~$500 for a tune for ~10 hp and 8tq
~$1700 - $2500 for catback for ~10-20 hp
~$1300 for headers for ~10-20 hp
~$500 - $800 for an intake for ~5hp-10 hp

When you think about the cost vs the hp gain, it just doesn't seem worth it. Or am I the only one that feels this way?

m4a1mustang

You've got to pay to play.

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shabarivas

Well - you do realize that when you add all those together you get even less power right? Intake alone might give you 5-10 but if you get I /H / E you are def not going to see the sum - you will see a max of about 20-25 whp from breather mods + tune. FI or nothing...

Lemers

You didn't even think about SC or TT. Now you start getting in $5k to $12k.

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2010 Black Cherry Touring/Sport/Nav Now - 2012 Travese LTZ until I leave for Turkey

wifedrivenZ

You have a valid point with what you are saying about how much it cost. But why do you want to modify your car? Are you a guy who likes to take his car to shows? Or do you want to have the speed just in case you need it? The reason I tune my car is for the sense of accomplishment. I took something that should not be the fastest car on the road and now very few cars can touch it. If you are on a very strict budget then I say a supercharger is the best mod for the money. 6-7K tops and you will have over 400HP to the wheels. That is not so bad for the money. If you take 6500 and divide it by 130HP that is only $50 per HP. That is not a bad when you think about it. Best of luck to you

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Stillen Exhaust, Stillen Supercharger, Stillen Oil cooler, Stillen Headers, Test pipes, 928 Impeller, 9 lbs pulley running 12lbs of boost, Custom tune from National Speed. 415WHP 345TQ

zcar_dad

I think the 370 & Nismo have sufficient power for road courses. What they need are better brakes and an OIL COOLER.

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2009 Nismo 370Z #0067, Brillant Silver

TongMan

I guess stock is the way to go with this car. Its still fun even without the performance mods.

flashburn

Depends on what you are looking for. If you are solely looking for performance, then yes, the gains get exponentially smaller as you get more and more bolt-on mods.

As others will say, the best bang for the buck is either test pipes or HFC's. You also get a more aggressive exhaust note as a bonus.

Personally I want to try and get as much performance as reasonably possible without going FI, mainly because of the added stress and longevity of the engine. Plus, it's always fun getting new parts for the car to keep it "new" to me.

In actuality, if you have the money to spend and don't plan on racking up the miles, a supercharger kit is probably the best bang for the buck possible.

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6MT

Is perhaps a Hyundai in your future (?)

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Andrew

2009 370Z Sport/Touring 6MT sold
2013 Honda Civic Si coupe D/D

Zsteve

You should have bought a turbo car then it would come out better.

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2010 LS3 C6 Silver coupe corvette

TongMan

Had one. Traded in my Mazdaspeed3 for the 370z. You are correct as I received a gain of 26+whp from a cold air intake. Cobb AP gave me an additional 15 - 20 whp.

Zsteve

I had a Audi TT and a canned tune for it gave me 50 hp and 80 tq on a 2.0t 4 cyl. Add the downpipe and CBE and add another 20 or so hp/tq. I had over 300 tq on a fwd car.

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2010 LS3 C6 Silver coupe corvette

mrcardio

Yeah with just an intake +20-25hp/tq the MS3 makes over 300ft-lbs of Torque, with mods you listed it's at like 360-380ft-lbs. Not exactly great with FWD though unless you're doing a 3rd gear roll-on.

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macrylinda

Even if you drop 12 to 18k into a TT setup, your still alot cheaper than any other car out there that's capable of 500whp.

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WarmAndSCSI

About 20k of mods (and lots of blood, tears, and sweat) on my Galant, which was worth $4500 at the time, got it to over 600 BHP. But it was also hopeless and FWD.

Point is, I'd rather have a car that's engineered to put down 500 BHP from the factory than spend endless amounts of money trying to make a car engineered to do less do that much more...

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