Aussie
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Today I decided to work on a better feeling shift for my Mazdaspeed 3. I originally put in new aluminum shifter bushings, a short shift plate, and lighter counter-weight. At first the shorter shifts felt good even though the shift gate had changed, but after some time it was giving me problems and I noticed in hard driving it would not shift smoothly.
So I removed the shift plate keeping the other mods and now it is spectacular, such a simple modification such as shifter bushings and a counter-weight has made driving way more enjoyable and I am able to drive faster as the shifts are smoother.
So this led me thinking about why intakes/exhausts/and suspensions are always reccomended as the first modificaitons?
I think most have the idea to mod their car to make it faster, and while it may make it slightly faster, will it make you faster? I can think back over the years to modifications I made to vehicles I owned and it always started with things such as grippier pedals, shifter mods, seats, steering wheel, anything that would let me drive the car faster. Once I felt I couldn't drive it any faster then I would change other things like wheels, tires, brakes, stiffer mounts.
I think my Integra is the first car I have modded completly backwards to what I'm used to and I think it's also why I have never enjoyed driving as much.
So the point of this post is that I think everyone needs to take a step back and anaylize why they are modifying their car. If it is truly to go faster then ask do you need the car to be faster or do you need to drive faster. I believe most of us fall into the latter so perhaps we should work on modifying our cars to allow us to drive the full potential out of them instead.
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So I removed the shift plate keeping the other mods and now it is spectacular, such a simple modification such as shifter bushings and a counter-weight has made driving way more enjoyable and I am able to drive faster as the shifts are smoother.
So this led me thinking about why intakes/exhausts/and suspensions are always reccomended as the first modificaitons?
I think most have the idea to mod their car to make it faster, and while it may make it slightly faster, will it make you faster? I can think back over the years to modifications I made to vehicles I owned and it always started with things such as grippier pedals, shifter mods, seats, steering wheel, anything that would let me drive the car faster. Once I felt I couldn't drive it any faster then I would change other things like wheels, tires, brakes, stiffer mounts.
I think my Integra is the first car I have modded completly backwards to what I'm used to and I think it's also why I have never enjoyed driving as much.
So the point of this post is that I think everyone needs to take a step back and anaylize why they are modifying their car. If it is truly to go faster then ask do you need the car to be faster or do you need to drive faster. I believe most of us fall into the latter so perhaps we should work on modifying our cars to allow us to drive the full potential out of them instead.
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