What can we do?

[Clemo]

Hi all,
I am a first time user so be gentle!!!
My son has just sold his beloved TA Celica (too much work needed on the body) and bought a stock 86 Prelude and loves it. It has now fallen on Dad to reasearch what can be done (within fairly strict financial restrictions) to improve the look and performance of the vehicle, where should we start to get best bang for the buck?

[spiffyguido]

Hi, Clemo,

First of all, welcome to PreludeDriver. Don't be afraid of being a first timer...we love new people around here.

In my opinion, some of the easiest ways to improve the performance and appearance of a Honda Prelude are to start with very basic things. For performance, I would start with a cold air intake system, and maybe a new exhaust. This will improve the performance, fuel economy and sound of the vehicle. For appearance, your first priority should be to go over the car and repair as many imperfections as you can, if there are any. After that, a decent set of rims goes a long way to making the car look a little bit more fresh. For performance applications, I generally suggest rims from Rota. They're not fancy, but they are very light to improve fuel usage and accelleration times. Rota rims are good quality too.

If you get past those things, further work really depends on what you want to do with that car. My all time favorite mod has been my suspension system. New shocks from Tokico and a set of firmer springs will add a lot of 'fun' to the car and make it more suitable for track use if your son wants to drop in at the odd autocross track day.

Hit us back with your goals, and we can help more.

Thanks for visiting.

[Clemo]

Thanks for that.
The bodywork is pretty straight, just some rust on the inside of the sunroof.
There is a waterleak into the boot (trunk) that we will look for this weekend.
How much difference does a CAI make to the performance, as the stock intake looks reasonable?
It currently has the stock alloy "wirelook" rims but yes a new set of rims are on his to do list.
We'll get some pics up soon to show you what it looks like.
At the moment he hasn't thought about taking it on a track, he just wants it to look good and be reliable.
I would like to see him do a couple of hill climbs and see how he goes.

[spiffyguido]

A performance CAI will make a small difference, but nothing major. If you get 5 horsepower out of it, you're doing really well. It helps most for high-rpm engine speeds.