Re: Miscell. ?'s

[Brett Dikeman <brett@pdikeman.ne.mediaone.net>]

At 10:23 PM -0500 12/6/99, Chris Ban wrote:

>Are there any relatively inexpensive things that I can do to enhance 
>the performance of my car (i.e., mods, augmentations)?

Sort of, but with an automatic tranny, you're just asking for trouble 
if you go too high.  The Audi auto trannies are particularly famous 
for turning themselves into heaps of scrap metal, mostly with the 
turbo cars.  You may see "I'm running x bar of boost on my auto, it's 
going strong", and almost always you'll see a post a few months later 
from the same lister, looking for a new tranny :)

I would advise keeping the engine/car in good shape, and planning to 
sell soon(ie, fix all the "little things" that are likely to deter a 
buyer.)  If you're looking for something faster, a normally aspirated 
automatic FWD car isn't going to be a good platform for performance 
mods.  You'd be better off buying a turbo car like a '92 S4(I can't 
honestly recommend buying a 5000, they're too old now, at almost 
11-12 years old; that just doesn't make sense), or a manual 90q 20v 
and playing with that.  Also, A4's have GOBS of modifications 
available for them now due to the huge success Audi has had with that 
model.  You can go with everything from a supercharger for the 
V6(yowzah) to  all sorts of mods for the 1.8t motor from half a dozen 
places.


>Also, I was wondering where I can find the best place to order new 
>rims for my car, if anyone has any information in that direction.

www.tirerack.com is one place; you're in luck, they feature a model 
100 in one instance(or at least they did.)  Too bad all the wheels 
they carry look horrible(in my opinion :-)

>
>On a scale of 1 to 10, how difficult would it be for someone like 
>myself to add a 6 CD changer to my car.  Or should i have it 
>professionally done?

I've seen installs done so well by pros, it can only be described as 
beauty.  Check out www.richscartunes.com for an excellent example of 
a shop that knows what is doing.  You get what you pay for; a pro 
will obviously cost you more than a DIY job, but the result will be a 
much cleaner install that probably will end up sounding better too. 
On the flip side, if you plan on selling soon, installing a changer 
won't help the sale much and you won't get the cost of the changer 
back.

Some 6-cd changers are so small, they'll fit in the glove 
compartment...that wouldn't be a very challenging install at all. 
However, you loose the glove compartment...

Brett

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Brett Dikeman				Net/Sys Admin
Artel Software				617-451-9900
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