The suspension was where I started first. When I first got the car the power was ample so I wanted to improve the handling characteristics of the car. Plus it was better on my pocketbook at the time.

EIBACH PRO-KIT SPRINGS: These are very good street and occasional track springs. They drop you about an inch and give you a lower center of gravity. And you can go over bumps without scraping the hell out of the bottom of your car. However, now after doing a couple autoX's and a track day, I do notice the car lean a bit more than I'd like. So a bit stiffer springs would certainly help. But my lack of driving skills may be a big factor to that! hehe! These, along with the Koni's were recommended to me by Jeff Taylor. (Thanks to Jeff for leading this newbie in the right direction!)

KONI (YELLOW) ADJUSTABLE SHOCKS: These are a very good set of shocks/dampers. They are really versatile for both street and track! I figure if I'm gonna spend money I might as well do it roght. I'm not great at tuning the suspension nor am I very picky, so I just adjust them to when they feel best to me. Not rocket science but it'll do for now.

NEUSPEED UPPER STRUT TIE BAR: This mod helps stiffen up the front of the chassis making going into corners a bit nicer and flatter. The bar is mounted at four points making it a bit stronger/stiffer, IMO. It is also very cost effective and stiffer than the stock GSR stamped steel bar. I highly recommend it! It comes in powder coated black and polished. I picked black because I'm not really into the flashy stuff.

NEUSPEED LOWER TIE BAR: IMO, not a very necessary bar. It was a huge pain in the ass to install but somehow I did it all by myself! Or I should say the LCA bolt was a major pain to reinstall! Using a hammer to get it in is a huge help and the best way to reinstall it. I didn't really feel a big difference with this bar but I'm not about to take it off again! hehe! If you do this it should be one of the last things to get or if you get the Neuspeed sway bar than it's a good idea to install it at the same time since you need to take out the LCA bolts to install the Neuspeed sway bar anyway.

SKUNKWORKS 21mm REAR SWAY BAR: Nice and stiffer mod. Cornering greatly improved with this bar. But with the stock tires it sometimes felt as if the rear was gonna slide out from under me. However, after two autoX's the bar ripped out the weak GSR subframe at both mounting points! Be sure to lube the bushings every once in a while as well. I feel any bar bigger than 19mm is too stiff for the GSR subframe so reinforcement is definitely recommended for anything larger.

UPDATE ON SKUNKS SWAY BAR TEAROUT: Well, I got the subframe reinforced by my friend Elton's co-worker Rudy. Great guy! Great work! I am much more confident in the bar now that it has been repaired. I finally got some pics of the reinforced area below.

JDM ITR REAR UPPER STRUT BRACE: This is the last of the bars I planned for this car. It was cheaper than the Neuspeed one and just as good. And it is also a factory part so it looks really nice back there. It stiffened up the rear a bit for cornering. Again, not a majorly necessary item but a nice item to add to the car.

DUNLOP SP5000 TIRES: I was caravaning with a bunch of other BAAE members up the twisties (I think Hwy 84?) and came upon a slow, sharp right hand turn. The road was a bit wet and I was going only about 10-15mph when all of a sudeen the car started sliding sideways into a ditch. Luckily I corrected it and got some traction or...I may be writing about the car in the past tense! It was at that moment I believed everything everyone was telling me about how crappy the stock Mich's were! So I did some research on tires at Tirerack.com and found that the AVS Intermediates and SP5000's were my two best choices for an all-weather performance tire. Both were priced pretty close to each other but I liked the wet weather characteristics of the SP5000's so that's the way I went. I must say I am very happy with them so far and it's been over a year since I got them and there is still a lot of tread left, even after a handful of autoX/track events. They stick very well in hard corners and have not unintentionally broken out from under me. Then again, these being my first "performance" tire, I don't really have a lot to compare them too. But I do like them and was pretty impressed with them at Thunderhill road course!