My 05 Anthracite/Quartz 5AT w/ Navi is being built today. Ive been waitng for a week now. My dealer said it should be here at the end of next week. Will probably have some extra change when its all said and done. Just wanted to check around w/ everbody and see what route to go first as far as performance mods, i have only driven an 04 once . So im wondering whats first handling , Looks , or ofcourse POWER
Thanks

 

Tires, springs, CAI, tint, rims, foglight bulbs, clearheadlight...

 

Is there any CAI's on the market yet?

 

yes. gains are minimal, and the car comes w/ a CAI leave it alone.

 

I know injen makes one for the TL. But i also heard aem also is making a intake for the TL. You can get springs (comptech) or even coilovers (teins).

 

just like all you guys... i want to fix this up too... its really tempting... its hard not to. i use to have a 98 accord, ferrari yellow, rims body kit blah blah blah...

so ya its hard not to tinker with the car...

but you know what... maybe we should sit down for a sec and relax...

its a beautiful car, has good power.

its not perfect... its got its flaws.... but still. its a damn good car, thats why we got it in the first place.

its gotten me to think recently... if you wana be different from people our age that have the car... keep it stock. not cause you dont have the money or know-how to fix it up. just cause you want to.... keep it that way on purpose. you shouldn't be thinking "whats the first thing i can do to fix up the car?"....... especially if you don't even have the car yet. you fix up a car cause you are not satisfied with it....

its hard to not wana mess with the car..... but how many people here can actually say that they fixed up their car and it doesnt have an extra rattle. or an extra annoyance because you fixed it up that way. or the part isn't 100 percent compatible so that something goes wrong....

enjoy the simplicity (its still got a lot of features) and the appreciate its beautiful stock form...

less is more....

 

suspension

 

Tint + Moleskin

 

Personally, I think the TL is a great car as is and should only be minimally modified, if at all. Back in my younger days, I played around with my GS-R (exhaust, engine, suspension, etc.), but I've decided to leave this Acura bone stock. The TL is an upscale luxury sport sedan, not a rice rocket, in my opinion. But then again, to each his own. I guess I just got tired of the stiff suspensions and deafening exhaust drones.

 

35% on mine

 

I'd recommend to wait a little.. give it some time for you to get aquainted with you new TL. Don't rush in just because you can.

Between the intake and exhaust, the intake will probably yield a better performance improvement, but it ain't gonna be much.. a few HP. The exhaust on this car is already pretty free flowing as it is, so all you'll likely gain there is sound.

Remember, Acura's getting 270 HP out of a small, normally aspired V6 engine (only 196 cubic inches), so you can bet they've done their homework and worked the magic with the pipes already. NOS, a blower, some cam and head work.. that's where you would see power gains.

 

This is good advice. Take some time to get used to the car and decide what you like and don't like. In the mean time, more products will come available. If you're patient and hang out here, you get to learn from others' successes and mistakes.

 

I'm with you! I like your quote that the TL is an upscale sedan, and not a rice rocket. Many moons ago, I used to gut the catalytic converter and reinstalled the empty shell to gain some additional horsepower. Not even the emission testers knew there was a change to the converter. It always passed emissions. Here's a question for my fellow TLrs.

What is the 3rd generation catalytic converters made out of? Is it a honeycomb ceramic material as they were in the good old days? Perhaps the only difference is now it’s an upgraded ceramic material and that now there are three…

Would gutting two of the converters (next to the exhaust manifolds) increase the power output at the wheels? I guess the only way to find put would be to dyno the car pre test, gut the specified converters, and post test.

If it would provide a significant change, I would consider it. It would remain stock, and probably wouldn't change the stock (music to my ears) TL exhaust tone. Seems a lot cheaper than Comptech’s Cat Back system.

Are you feel’n me?

 

[QUOTE=ayethetiense]just like all you guys... i want to fix this up too... its really tempting... its hard not to. i use to have a 98 accord, ferrari yellow, rims body kit blah blah blah...
QUOTE]

You had a ferrari yellow 98 accord????? hehheheheh.. now that's ugly...

 

Save your extra cash for insurance and gas...

 

gutting the catalytic converter is probably the stupidest thing you can do to your emissions system. Not only are those catalytic converers well over 1000 dollars to replace, but you will get a rather ugly exhaust tone and probably not notice any power gains. Hi-flow OBDII cats for imports do not exist yet (at least not for CA cars) so there is really no point in wasting your time and money doing something so irrational and illegal.

 

Go with the tint.

 

1. rims/tires
2. body kit
3. tint
4. drop springs
5. NoS

by tomorrow i'll have 1-3
next week 4

and sometime maybe before new year 5

 

I want to mod too but im taking it slow since the car looks like a pimp mobile as it is i have came from a 92 Prelude 4WSI tricked out with NOS(stock internals)but the first think im going to to to the TL is the Suspension.Im not going to touch the stock CAI since its not worth losing mid power for peak power especially when peak is a 6200 and red line is 6800 and your only getting like i think 4-7hp(correct me).The exhaust just leave stock looks to good and its already tuned very well from honda.I'm going to go with NOS since i have over a year exp with using it.Its cheap and when ii need it its there.Ya u gotta fill it up but if ya use it when u need it it should last awhile with 50HP shot.So wear on the engine to very very minimal.Those are my plans

 

Thanks for the responses
I Had only driven the car once so i just wanted suggestions on what fellow TL owners thought needed improvement first
Thanks again

 

Go to high performance driving school - my advice to any serious car nut - I have been to 3 over the years, and each helped my skills on and off the track. I credit the evasive driving class with saving me from a serious wreck on I-95 a while back.

 

I have been researching this myself, but do you have any suggestions on schools that you found useful?

 

I prepared to race SCCA, so i first went to the Bondurant School of HP driving in the early 1980's. Then, Skip Barber, and finally, Car Guys. By the 2nd school, i was racing my Lotus 7 at lime Rock regularly.

 

[QUOTE=parkkuen]
uhm, screw you. you didnt even see it. so you should keep your mouth shut

 

and this has what to do with this thread

 

I believe the point was this:

Sometimes a car can go faster, handle better, stop more precisely if the driver was better trained rather than an intake, some coilovers and a big brake kit.

To some degree I do agree with this, which was the intial reason why I wanted to take a high-performance driving class. So I can learn how to use the 270 hp to my advantage and as efficiently as possible.

 

I do agree . My question to fellow Tl Owners is, ahh whatever. Theard is already old

 

Simple. You asked what to improve. Road Rage said your driving skills.

I agree that improving driving skills is an important part of the equation.