Survey: single most effective modification to a car

For a bangs per buck improvement, there is little to compare with the fitting of a Racing Flywheel and a Triple Plate Clutch.

Wings don't cost a lot but they look foul (if you have anything but a Japanese car in black, white or silver) and are only effective at high speeds.

So, given an otherwise stock car I would say that the wing is not a winner under those parameters.

NOS is a new area for me, so altho' I'm tempted to say something caustic like "Only Vin Diesel wannbees would use it" I'll keep a dignified silence so as to mask my ignorance :).

Tyres are traditionally the best way to improve the performance of a car but in GT3 they are very expensive and don't add to the clipping of lap times without massive reduction of the number of laps you can do without pitting. I've not gotten deep enough into the longer Race Tyred races yet to judge on how they bear up in GT4.
 
In my humble opinion.
Tires-helps immansely in handaling and braking.
Weight Reduction-Handaling, braking, and tire wear.
Brakes-Obviously affective.
 
Tires are the obvious answer. they make everything better. :).

Ignoring tires, it varies from car to car and depends on the race. If the car has lots of HP but funky suspension. Obviously a (original) suspension upgrade is going to be the best choice. good handling crap HP? If its turbo, a bigger turbo, if its NA, NA stage3. some cars have reall wide or really tight gear ratios so changing that could make a big difference. 👍
 
Nitrous 👍 is a must, to maximize your points!
I noyiced that, installing it, does not decrease the points to be rewarded.
Of course, you need to know when and how to use it effectively :indiff:
I hate "Sports tires", they are like, driving on ice,
but, it's amazing the kind of grip the opponents get :grumpy:
 
In an article about GT2, Yamauchi said tires were the single greatest improvement for a car.

Things may have changed for GT4, but I still say tires.
 
I'd say weight reduction is one of the first modifications for me, at least the first two levels. Tires are important but often too expensive (I don't like to rack up huge amounts of money). Next would be the racing chip for extra power, although I have no idea why you would be able to buy one for cars that don't have computers!!! So I don't.

I have never, and never will, use NOS.
 
The driver. I know that's not the kind of answer you are looking for, but know the car and the track well can make up a lot of time without costing anything.

However, as far as actual car modifications go, I would say tires. They are what connects the car with the road, and none of the other modifications are nearly as effective if you do not have a good set of tires to take advantage of the better acceleration, lower weight, higher top speed, or better suspension.
 
If Oil change is an upgrade, that's what I'd pick hands down for all cars. I dont' really count that, though, since it's kinda an understood thing. Buy a car, change the oil.
I think it really depends on where you're at in the game and what you're driving. No amount of grip is going to help you early on when you're at an obvious thrust disadvantage (ie, when your car is so slow it can't spin the tires, and you pretty much can go full tilt all the time because you can't get going fast enough to NEED to slow down). SO, I'd have to say lightening accomplishes the most for you. Even with better cars, you get better grip, better braking, AND acceleration at the same time. I usually fork out for Stage 2 lightening even before the cheap chip (yeah, even on the muscle cars! WTH?), flywheel, and driveshaft upgrades. I guess what I'm saying is my cars usually lose time on the straights, and upgrades that help acceleration and shorten braking distance + bonus benefits in handling make lightening my #1 AND #2.
 
Weight Reduction. I find it helps a lot and the first two stages are cheap.

A close second would be the Triple Plate Clutch and Racing Flywheel. Both of these plus lvl 2 Weight Reduction is only about 12 grand approx.
 
Most definately tires. followed closely by weight reduction (Or in my case, lightening the clutch, driveshaft, and flywheel)
 
People keep saying tires, tires, tires...

You can pretty much do a stage 1 and stage2 weight reduction for the price of a set of new tires.

Oil change + chip + stage 1 weight reduction = better upgrades then tires IMO... And it costs less.

Remember guys, were talking bang for your buck.
 
Taneras
People keep saying tires, tires, tires...

You can pretty much do a stage 1 and stage2 weight reduction for the price of a set of new tires.

Oil change + chip + stage 1 weight reduction = better upgrades then tires IMO... And it costs less.

Remember guys, were talking bang for your buck.
Click to expand...

I am quite positive that I will get faster lap times with tire upgrades than I would with stage 3 weight reduction.

Hell, in some of the one-make races, I leave my car stock, add racing tires, and add an extra 200 lbs (just for the added challenge), and I still demolish the other cars (even with less HP).

-a
 
HoWheels
I am quite positive that I will get faster lap times with tire upgrades than I would with stage 3 weight reduction.

Hell, in some of the one-make races, I leave my car stock, add racing tires, and add an extra 200 lbs (just for the added challenge), and I still demolish the other cars (even with less HP).

-a
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I guess it depends on where you're racing. You'd never get away with that on fuji or in NY--the straights are too long, and no matter how good your tires are, you can only go so fast around a hairpin. Weight reduction WOULD help there, and would still help on other more technical tracks, too.
 
skicrush
I guess it depends on where you're racing. You'd never get away with that on fuji or in NY--the straights are too long, and no matter how good your tires are, you can only go so fast around a hairpin. Weight reduction WOULD help there, and would still help on other more technical tracks, too.
Click to expand...

True, there are many variables which will determine how effective your tire upgrade is.
Lots of braking zones, and sweepers in particular give a huge advantage to the car with the most grip 👍

-a
 
Very interesting question. It's difficult to justify any generalization that broad, though.

I used to agree that tires are the best upgrade. When I started playing GT1/GT2, I always bought the stickiest tires I could before I did anything. With a lot of cars, though, better tires just make the car easier to drive without making it much faster.

It totally depends how you define "effective." Tires are certainly effective in that they make the car easier to drive. You can corner faster which will generally make them the best upgrade for faster driving. Tires are the best upgrade if your car already has a lot of power.

For a lot of non-race cars, though, there are much more important upgrades than tires.

I have to go back to GT3 to get really specific here. Look at the Tuscan challenge. I just couldn't win it with a totally stock Tuscan, but as soon as I bought tires for it the race became easy, not a single other upgrade required.

With any of the slower cars, though, tires just aren't that important. They simply make the car a little easier to drive, but there are much more important things to make it go fast.

Look at the Amateur Tourist Trophy where you need an Audi TT. I needed to get a Stage 1 Turbo and a flywheel/clutch, but tires were totally unnecessary. I got an SLK230 for the Silver Arrow races. Same thing; I needed to get a turbo, but didn't need tires. Got the Alto Works for the Lightweight Cup. It needed an intercooler for a few extra HP, but a car with 72HP certainly doesn't need better tires. I used the Spoon Civic Type-R for the Typer-R races and gave it a chip/flywheel/NA tune but had no use for buying new tires.

The only small cars that I ever bought tires for in GT3 were the Elise and the Vitz. They both needed slicks to compete, especially the Elise, but they also both needed a turbo to win their respective events so I can't really say one upgrade is better than the other.

Tires are only the best upgrade for fast cars that aren't race cars, since the real race cars already come with decent tires.

If you're going to make such a generalization I think you'd have to say a turbo kit is the best upgrade across the board. It's not a very exciting or clever answer, but a turbo kit usually gets the job done. You'll find more cases with a turbo than with any other upgrade where you can say, "X car couldn't win X race without a turbo, and now it can." Think of the number of events a Miata can win with a Stage 1 vs. without -- it doubles the horsepower.

That said, I don't even really like buying a turbo kit. I'd much rather use a faster car that I can run closer to stock.
 
BadBatsuMaru
With any of the slower cars, though, tires just aren't that important. They simply make the car a little easier to drive, but there are much more important things to make it go fast.
Click to expand...

I don't think you can generalize this either.
One series in particular that I enjoyed was the Daihatsu Copen 1-make race. I bought the Auto-top version (because it's heavier), added an extra 200 lbs to it, and bought Racing Medium tires.
These cars have what, 60 horsepower?
Obviously my car was at a huge weight disadvantage, meaning my car was a dog in the straights.
However, my tires allowed me to late-brake every corner, stalking down one car at a time.
My grip in sweepers allowed me to hold the racing line perfectly throughout each race, and my corner exit speeds allowed me to pass on some of the straights because of this.

-a
 

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