Bought a car you loved but finding that its performance has been dipping lately? Or maybe you’re just underwhelmed by the kind of drive you’ve been getting when you expected something better. Well, to a certain degree, the power and performance of a car are fixed. But that doesn’t mean it’s not without the potential to get nudged in the right direction. Here, we’re going to look at how you start giving your car a little more oomph and start getting the kind of drive you really want.

The truth is that most cars start to suffer in engine output and handling due to poor maintenance of them. The steps we’re going to mention here are rather obvious, but the truth is that people skip them far too often. You can get a smoother ride just by looking replacing the oil and checking the fluid levels, for instance. The wheels play a huge role in the smoothness of the ride, too. If wheels are unevenly worn because you never rotate them, you’ll feel it. If they’re under-inflated or over-inflated, your steering and traction will be off and they’ll continue to wear even more unevenly. It’s as simple as making a few checks every now and then. For your oil and fluids, it’s as little as every six months.

There are a lot of options for making improvements to your auto. You might have tried some to little effect. That might just be because you’re not using parts that specifically for the vehicle you’re driving. For example, cool air intakes which can improve the engine’s performance work better if they’re built for the model you’re using. So, if you’re driving a Ford F150, you need F150 performance upgrades. At best, mismatched parts will lose some of their effectiveness. At worst, they’ll be entirely incompatible or even come off in the middle of a drive. You don’t need us to tell you how dangerous that can be.

If you’re willing to let someone void a few warranties, there’s some work that can be done under the hood. We don’t recommend trying anything with your engine yourself unless you’re a fully qualified mechanic. If you can get access to one, however, then there are a few engine modification options you might want to consider. Superchargers increase the amount of air that can get into the engine, for instance, which improves its ability to burn fuel. Air filters perform a similar role, but to slightly less effectiveness. They also block contaminants that can wear away at an engine’s effectiveness over time. That degradation is one of the most common reasons people begin to feel a difference in performance in the first place.

 

As we’ve said, there’s only so much you can to increase the power of versatility of your car. You need to know your car and know your options. You also need to be willing to get a little hands-on. But it can be worth it for the kind of returns you can get on performance.