There are a number of advantages to tuning your car, but it needs to be done right and preferably by someone who knows what he is doing. While there is no way to turn into an expert overnight without going through the years of experience necessary for that, here are five things that should help you get a few things right while on that road.

Reprogram Your Electronic Control Unit

Performance tune your ECU (Electronic Control Unit) to start your engine faster each time and as an added bonus, you should also stop seeing that annoying “check engine” light flash all the time. This doesn’t mean any problem in your engine will be ignored, it simply means that your car’s ECU will recognize the changes in torque and horsepower better and faster. If you want to see speedier transmission shifts, modifying your gear ratios with the help of the ECU can help with that too.

Match Your Engine with Your Turbocharger

There is no doubt that a turbocharger kit can literally supercharge your car’s performance, but they are neither cheap, nor easy to install on your own, unless you have prior experience with them. In case it is your first time, always be sure that you are not trying to install a turbocharger kit that’s more powerful than your engine is capable of handling. There are a lot of factors to be considered here, such as volumetric efficiency, air density, compressor efficiency, etc. If you make a mistake, not only will you be wasting your money, but you will end up damaging your engine in the process as well.

Stiffer Suspension

Upgrade your vehicle with some stiffer shock absorbers to immediately notice an improvement in the way the car handles. You will feel the difference especially if you have multiple upgrades previously installed, because they will inevitably increase the overall weight of the car and therefore, make it feel heavy and clunky to handle. Invest in a high-quality sway and torsion bar as well to lessen the body roll while making corners.

Short-Shift Kits

Just like the name suggests, these relatively inexpensive upgrades shorten the time necessary to shift gears, but they can also increase acceleration significantly. While you are at it, do opt for a power clutch as well, if you have mods installed to give your car added horsepower.

Disc Brakes

One can never ignore the brakes of a car and since they will have to do a lot more work now to bring the car to a stop during high speed scenarios, you should replace the rear drum brakes with disc brakes as well for increased and reliable braking power. Choose ventilated brakes on both the front and back for faster cooling, which will in turn, prevent warping.

These five tips should be helpful, but in order to get into the actual details and more advanced information for tuning just about any car out there, head over to tuningguru.com. They have answers to every car-tuning related question that one might have, alongside fully-fledged guides on how to do it all.