Mods mods and more mods!!!

Yay, I can only wish that my parents got me a Prius when I was 17!

As I today drove my wife's Mazda Protege 5 (soon to be replaced by the Prius) - I thought of how I will miss the tight handling of the P5. P5 is not a "fast" car by any real means but - it can REALLY handle. It's like on rails.

SO I was thinking in the direction of springs too, for our Prius that we do not own yet. Yay!!

 

these are the only mods i know of but i wanna start out with a: lucky STIFF!!!! i had to convince my dad to buy a prius for 15 months before my mom's friend came over and convinced him. and even then I didnt get a package 6, so if you have a package 6 im hella jealous! hrm.. back to mods. here you go, it'll be expensive.

http://newtoyotaparts.com/model/struct.php...id=43&cat_id=12

and there's the blitz turbo that was shown in the tokyo auto salon which boosts the gasoline engine by 54 hp. 626-839-8350 for more info

you COULD spend all that money, but it probably wont matter at all later in life. if you really wanna impress people i think you should invest in making the car dead quiet with dynomat extreme and a SQL sound system (not SPL b/c 3284014 watt systems are just as useless as getting 22 inch rims for an SUV and losing performance + mpg because of looks) or you could take your friends around parking lots to scare some soccer moms. much more fun

 

The Prius isn't the best platform for performance mods, but they're out there... haven't seen any proof any of these work, but here's a link with lowering springs and some other goodies:

http://www.japanparts.com/shop/shop.cgi?mo...rts%2fBody+Kits

Tire Rack sells wheels--some 16" rims fit without adding weight--and can take some better tires. The Weds Sport TC-005 looks sharp.

I'll refrain from any comments on how one chooses to spend the money... you're only young once

Enjoy your Prius!

Gary

 

oo.. performance mods. well.. i run 17" evolution racing wheels with Yacohama racing wheels.

Anything i say below is of my own experiance with driving 200 miles a day. Please use caution when driving your car at all times. i do not endorse breaking the speed limit at any time:

If you are wanting to do performance with the prius, you have to understand how the car handles. When cornering, you need to toss the back end out.. If you do this, you can take those circular onramps and offramps at a good 60 mph and you could be fine. that's about the prius's top speed for cornering though. the track will kick in any faster because you start to slide.

The stock wheels won't work. the rims i have are the lightest i can find on the market. I still get between 40 and 45mpg while performing pretty hard at times. people i know are amazed by this car.

if you want to talk mods, IM me on AIM.. or email me.. or PM me. either way.. or.. post... that seems to work too.

in order to get more performance out of the car, you need to get lower springs.. stabelizer bars.. and a few other things. As is.. even with my 17"s ( drops the car about an inch ) i have more lean than i want. The car is at the point where it can corner better than it accelerates. If i do a few more modes, i should be able to do a full acceleration through most corners. As is, the wheels sleep because of lean.

 

oh yeah.. for wheels... it's a 5x100 lug pattern. offset doesn't matter. offset is simply how far the bolting face is from the center of the wheel.. so you have wheels that stick out.. or stick in. mine are offset 5mm more out than the stock rims. my rims are a lot wider though.

Sounds system is a good idea. many threads on this. Replace the tweeters. Add a Sub. that's about all you need. Bazooka makes a decent 8" sub unit that improves the sound range of the sterio.

 

Do the EV mod. If you have the cash do the all electric 125 mpg mod. Cruise with no sound. Only the sound system. Add the DVD system to the car. Going Green is sick.

Blue

 

nothing you can do to improve the 0-60. well.. you could strip the interior.. i wouldn't do that though. Plus.. the interior is very light anyways. the gain would be minimal.

the good thing about the prius.. you're never stuck in a bad gear. i race cars all the time. when they are stuck in the low second, i win. this happens a lot. so... 0-60 is sluggish.. yes.. but when already rolling along.. the prius does pretty well.

 

There's a whole forum in PriusChat devoted to mods. Check it out.

 

The 0-60 scared me, too. But driving a car with 295lb-ft at a standstill has its merits. It feels way faster than the MINI I traded... at leat until about 50-60mph.

The basic performance tricks should all still apply to the Prius ICE..

1. Lose weight (wheels are a good candidate) Maybe some day we'll see aluminum or carbon fiber body panels? Remove other items you can live without.

2. Change gearing. I don't think anyone is going to venture into the planetary gearsets. But smaller outer diameter on the tires (eg. 195/60 vs stock 185/5) ever so slightly lowers gearing.

3. Increase airflow. There is an aftermarket exhaust, but I haven't seen any reports on its effectiveness. I'm not sure if the "extra expanded" gas from an Atkinson cycle will benefit as much from freeing up a little backpressure. Then again, it may benefit more? The intake might lend an opportunity.

4. Tweak the ECU for more power. If someone dares, I bet the ECU could be coded to close the intake valves earlier and change the intake compression ratio from 8.5:1 to 10.5:1 (or so). The mod would require premium fuel, but it might get a few more HP out of the deal.

Put it all together and you're talking what, 5-10hp tops? Some day the aftermarket (or future Toyota models for that matter) may help fills these options out...

Gary

 

1. a lot of the panels are aluminum already. carbon fiber would be nice.

2. my 17's have a smaller outside diameter. it's nice. lowers the car as well

3. shouldn't make a difference. if you wanted more performance re program the ICE to have proper valve timing at full throttle. this would produce a lot more hp and pump up your 0-60 a little. since you gas pedel is digital, you can program the sytem to only have that valve timing at only a certain point. no one has tried this, but it's proven technology

4. ah.. above... i believe the prius currently runs a high 10.- as it is with compression. changing the valves would produce a lot more than 10hp. but.. the electric motors would have to compensate it.. so.. it may not make that much of a difference.


a friend of mine and i were chatting about the re programming.

Magnesium Alloy wheels would be good. Lighter cost won't be offset by performance though. they simply cost too much.

 

it wouldn't do anything. you would have to change the valve timing in order to get any different response out of it.

so a search. i did a post last year about adding a turbocharger to a prius.

 

IMO if you are not satisfied with the acceleration of the Prius, the best performance mod is to trade it in for a used slammed Civic Si or Integra or something along those lines, and leave the Prius for somebody who will appreciate it for what it is. You could probably sell the Prius for thousands more than a good used Civic or 'Teg costs and that money could offset the increased fuel expenses over the life of the car.

As far as a car that is the "talk of the town" is concerned, my Prius when it was completely stock, got me far more attention than my '95 Integra GS-R ever got. So far I have added an XM radio, a leather visor over the MFD, mudflaps (aka fender mullets) and a personalized license plate to my Prius and I bought a Treo 650 "smartphone" to take advantage of the Bluetooth HFL and my friends are absolutely blown away by this car.

 

if its package six ill take it off your hands for 5$

 

V8Cobrakid: so what kinda of springs/shock changes do you suggest for lowering the Prius slightly, and getting a bit more stability out of cornering? I think the fronts are currently coilovers? No way cutting the springs to get some lowering.

You've said changed stabilizers to reduce body roll too.

You've said get the back-end to swing out more in turns to corner better and to prevent the TC from kicking in too soon. I'm assuming that means you want the Prius to oversteer with the forementioned suspension mods. I forget if that means softening or stiffening the rear with the stabilizer.

 

there is a page that sells all of this. i'll do a search later today for it.

i used to have the links. a recent computer re install killed my links

if i could get the prius to stop rolling then it would corner much better. the weight distrubution is pretty good. the car tends to swing the back end out anyways. It seems the only way you can make the car slight without the traction control or vehicle stability control kicking in.