Base and mods or nismo?

Jayhovah

Get the Base+Sport and do the basic boltons Test pipes (or HFC), Catback, long tube intakes, tune. Those mods will cost you in the neighbordhood of $2500 if you buy new quality stuff (though if you are willing to shop used or buy some cheaper chinese parts you can save quite a bit). Then you can spend the other $9-10k on suspension, aero, and wheels and have a really sweet ride.

If you wanted to go the FI route and feel good about reliability too, $12k probably is not enough unless you are skilled enough to do all the work yourself and even then it's pushing it a little. It can be done, though (I did).

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2013 Gun Metallic Sport - Gamma V3 Twin Turbogized
DIY Gamma V3 TT Install * Jayhovah's Gamma V3 TT Install Pic'Z and Vid'Z * DIY: Washer Reservoir for the Boosted

Chuck33079

Agreed, but there's also another $5-10k that you need to have access to for an "Oh Sh*t" fund. These motors are solid, and a good tune does wonders - but you're boosting a car that came from the factory NA.

OP, you mentioned not doing anything but exhausts in the past. Jumping from there to aftermarket FI might be too much of a step. You need to be able to handle some moderate to advanced wrenching even if you have a shop do the install. Everything gets more complicated and annoying when you've put that much aftermarket stuff on the car.

Honestly, do basic bolt ons, a tune and gears. That'll be a plenty quick car and you'll have a lot of leftover cash for suspension and cosmetics.

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2011 MB Touring-Sport-6sp-Nav/GTM TT/FI TT TDX/JTran/Kosmic/Eibach/Hotchkis/SPC/CSF/RPS/SoThatsWhereAllMyMoneyWent

billaJ

I agree with this completely. I may need to do basic mods first and then slowly peep my way into learning the whole FI biz. This will be my weekend car that I want to take to a track. Crawl then walk eh?