Performance Customization

This is where you build your car into a racing machine. While looks may be nice, what’s under the hood really counts. Most of the items in this category can boost your car’s horsepower and improve its speed. Others, however, such as brakes and sway bars, let you customize the way your car handles and can be adjusted in the Handling Tuning section.

There are several parts on which you may spend your hard earned cash. However, some give you a bigger performance boost for the buck. The following list shows you where you’re better off spending your money. When you first start out, you may not be able to upgrade each of these parts. Some are locked. In those cases, just go on to the next piece of equipment.

• Engine Block
• Exhaust Manifold
• Fuel System
• Cylinder Heads
• Cam Shaft
• Exhaust System
• Electric System
• ECU
• Intake Manifold
• Radiator
• Ignition
• Air Filter

Air Filter

Not only do air filters ensure that clean air is entering your engine, higher quality systems can also help provide more air for engine combustion and give you increased speed and power. However, this is one of the last items you should upgrade.

Cooling System

Your car needs a radiator to keep it running cool. This is especially important for racing since you’ll be running your engine at high RPMs for long periods of time, which builds up a lot of heat. The better your radiator, the faster and more powerful your car is.

Intake Manifold

Just like you, your engine needs to breathe. The intake manifold’s purpose is to evenly distribute the air into each of the intake ports of the cylinder heads of your engine. The larger the manifold’s throttle body, the more powerful your engine is.

Fuel System

In addition to air, your engine also needs fuel. The fuel system pumps or injects fuel into the cylinders where it mixes with the air and combusts to make power and, thus, speed.

Forced Induction

While the intake manifold allows air into the engine, a forced induction system, such as a turbocharger or supercharger, compresses and pushes extra air into the cylinders, allowing them to burn more fuel each second and, thus, providing more power with each stroke.

Electric System

The third element for combustion in an engine is the spark of electricity that ignites the fuel and air mixture in the cylinders. The better your electric system, the better your engine runs as that spark comes at the perfect time.

Ignition

Your cars start out with a standard ignition system, which consists of sparkplugs that provide the spark. However, multi-spark ignitions provide more spark so that the fuel and air mixture ignite more efficiently. This is important for racing engines.

ECU

The engine control unit, or ECU, is the computer for modern cars. It controls several functions, including the air to fuel ratio and ignition timing.

Engine Block

The engine block is the main structure of your engine. This is where the magic happens as air, fuel, and electricity are combined to make power and speed.

Cam Shaft

The camshaft is located in the engine and controls the opening and closing of cylinders valves. It opens the intake valves to allow fuel and air to enter, and then after combustion, opens exhaust valves to let the burned fuel and gases out. Different camshafts can open these valves a bit more to let in more fuel and air for more power.

Cylinder Heads

The cylinder head closes the top of the cylinders and forms a combustion chamber. It usually contains ports through which fuel and air enter the cylinder and exhaust escapes.

Exhaust Manifold

After combustion takes place in the cylinders, the exhaust created is pushed by the upstroke of the piston out of the cylinder and into the exhaust manifold. From there, it is moved through the rest of the exhaust system.

Exhaust System

The exhaust system carries the gases that are the by-product of the combustion in the engine to the exhaust pipes.

Clutch

All of the cars in the game come with an automatic transmission. That means the transmission automatically changes gears for you. The clutch does not give your car more power. However, the shorter the gear change time, the faster your car accelerates.

Nitrous System

A nitrous system is a way to get a bit more power out of your engine for a short amount of time. N2O is injected into the cylinder when your system is at full throttle. As the liquid enters the cylinder, it changes to a gas due to the lower pressure than what is in the container. This cools down the surrounding air, allowing more air into the cylinder. As combustion begins, the heat breaks up the nitrous oxide molecule and releases oxygen, which further adds to the combustion. A nitrous system is great for accelerating faster or for providing extra velocity once you reach your max speed.

Suspension

The suspension of a car helps increase traction and friction with the road. Not only does this provide greater comfort while driving, but it also helps you maintain control. Once you purchase suspensions that allow for adjustments, you can set the stiffness of your springs.

Differential

A differential is designed to drive a pair of wheels while allowing them to rotate at different speeds. This prevents skidding when going around a turn since the outer wheel travels a greater distance than the inner wheel.

Tires

The tires connect your car to the road. Depending on their design, they can have more or less traction. The greater the traction, the more the car grips the road. The less the traction, the more likely the car will slide or drift.

Brakes

The job of your brakes is to stop or slow down your car. There are brakes on each of the four wheels. The two important attributes in the game are their bias and strength.

Handbrake

Often called an emergency or parking brake, the handbrake is a manual braking system that affects only the rear wheels. When applied, it can reduce the traction on the rear wheels. In a turn, it can cause the rear wheels to slide. This is desirable for drifting.

Sway Bars

Sway bars can be used to tune the amount of body roll the vehicle produces.