I'd go for the go.
As for show, just keep your car clean and polished. Maybe take the ding guards off. Take care of it.
That's me, anyway.
As for you, my best advice is to decide what you want to do, and then create a mod plan. Are you going to:
1) Autocross?
2) Drag race?
3) Enter custom car shows?
4) Enter audio contests?
5) Take long, high-speed, cross-country trips?
6) or just make every day's commute a little more interesting?
If you plan to race, you'll want to check out some rules before you start. Every type of racing has a class structure, and some simple mods may push you out of a class where you might be more competitive, into a zone where you're competing with real heavyweights.
Otherwise, you want to have a plan, so you can spend your money wisely, and not get "pulled off" by distracting sales pitches, and so you can end up with some kind of coherent concept.
HTH.
