I'll make my usual pitch for reduced weight, especially rotating weight in the driveline.
So, lightweight wheels and Fidanza. Wheels are easy, the flywheel is not. Oh well. The stock flywheel is about 22 lbs, the SVT's is 20. Fidanza is around 10 lbs (can't remember exact at the moment).
Quote:
Dumping 30 pounds out of the body or chassis...from a 3000 pound car is equal to an engine output increase of 1 percent. (David Vizard, GRM, May 03)
When it's rotating weight, it gets better.
Using a clutch/flywheel assembly reduced in mass by 31% (from 43.75 to 30.8 lbs), the moment of inertia was reduced by 26%. For a 3100 lb, V-8 powered road racer...
Quote:
...To match the first-gear acceleration gains seen by the dual-plate mini clutch and aluminum [Fidanza] flywheel, you would have to lose some 320 pounds from the car.
(For 2nd gear, figure 220 lbs. 3rd=150, and 4th=115)
Or, put another way, you'd have to increase hp by more than 10% (in first gear). Now, Intake and exhaust are easy and fun, and probably worth it, but you're probably not going to net 17 to 20 hp gains at the crank until you start doing forced induction ($$$$$$), or 3.0 engine swaps ($$$$$$).
Now, we haven't even talked about wheels, yet.
A lot of people buy aftermarket wheels, anyway. You might as well pay attention to weight, and make them a real performance mod. My stock 15's are a little over 19 lbs, just like the E1 SVT's. E0's are a bit over 20 lbs. My 16" Kosei's are 15.5 lbs.
And of course, unlike engine hp mods, weight reduction benefits more than just acceleration.
My 2 cents. 
