Gelinas' VF RSS car attains the next level. Its Patac coilovers includes a race setting, which with stiffer sway bars just about eliminates body roll and keeps dive and squat to a minimum. They're a big step up in cost, but allow the driver to select damping rates instantly, as well as set ride height and corner balance the car. Handling is more precise; turn in and the car seems to settle into notches in the road. Roll on the throttle and the GT28RS spools without hesitation. Coming out of tight second-gear turns, wheelspin can cause the car to push wide on exit. Nothing that can't be dealt with via throttle modulation and careful steering inputs, but a limited-slip diff would go along way in dealing with the problem all-together. The car's big brake kit really comes into its own in canyon sections with tight corners connected by short straights. Repeated stomps are met with constant stopping power. The stiffer calipers give a more confidence-inspiring pedal. Even after a hard day of driving, nothing on the car seemed tired and the drive home was comfortable with just a turn of the knob to adjust the suspension back to the "autobahn" setting.
Legsdin's big-turbo car is almost out of its element in a canyon. It wants more space to open up and run. With a massive turbo that doesn't like spinning below 4500 rpm, it takes skill to keep it in boost. Get it wrong and you'll wait until a sudden surge of power pummels the front tires on corner exits. Get it right and it pulls out of the corner like a rally car on crack. Forget everything you know about modern turbo cars; this one has lag, and plenty of it. Flooring the throttle at 2000 rpm gives you time to pick up your drink, have a sip and put it back before the power comes on. But once it does, you better have your Slurpee secure because all hell breaks loose. This car is equipped with a limited-slip differential and takes full advantage of it clawing at the road with both front tires. The powerband is wide enough that you don't lose boost between gears, so velocity is delivered with urgency into easy triple-digit speeds. The bigger turbo produces roughly 30 psi, so it was necessary to lower compression, meaning less power off boost which just heightens the sense of lag. This engine might be tough to live with on a daily basis, but as a track toy, it's hard to beat.
Likewise, cornering is go-cart flat. Front camber plates allow the geometry to be dialed into a more aggressive setup. The extra camber may not be great for a straight-line contact patch, but it adds extra grip in cornering. The car will move around a little bit on bumpy surfaces and you have to fight it to keep it going in the intended direction. The tires have an amazing amount of grip, and once planted in a turn the g-forces are almost painful.
While the suspension is simply awesome on a track or in the canyon, it isn't ideal for the street. The spring and damping rates can make for a rough ride. The tires are great on dry roads, but a motorist spitting out the window in front of you could send you backwards into a guardrail. And just about everything on the car is custom, the entire charge cooler system for example. The software is also customized for this turbo, while a whole host of other parts were needed to be made to bring the beast together. You might daydream about ordering all the parts and bolting them up on a Saturday afternoon, but a car like this really takes a whole shop to build.
In the end, modification is all about individuality. While you may not be willing to go all-out on a big turbo kit or race suspension, simple bolt-ons can give you the performance you're after. Figure out what you want your car to do and be honest about how you're going to use it.