What performance upgrades should I do first?

We get asked this question quite a lot. You've just bought a performance car and you want to make it better, the question is, what should you do first? 

We will investigate the question using our demo (James') MX-5 and assume the car is being used as a fast road/track car but not a full-blown race car. In our opinion handling and suspension upgrades should always be the first thing to look at. If you can make a car handle better, stop faster and get on the power sooner then it'll be much more engaging to drive. Power and torque are always good but we believe improving the way a car feels is the quickest way to increase your enjoyment!

James has been driving the MX-5 for a few weeks now and was going to have a dabble at Castle Combe last weekend, but decided against it with all the red flags and issues at Spring Action day. We have an MX-5 NB 2.5 Icon, this is with the 1.8 engine and a few extra toys, it should make a great base car.

We are thinking that we'll fit some HSD or Tein Coilovers and SuperPro rollbars/poly bushes. The 1.8 engine MX-5 has the bigger brakes so with some decent brake pads we'll be golden there too. Once the suspension upgrades are done we'll move on to power upgrades. 

We'll report back with some more photos and an upgrade blog once we get started.