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In car culture, people tend to modify their rides. This is my submission to the 2025 "State The Obvious Competition." Modifying your car is meant to be a show of your personality, and originality. When I think about car modifications, my mind takes me back to the days of eating frozen pizza and playing Need For Speed Underground 2 on Playstation 2 in my parent's basement. (Last weekend feels so long ago now.) As those car-boys mature, they turn into car-men and are suddenly blessed with what we call "adult money." It's natural to want to appease your inner child, and try to replicate the nostalgia days by slamming your base model Civic hatch on the ground, and affixing a Spoon sticker. But mods are expensive! And it's easy to get caught up in the mountains of forum posts arguing which mods are best. So where do you start? How do you choose? I think I can help.
For the purposes of this post, this will not be a guide to prepping your car for the track. If that's what you’re looking for, hit subscribe to see it first when it drops.
I am no exception to the car-boy philosophy. I poured hours into games like Need for Speed, Forza, and Mario Kart (yes, it counts.) When I was coming of age, I bought my very first car, a '98 Toyota Camry. The second I had the keys in my hand, I was online looking at things like aftermarket lights, bumpers, wraps, exhaust, even under-glow! But, my parents weren't exactly the types to buy their son expensive modifications (this is a compliment.) And I didn't have much money to spare, so my modding journey for that car consisted of a steering wheel cover with flames on it, and some fuzzy dice.
I've owned a few different cars since then. A Buick Allure, Chevy Sonic, and a Toyota Avalon, all varying degrees of new. I always seemed to have other priorities than modifying my car when I owned these though, and frankly there's not much to tell.
I'm working with the assumption that whoever is reading this also read my previous post, and knows how I caught the bug for Motorsports during lock down. When I first bought the Focus ST, I didn't have any intention of doing any sort of performance driving with it, aside from the odd peel out of a gas station parking lot. It wasn't until a fellow Focus ST owner, who turned out to be a coworker of mine, left a flyer on my windshield advertising the STs of Ontario Facebook group. I had never been in a car community/fan club/cult before, and I thought this was incredibly cool!
Joining the ST's of Ontario group was a mixed bag of car pride, helpful advice, and YOHB (You on here bro?) posts of grainy pictures of Focuses sitting at stop lights. But being a member meant that my Facebook feed often showed me a lot of what my car could be. Or, if you were to ask the members of the group, what my car should be. This is where getting "lost in the sauce" starts. It's very easy to compare what you've got to people posting their build on the internet. I wanted to modify my car. I wanted to be like them.
Fast forward a few months (maybe a year, I'm not really sure) and we get to the part where my time with OTA started to intersect with my time with the Focus. I was getting ready to get myself on a race track for the first time. But how will I know if my car is ready? Well, I'll ask the experts of course!
"I'm gearing up for my first track day, what do I need to do to my car to make sure it's ready!?"
The responses started to roll in...
COBB Access port and flash tune
Catback exhaust
Big brake kit
Stainless steel brake lines
Short RAM intake
The list goes on...
If you're an experienced track rat, I know you are already shaking your head. And to that, my response is "Where were you 3 years ago!?"
I digress.
Needless to say though, I started looking into which of these mods I could afford, and how best I could get my Focus "ready for the track."
To put some of you at ease, yes, I did swap the brake fluid with a high temp fluid and swapped the pads out for a track/street pad
So of course I got myself a flash tune per the recommendation of my fellow enthusiasts, and it performed as advertised. On the 2 litre Ecoboost platform it unlocks a fair bit more torque and gives the car a heaping helping of get up and go. But it also comes with a heaping helping of torque steer. If you don't know what that is, picture trying to ride a salmon up stream. The car shakes back and forth as the electronically torque vectored open differential scrambles for grip.
After the tune, the cat back exhaust came, then the intake (which I ended up returning because I bought it for a 2015 Focus ST which uses a different MAF sensor type.) , then the slotted rotors, and so on. But I never stopped to think about installing any supporting mods for the tune. A limited slip differential was almost completely off the table because I couldn't put it on myself. And a chassis bar to help with torque steer was out of the question, why would I spend over $500 on a piece of metal?
My very first time at a race track was an OTA school at the Driver Development track at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The event was fantastic. My Focus was not. I had not correctly installed the plug in my Symposer Delete plate (it's how Ford shoves engine noise into the cabin.) So when the plug left the chat, it created a massive vacuum leak which caused the car to idle at roughly 3000 rpm. Lucky for me another Focus ST owner knew right away what the issue was, and we plugged it with a way too big screw and some silicon. I kept the plate as a trophy. After that, the car was overheating like crazy, which turned out to be a piece of the stock plastic intake tube folded over and created an intake leak which was sucking hot air (after the MAF sensor) into the engine, and making it very unhappy. (I discovered this because my coach suggested it might be my tune, and to remap the car I have to put stock plugs in, which requires removing part of the intake.)
My car cult had failed me.
This brings me to a crossroads when it comes to modifications. You need to modify it in accordance with your goals. I learned the hard way that race car and boy racer do not mean the same things. I learned that not everything you need to do to your car is going to get you social media clout. It's also important that you take advice from people who have the same, or similar goals. I went on to find out that there was a SEPARATE GROUP for Focus ST and RS owners who regularly track their cars!
The moral of the story is that it's easy to think that you need to do things to your car that you don't need to do. In my case, I spent so much money on mods for my Focus that it's still affecting my financial ability to enjoy my car at the track, and compete in OTA today. If you drive a car that you like driving, then go drive it. Let it tell you what it needs, and make those modifications for yourself. Not for clout.
To top off this post, I want to make good on the title of this post and provide something that an aspiring car enthusiast might be able to use. I know that I took a bit of a detour getting to this point, but I think when it comes to cars, and modding, and racing that your mindset is everything.
So, how do you mod your daily driver?
#1 Establish a goal
We talked about goals and how they should affect what your build becomes. Make sure that the mods you choose help you accomplish your goal. Your goal might be convenience, better handling, more speed etc. If your goal is social media clout, then you can disregard most of what you’ve read here. If your goal is to get on track, click the subscribe button.
#2 Carefully Select Your Modifications
When choosing your mods, make sure you do your research, and try to get a good idea of what you are doing to your car. If your goals are speed and handling, you need to understand that modifications you choose are going to affect the comfort of your vehicle. A stiff set of performance coil overs might help you hug the corners, but you’ll feel every bump and pothole on your morning commute 100 fold. Do your research and know what you’re getting into.
#3 Prioritize Reliability And Comfort
Remember, this is your daily driver. It can be sporty, and it can be fast, but you also want to be able to make it work on time. Unless you’re eager to use car problems as an excuse to skip work, you don’t want to compromise the reliability of your car. To me, this can be broken down into two parts.
- Don’t buy cheap parts - The quality of the parts you buy will play a huge role in the reliability of your modification. A replica wheel may break or chip. Temu coilovers may blow out over speed bumps. Do your research, buy good parts.
- Don’t go too deep in the paint - Go slow, do one mod at a time. Make one change, try the car out. How does it feel? Are you closer to your goal? Or have you made a huge mistake and made your car undriveable?
#4 Leave Room In Your Budget
Know what your budget is for your build and play within it. Leave yourself room to not only make changes to your build path, but also invest in support mods. If you want to throw an off the shelf tune on your focus ST, maybe throw that chassis bar into your budget to combat the torque steer. Make sure you can afford to throw some Michelins or Continentals on it instead of chewing up a set of cheap tires and not getting any traction. Give yourself the leeway to accommodate unforeseen support mods.
And lastly,
#5 Do It Right The First Time
Not all modifications are easy, and very few of them are quick. I don’t want to discourage you from working on your own car. If it were up to me, everyone would have a project car. It’s a fantastic learning experience and it’s incredibly rewarding. But this isn’t a project car, this is your daily driver. If you have to go to work in 2 hours. Now probably isn’t the time to take your intake apart, unless you’re prepared to pay for an Uber. Give yourself time to do the job right the first time. And if you’re in a jam, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
If you’re still not sure where to start your journey, I asked this question to my circle and these are some of the answers I got!
#1 Wheels and Tires
A fresh set of wheels is one of the best ways to personalize your ride and make it unique. Think of them like shoes. People will always ask you "Hey, are those new shoes?" and it'll make you feel good. Same goes for wheels.
And of course if you're going to put some hot new wheels on your ride, you'll want to wrap them in some nice rubber. Your tires are one of the single biggest performance points for your car. They literally connect you to the road. If you want a fresh look, wheels and tires. If you want more performance, wheels and tires.
#2 Infotainment
This one isn't going to make you any faster, but don't sleep on an infotainment upgrade. Especially if you have a Gen 1 BRZ with the stock pioneer head unit. Do yourself a favour and get some Apple Carplay or Android Auto in there. Make your daily commute just a little more bearable!
#3 Brakes
No, I don't mean a big brake kit. Replace those spongy factory pads with a higher quality, more consistent brake pad. You can even find a compound that's more resistant to heat if you're interested in taking your daily to the race track.
If I had the chance to go back and do it all again, this is where I would start. (Minus infotainment because the Focus ST one is pretty cool.) But remember, it's all about mindset. If you're happy with what your car does, and how it looks, it doesn't need to be modified!
