Carbon Fiber Hood

There are about 10 different types of hood's available for swift and only certain of them are available in India.these hood's are quite expensive to get shipped.they are totally worth it cause they drop the weight of the car by around 10kg's.

I had only access to just few of them in India.the cost of shipping it from Taiwan or china was quite expensive.the options i had were the OEM CF Hood , the Mini Style Hood and the R1000 Rally Side Vent Hood. I initially wanted the R1000 Hood but then I couldn't get it so i picked the mini style hood instead.I am planning to relocate the air intake close to the vent so it helps getting more air.



The Hood upgrade gave the ride an aggressive look,lightened the car by 10 kilos and it totally rocks.























Copyright Picture Owners

Suspension & Handling

I decided on tunin up the suspension and workin on the ride height.I would love to lower the car but was a bit scared on the road conditions around here.but still I took a chance and got the Eibach Pro Spring Kit.got it installed with the stock struts for now.I am totally happy with the way the car looked and the suspension.I wish I should have got Koni's that would have completed the suspension.



I also wanted to work on the handling so I looked around locally but couldn't find anything good.so I started my research on-line and looked at all the available suspension parts for the swift,i found ultra racing reasonable and i contacted them for the parts.I found a dealer "Max Audio" from Malaysia and ordered my parts.they got it shipped in a week and I didn't have any problem with the customs either ,I went ahead and got myself a Front Strut bar , a Rear 2 point bar ,2 Point lower bar and a 4 Point front lower bar , the only thing missing is the rear swaybar which i should have got it with the other stuff.after the upgrade the ride is stiffened and there is no body roll,its totally amazing around the corners and the way it handles.the ride quality went a bit worse but its totally worth the fun...the only worry for me is the 4 point lower bar which got low by another 1" which I need to really look out for on the bad roads.

Side Mirrors

The next in line are the mirrors,i checked out couple of options available.the first one is the carbon fiber cover for the existing mirrors, which completely looked like original CF mirrors



There is a similar chrome cover for the side mirrors which is very flashy.



The other one is the Mirrors with LED blinkers built into the mirrors.it was too flashy for me the



Another option I found are the original carbon fiber shaved mirrors,they are amazing,very light and sporty.these mirrors weren't available locally.I had to get it shipped from taiwan.it took me couple of hours of on-line searching to locate the right person to buy from.I finally found a reliable source from where I could get rest of my parts shipped too.the pricing was very reasonable and the finish,quality of the products are really good.it took quite some time for the mirrors to arrive since it is shipped international.I had no customs problem or other damages on the mirrors.



There was a later model which came out after I purchased the shaved carbon fiber mirrors which were also sporty...

Bodykit

I just had one option for it and its the swift sport kit, the european version ,the GTI 2 Kit and the Hikari kit were'nt released by then,i loved the hikari kit for the swift which was released recently,its got led's built into the front bumper which looks very sporty.



I got my sport kit after about a month,its came unpainted,i wanted a dual paint scheme Red/Black,which were my favourite colours and would go well with the existing paint.



I also wanted to complete it with a spoiler and had couple of choices of gettin the factory spoiler, the GTI Spoiler or the CF Monster Spoiler.the monster spoiler seemed to be quite expensive so i picked the GTI spoiler.i decided on a dual paint scheme with black on the edges and the top portion, red on the bottom of the spoiler.it came out quite well.

The entire kit looked totally sporty,it gave a completely different look from all the swifts in the city.looks exclusive and one of a kind.

Time For New Rubber

I had to swap the tyres coz the first set of tyres had been run for about 46K Km and that's pretty gud also a good time to upgrade the rims and put some wider tyres.I had to think for a while between show-off or pure performance and finally picked something that would give me a run for my money.The Stock tyres that came with the car are 165/80 R14,

I have an option of going for (195/60 R15) (205/60 R15)(195/55 R16) (205/55 R16) or (205/45/ R17) (215/45 R17) (225/40 R17).but anything above 16's isn't gonna be comfortable also its gonna drop a bit of power,the steering would get a little more tighter and it would scrape underneath on full load.so 17's seriously a big NO...its only pure show....!



I had to pick between 15's and 16's.there are very few options available in 16's compared to 15's and 17's also I thought it might be better to go with 15's keeping the power on tap.for the tyre brand I had an option of Bridgestone Potenza GIII/Falken ZIEX/Yokohoma S Drive.I got a better deal of on the potenza's so I went for the 195/60R15 GIII's.it was tough for me to pick the wheel design even though I have very few options available in the place I live.



I definitely want something that will define the car.I came across the Lenso kuza anime series and I liked the blade style design,they are different form the regular alloys with spokes.it also has metallic finish and a red shiny lip finish.Its so catchy and different.I had a doubt when I got it but I am totally happy how the car looks.

Things Start Getting Better

I finally placed an order for a custom free flow exhaust ,An Air Intake Kit,Iridium Plugs & Sparco Seats.I got the Plugs and the Seats in a couple of days and got them installed.the recaro speed seats were amazing.it was so comfortable to drive around and feels very secure at high speeds.the seats make a huge difference in giving me the boost to drive it hard around corners.the seating is low compared to the stock seats and it has a very good back support.



I received the headers and exhaust later on.it took about 25 days for them to be made and sent to me.they are full stainless steel Headers, later I thoughts I should have got the regular cast iron manifold and piping but I didn't give it a thought initially.

After I swapped the headers they seem to boost the low and mid range a bit.the car's pretty quick in the second and the third gears.the acceleration is improved a little over stock.it sounded very aggressive and loud initially.later on as I drove more n more the sound came down a bit and there is still a very good grunt in the low gears.




The Air Intake Kit took about another 2 weeks and i had to decide between K&N and Green Cotton Storm, I some how liked the Green Cotton Storm,cuz it has a cover protecting the filter and also it is priced better.I pulled out the stock filter and had to reroute the piping.the piping i used initially was a bit messed up and i didnt prefer to go for a metal pipe,instead I managed to find a rubber hose for the filter.a little bit of weight reduction and also I figured out the metal piping might get hot faster than the rubber.it took about an hour to get everything fixed and took it out for a drive.it feels so nimble and there is slight increase in the power.



The filter started catching a lot of dust in its current location,so i need to relocate it closer to the front grill,it also requires cleaning every month since the conditions here are so dusty.

Break

For about 2 years there weren't any serious upgrades on the car.I was busy with my studies and work in U.S and also was busy tuning my Accord Coupe there.the major issue was of swift not being launched in the American market.since it being only present in the Asian and European markets most of the parts were hard to find on ebay or other online stores and very few people have international shipment option.

I tried contacting some of the manufacturers of the after-market parts in china and Japan and got very few responses.I haven't ordered anything yet but just kept a watch for the prices.once I moved back to India ,I finally had a chance to work on it full time.I started contacting all the manufacturers I contacted earlier and requested quotes for the parts.it took quite some time to get all the responses.meanwhile I started searching locally for someone to import parts for me.

My primary preference is to improve the performance of the car,so started making a list of stage-1 mods which are quite accessible in my location,I managed to find a local tuner who could get me quality stuff and placed an order for a Full Free Flow Exhaust System , An Air Intake Kit ,Iridium Plugs & Recaro Seats.Those were the major upgrades to the car starting from April 09 and then the serious tuning begun.....!