2014Z28

Just picked up a 2002 CETA with 5500 miles on the clock. Looking forward to reading and learning about these cars.

The only thing changed from stock is a Optima Yellow top battery and a Axle Back Magnaflow exhaust. The tires are stock so that will be the first upgrade.

Few Questions
-What tires are most buying, I was thinking of the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2
-How does the Magnaflow exhaust compare to others. I have always preferred Corsa.
-Should I keep the original tires?
-Best mods bang for the buck, the car will not be my daily driver however I will be having to keep up with my Gen 5 Camaro buddies.

Cheers Ray

JD_AMG

Totally depends on what you are doing with the car and the budget.
Never heard anything bad about he Pilots, they are supposed to be some of the best tires out there for handling.
Magnaflow is generally quiet, I too prefer Corsa, nothing quite sounds like it.

It wouldn't hurt but I don't see that helping resale value. While some might say they are collector cars, the ones going for some higher sale prices are super low mile (under 10,000 miles) window sticker, totally stock unmolested cars (no fun at all). And on top of that its a very select market that someone wants a stock 4th CETA strictly for collector purposes. Most of these cars are bought for relatively cheap, modded/built and raced.

Depends on some things, first what exactly do you want out of the car? Just speed? Handling? ride quality a concern?
What trans do you have, auto or manual?
With an auto an aftermarket stall makes a huge difference in acceleration, that paired with LT headers and full exhaust and a tune and you will be significantly quicker than stock auto 5th gen SS's and hanging with or beating manual 5th gen SS's. Same deal with a manual trans, with sticky tires and full bolt-ons you will have no problem walking stock 5th gens. The sky is basically the limit. There are write ups on here for 500RWHP NA heads/cam builds and guys making well over 1000rwhp with turbo setups.
These cars respond very well to mods and are highly restricted from the factory.
I would also highly suggest a good set of shocks, the factory decarbon (orange/black) shocks these cars come with belong on a truck, even brand new they suck and are floaty/loose while also being jarring on bad roads. On a tight budget bilstiens or Koni STR.Ts will make a huge difference in handling and ride. If you have more money to spend or want more performance out of a shock then Koni sport single adjustables will blow your mind, the car will feel similar to how a BMW M3 feels. Super solid, ridiculously planted and a firm but not jarring ride.
The factory brake pads suck as well, do not bother replacing with autozone ones or some cheapo ceramics. Get some good semi-metalic pads like hawk HPS or something similar.

2014Z28

I will take the car to the odd track day and maybe down the 1/4 mile the odd time. Id like to upgrade the HP, Brakes and Suspension, the Koni's sound like exactly what I am after. Where is the best place to buy them?

The car is a manual, I don't need crazy hp but 400 to the wheels would be fun. I am not really on a budget so I would like to do the upgrades all at once and spend my time enjoying the car.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

There are countless options and opinions on most of your questions above, any number of site searches would give you hours of reading on various related topics, however in regards to this:

....there is no point in keeping the original tires for future "collector" purposes if you plan to modify the car. You mostly alienate the purist stock collector market segment once you start with modifications, so anyone interested in such a car in the future would likely not care about the tires either way.

JD_AMG

Supension/brakes: stranoparts.com
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JohnnyBs98WS6Rag

iTrader: (1)

Just need to mention that 15 y/o tires are probably dry-rotted anyway. Don't think twice about getting them replaced. Once the originals are pulled off the rims, they are junk.

blackbyrd

iTrader: (14)

Corsa sounds amazing with stock manifolds if you plan on headers you will either want a bullet muffler in the I pipe, or choose a different exhaust. It gets very raspy in the higher rpm range with longtubes.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I'll just add that with the right care and storage/climate conditions, tires age very slowly and can survive longer than some folks might think. In recent years there has been much fuss made about "old" tires, but much of that concern is application dependent, varying greatly depending on what sort of life the tires have seen and will see. I'm up to 12 years/5,000 miles on the current set on my garage queen, I won't hesitate to go 15 years or more based on how I use this particular car and how I've cared for the tires. However, if I was planning on extreme (competition) or even moderate (daily use, long road trips) type usage, my position would be different.

A 5500 mile CETA could certainly qualify as an upper tier 4th gen collector piece and there are some collectors who might pay a bit more to still have the original tires on such a car. But, since this example already has an aftermarket exhaust and it seems that the OP is planning other mods, such a consideration probably ceases to matter in this case.

2014Z28

Thanks for the feedback guys, I purchased TOYO Proxes R1R. I have always had the Michelin PS-2 or Trofeo's so thought I would change it up a bit. I am leaving the originals with the seller.

JD_AMG

**** I just read this and realized its 5,500 miles, I originally thought the op said 55,000 miles.
Well that would put it in collectors status.
Basically at this point if it matters to you, anything you do to the car that isn't reversible will very likely devalue it quite a bit. So its up to you if you want to sell it after a while and try to profit and then use that money for another less collectable 4th gen you can mod and beat on.

NC01TA

Nice purchase Enjoy!
Mods are up to you. I'm a 'stock' guy.

2014Z28

I have always been a stock guy as well. That was part of the motivation for buying this car as I have a few more cars that I don't want to change, I am now having doubts as I've had a lot of people tell me I should leave it stock. I didn't buy the car to keep as a collector and cannot imagine it would ever be that valuable. So for 20k I think I cannot go wrong, have fun with it and sell it in 5 years for 20k.

NC01TA

That last sentence depends on the miles you accumulate. If just a few thousand, then yeah, you are right. If you put on a lot of miles the price will drop accordingly. Mileage matters!
I bought my T/A new way back in the day and i lost my mind when I hit 10,000 miles. I now have over 50,000 miles and i don't care if it's worthless (it's not but just saying). For all the enjoyment over the years, it is worth every penny. Just have fun!

WS6 #3392

Nice ride! Check out some of the build threads and you can get a good idea of what mods work and which way you would like to go with yours.

cnd99hawk

iTrader: (2)

I respectfully disagree with the mileage statement. The OP lives in Canada like myself and 4th gens here are very expensive, as compared to US cars.

I bought my 99 hawk in 2008 for 20k with 28,000km (17,400mi). Most guys on here think I got taken to the cleaners but that's generally what our cars cost here (especially the special edition ones)

I think he will be able to get 20k for it down the road, as long as the car is kept close to stock and under 60k, just my opinion..

01WS6/tamu

iTrader: (37)

Drive it a day or 2 enjoy it then fear not to replicate hardbones sweet car he bought showed off on here then sold to a guy who performed awesomeness upon it. It's a 4th gen drive it and enjoy it.

2014Z28

I plan on maybe 1k miles a year so it shouldn't affect value too much. if I make changes I save the bolt on parts.
The car drives great on the new Toyos.

judgeman6970

Either way, $20k(us?) is a great deal for a 5k mile CETA. Personally, I would drive the 1k miles per year, enjoy it, but keep the mods to a minimum

MaSTi

I started off buying a modded (bolt on) TA, so I didn't have to look into too much. A header back system will certainly help. After that it depends on how much power and suspension mods you'd like. I ended up doing suspension after getting the car with headers and SLP LM exhaust. I intended to auto-x my TA, so I went to strano for my mods (see sig). After that I wanted more power and did H/C/I mods and ended up with decent power to help. Have fun building it!!!

2014Z28

I picked the car up in Reno then drove thru Lake Tahoe and up the Oregon coast to Vancouver B.C. The ride and weather was amazing.1000 miles on 3.5 tanks of gas.