I'm considering dropping about $1300 for performance mods into my car and I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it. Right now I have an almost bone stock Auto RA, the only upgrade I have is a SRI. I have no desire to strap a turbo, SC, or NOS on my car, I want to keep it pure NA. My primary concern is spending $1300 to upgrade my car from slow to pretty slow. From my forum search, the only result I found was some dude who ran a 16.4, and the post is well over a year old. 16.4 sucks, it's ES/OZ stick territory (no disrepsect to the ES/OZ guys, but 40 more HP should net us some better times, regardless of transmission).

Ideally, I'd like to be able to achieve a time of 14.90 or less based on what I can get. What that appears to be is a pulley, a piggyback, the intake manifold, and possibly the header, or if not that, the axleback exaust (the exaust would leave me an extra $200 so that I can build a heatshield for my SRI, or maybe pick up some beefier suspension parts). I'm pretty sure that those parts alone won't do it, but at the same time I don't want to buy those parts just so I can get to the high 15s. I would greatly appriciate it if anybody with NA Automatic times in the quarter to post their times and the condition they got those times in (What mods, what was the temp, what kind of tires/wheels, did you let the car shift itself or did you run it through the gears, stuff like that). I would greatly appriciate people with sticks not posting their times, as it appears that the difference in stick times on stock vehicles varies based on how well the driver shifts, and the automatic doesn't have that variable, so I get pretty much nothing from that.

 

im sorry to say your biggest mistake was buying an automatic, to see results from an auto that has such low hp you will need to have some serious hp to take advantage of it.

Hardcore muscle car enthusists run auto because its quick, and they have over 300hp

You are going to have to have atleast 260hp to see something good come out of an automatic, so go with nitrous, go with turbo, or dont even building your automatic ralliart.

my standard ralliart only has exhaust and intake and i run 15.2.

 

If I wanted a stick, I would have gotten a stick when I bought the car. This is the kind of information I don't want. It wasn't a mistake, and I'll mind you and anybody else who reads this thread to keep that opinion to yourself.

 

well he's right....automatics aren't race cars....y dont you work on other things to make the car better....suspension and brakes, thatll make it a better road car and youll place will auto x'ing

 

Lemmie set you in the mindframe of the time I want to be able to get, because I'm not looking for a 12 second car. I want to be able to put anybody with a stock Spec-V or Civic SI in their place. That's it. Sub 15. It's not fast.

 

sub 15s will be hard for a NA auto since they are running over 16's stock.

 

Actually, the RA limits your RPMs to 4k on a powerlaunch, you never get to spinning your tires, just enough to put you at the low end of MIVEC. It looks like I'm going to have to get my own times blind since I don't think anybody with an auto has really ever thought of dropping this many mods into their car at once.

As a future upgrade, I've been investigating taking my car to level 10 and letting them rebuild my torque converter. If it could be done, it would likely make up for the vast majority of the difference between the stick and the auto in terms of times.

 

I also have a 2004 automatic RA. And yes, i did want the automatic. I've been driving manual cars for years and it's so nice to have a auto now. The only mod I have in mine so far is the AEM SRI. I ordered the pulley last week and hopefully it'll be in early next week. I'll be sure to let you know how much it improves my automatic RA.

Has anyone purchased the Magnaflo muffler from RRM yet? I'm kinda interested in it but I do not want a loud vehicle especially since i'm a commuter. I want it to sound deep when i give it some punch but tame when just cruising. Would love to hear a sound-clip of it if someone has it.

 

RAs have this tendency to sound LOUD with muffler(aftermarket, thank you) What I do about its go to my local junkyard and try to get:

1. 3G eclipse muffler...a little less restrictive

2. Eclipse turbo double tip stock muffler.... Sounds great if you have the DP

3. 4G Eclipse V6.... The meanest sound to get from a factory muffler.

Cool thing about any of them is that you dont get tickets...unless the cop knows his stuff....which is a vey unlikely thing

 

the only way you "might" do something to the automatic ra.. is to above all change the torque converter on the tranny, it "should be" the equivalent to changing the clutch.. of course you will need to make it custom but that is jsut me...

 

I don't think anybody here has modded an auto Ralliart with the parts your thinking of buying(pulley, piggyback, intake manifold, header). If I had to guess I would say your probably gonna run high 15's with those parts, maybe mid 15's with some luck.

14.90 or quicker in an automatic would probably take every part that is made for the Ralliart. Consider a downpipe, high flow cat, and stiffer motor mounts. A lightweight set of 15" or 16" rims, stickier tires, carbon fiber body pieces (hood, trunk), lightweight seats, ditch the spare tire and run w/ 1/4 or less fuel.
Anything helps getting that 2900lbs of curb weight down. I wish our cars weren't so heavy.

 

Here is a list of questions I didn't ask, based on your post:

Can I race my automatic?
Can I get 14s on my car?
Can I get 14s with bolt ons?
Can I get 14s with the limited number of mods available on my car?
Can I get 14s without engine work?
Did I make a mistake in buying an automatic?

As a matter of fact, I think the only question I asked was for 1/4 mile times with an unmodded automatic transmission. You need to go back and read my post again, slowly, and if you need it, with a dictionary to look up any words you might not understand. You don't drive an automatic. You're not qualified to answer my questions. Your opinions are fine, but keep them on my topic, or start your own thread, don't hijack mine by hammering automatics.

And to the guy that said that I can't drive--I drive an average of 600 miles a week. Every day I drive to USF I have to go through the I275/I4 junction, which at the time of day I drive through it, requires me to stop and go at least 25 times because of rush hour traffic. I know how to drive a stick. I choose not to because it's a pain in my ***.

 

Automatics typically aren't that fast in 4-cylinder cars. I am sure if some company out there made a high stall torque converter it would make a big difference in an auto Ralliart.

automatics work best in vehicles with lots of torque like V-8's.

I have an auto ralliart myself and don't regret it.

 

im qurious of what times a stock automatic ra is runnin ,has any of you guys even taken your ra to the track yet ? i met a guy with a auto ra befor and he didnt seem to have any problems off the line , i mean he wasnt smokin tires up or anything but he didnt have any problems getting wheels of the line, it seemed pretty torquie to me.

 

If you're going to quote me, put my comments into context. I swear to God, some of you *******s must be using douche bottles for sticks on your cars:

"Ideally, I'd like to be able to achieve a time of 14.90 or less based on what I can get. What that appears to be is a pulley, a piggyback, the intake manifold, and possibly the header, or if not that, the axleback exaust (the exaust would leave me an extra $200 so that I can build a heatshield for my SRI, or maybe pick up some beefier suspension parts). I'm pretty sure that those parts alone won't do it, but at the same time I don't want to buy those parts just so I can get to the high 15s."

There it is. Underlined, italicised, bolded, and supersized for your reading pleasure. I won't respond to any more of your posts unless you contribute to the information I want. Oh, try to learn some proper sentence structure. If you ever decide to contribute a meaningful post, I'm not going to try to decode whatever the hell it is you're typing just to understand it.