Hey y'all. New to the forums here, new to Lancers & Evos. But very familiar with cars and work full time at a shop. I just picked up a 2016 Lancer ES 2.0 with CVT for $7k. Coming up on 80k miles and from what I can see has been maintained fairly well and is very clean. I will start fresh with all maintenance regardless as I do with all my used cars (flush all fluids, plugs, filters, tires, brakes, etc). I wasn't seeking out a lancer or anything particular really but it was too good of a deal to pass up and I know people can have a lot of fun with these cars.
I was wondering what mods might be worth doing on this considering it's the 2.0 with a CVT and I've heard it's tough to squeeze much power out of them. Because the car was under my budget I've got about 3k to play with currently and wouldn't mind having some fun with it lol
Would there be much to gain from a decent CAI and cat-back system?
I was also thinking of converting the suspension to a GT suspension for better handling. And possibly switching to 17 inch rims. But might just switch from a 205-60-16 to 225-55-16 for now
I see there's soooo much that can be done with these awesome cars and just wanted some input on where might be a good place to start with this particular model.... or if it'd be wiser to keep it an economy car and put all funds towards another toy?
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance for your help : )

 

I'm just going to be honest with you most people arent going to give you a straight answer on what you can do as far as mods and performance because to them modding a CVT is solely for cosmetic reason not performance because the CVT apparently can't hold power without blowing itself up but the real problem isn't the CVT not holding power it's the longevity and purpose of it's power if it's just a drag car that's one thing but if you are daily driving it and trying to do autocross I would not recommend