Let me see if I have this right?
You're a young bloke on P plates, who has just bought an Honda Integra as a salvageable wreck and fixed it up to get it registered. That is admirable - you win brownie points for your effort there. You've been on this forum for a month or two.
Now you've only had your car a short time and already your not happy with it's performance. You want to upgrade to a more powerful engine. Why, so you can drag other young blokes off in "traffic light derbies". Not a wise move, no matter what state you're in. You're disappointed in your new car because you haven't been able to beat everybody you've come up against. My mind now flashes with visions of the Nightly News where you see S2000s, Type Rs and other performance cars split in half or wrapped around poles/trees. Inevitably someone has died, and there's footage of the mother/girlfriend/sister/mate all saying what a likable young man the deceased was.
You have an automatic gearbox too, and that is holding you back. You want to do a manual conversion to a sportier gearbox, maybe a Type R, with slicker shifts and faster changes. You want, in essence, to spend a lot of money making your new car faster.
My point, enjoy the effort you have put in to get your car on the road, save your money and be sensible in how you spend it. Nearly everyone on here will encourage you to get that Type R/B20VTEC engine and a slick-shift new gearbox. You probably feel like your in heaven with all this enthusiastic promotion of bigger engines and higher performance but don't let it cloud your common sense. You're young, you're on P Plates. Don't get carried away.
I'm not saying you shouldn't do your car up, and as some have suggested there are better ways to enjoy your car and make it more enjoyable. I hope you love your Integra - Hondas are great cars, as you said, well made and great fun to drive. You're in I.T. so you probably make reasonable $$$ - spend it wisely but you don't have to blow everything you earn.
I'd love to see more photos of your car. How about you create a Photobucket/tinypic/etc account and post some up for us to see. There will be plenty of suggestions on how to improve your "ride" - suspension, brakes, interior, wheels, etc. Just don't go overboard on the "power trip"; there's more to enjoying a car than beating people at the traffic lights.
That's it from me. I know you're going to say 'what a dick this guy is' and I probably deserve it (in some ways), but at least think about your options. Cars are fun but you have to be alive to enjoy them.
Then again, maybe I've read to much into this.
Peter
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