Every car has it's purpose weather it is a dump truck hauling away dirt for construction use or a formula 1 race car that serves a completely different job. In the world of tuning, the “street car” is a wide variety of things in a car that sets you apart from the others by adding your own mods and custom parts. In reality there’s no right or wrong in what you do to your car, after all it’s your machine and your money, you should be free to do whatever you want. Some individuals like to go overboard in a way that might put you in the “Dumb and Delirious” section. There are facts and logic to building a street car and we are ready to back those facts up in this How To: Street car build guide.

Picking the car is definitely up to you. Today the tuner industry has parts for so many cars out there that whatever you go with, there most likely are mods out there for it. One thing to consider is if you will drive your car through the winter. If you live in an area where there is snow, ice, etc.. Ask yourself what kind of driving interests you? If your favorite racing is rally, chances are you won’t be fully satisfied with a Civic or a 240. If you like drifting, you’re probably going to be most happy with a rear wheel drive car. Some people aren’t really in it for the speed but want something nice and unique that doesn’t need 500 wheel horsepower. After you go through the process of elimination it will be pretty apparent what car is for you and what you can afford.

Whether this is your first time doing this or you’re a professional, when you first started you probably were looking at something like

No doubt about it those are some amazing cars and one hot woman but, definitely not street cars or your girl friend.  Those are fully built models/show cars that rarely see the street other than going to car shows and meets. Cars like the ones below are more of a candidate for street car class.

With street cars usually being usually daily driven, the mods you install should allow for daily driving. For example a cat-less, unresonated, exhaust with no muffler may be a problem. In some cases, yes it can create the most power, but unfortunately the street is not a race track.  It will not only piss off everyone around you, but you won't hear yourself think, and probably get tickets for making too much noise. If your car is a NA (naturally aspirated) then most likely the best choice will be a full exhaust with both resonated and with a muffler, if you have a turbo car you can get away with just a muffler and no resonator as the turbo quiets down the noise. Make sure to buy a name brand exhaust because the sound and look of the exhaust will definitely get you points!

The body work and paint is not a cheap subject, so you have to make the right choices. First things first, you can forget about fiberglass anything! A show car can get away with fiberglass, but a street car definitely needs polyurethane. City driving or highway driving, any kind of driving puts your cars body at risk. Weather it’s from little rocks or those people out there that think they can do 3 other things while driving. No one wants to think about their ride getting injured, but like any other sport you just have to assume it might happen and put on your protective gear. Choose a nice body kit that is made of full polyurethane. Polyurethane is a very flexible material that companies make body kits out of. Fiberglass will crack and break into pieces very easily, especially in cold weather. Every wonder why some guys have a million zip ties holding their car together?   Try asking a hottie to go for a ride with you in that thing!


First of all for a wing to be functional, you need to be at a pretty high speed. Second of all, a slanted or angled piece of aluminum on your trunk is not going to do the job. A wing has to be aerodynamically designed in a wind tunnel to actually give you the right kind of down force. As a matter of fact, the new Ferrari’s can achieve around 900 pounds of down force at top speed and guess what. No wing!! Another fact is that most of the wings you see on the “Dumb and Delirious” section don’t create more down force than a bag of groceries.

Most will agree stock wheels for the most part suck. Let’s face it they're usually small, dull, and have low offset. When buying wheels you’re not only going for the look. The width of the wheel will determine how wide the tire can be which is crucial to launching and grip. The height is also important as you want to wheel to fill in the wheel well, but also you want to keep enough rubber around it so that if you hit a bump in the road you don’t automatically crack and bend your wheel. Having a nice set of wheels makes a big difference in your cars appearance. Putting a good set of tires accompanies your wheels. If you’re going to spend the money on rims and body kits and performance parts, the tires are just as important. Think of good tires as a good insurance, you’ll feel a lot safer.


Whatever suspension you do decide to go with always consider what you will have to do to have it. You don’t want a super stiff ride as it will hurt to drive the car. You don’t want to have huge amounts of camber either as the tires will get eaten up pretty quickly. But don’t forget, you still want to have a good suspension because even though it’s a street car, you never know when you’ll end up on a roads like these:

There are endless amounts of things you can do to your car from racing seats to great sound systems and LCD screens. When building a street car, just have a race car in mind and balance it between the realities of every day driving car with a show car in mind. Some sacrifice more than others with things like removing the AC, to save weight, while others sacrifice some performance to increase the luxury of their cars. Whatever you end up doing just make sure you have a car that is fun to drive every day that will get you to your destination reliably and something you’ll be genuinely be proud to own. Comment with pictures of your street car; let’s see what we’ve got!

If you have questions on how to build your street car you can also call us at: 1-800-959-0145 or join us on Facebook!