Dave, from my experience, don't mess with the cat-back system. Fairly high dollar for HP return. Instead, go with headers. The stock cat-back system will sound very good with headers, and is not very restrictive frrm the factory. New corsa cat-back system, ($800-900). New TPIS long tube headers, ($800-900). Just my two cents.

 

You must first decide where you whnt to end up. If you want a drag car or just a fun street car.Once you decide on that than you can decide what you need.

 

halltech intake!!

 

Welcome to the forum and on your new ride.
It seems like you are definitely getting a LOT of suggestions, and many I bet you didn't think about. I read you have warranty consderations. I have read on here that a dealer cannot refuse or charge you for a warrantied repair if the modification did not contribute to the failure. For example, if your air conditioning stops working and you had Stingers and an xpipe, they would be liable for warranty repair to the air conditioning as stated in your warranty agreement. If the left side Stinger fell off in traffic due to a faulty install, they would NOT be liable. There was a link that explained it on here a while ago.

As far as modding, it's your car. For me, most of the enjoyment I get from modding is the planning and designing of the mod. I happen to agree that a good exhaust that sounds and looks the way you want the car to sound and look would be a good first mod. You may not get much performance gain, maybe 5hp for a conservative exhaust to 10hp for an aggressive one, it certainly is good for the ego when you step on the gas and hear the sound, it gets me every time. The exhaust sound will change as you do more power mods to the car but this is usually a good thing. You can always sell it if it's a popular name brand. I personally would do a high flow exhaust and xpipe. Then at the same time I would do the zip-tie mod on the intake. Do a search on the zip-tie mod. It costs about $1 and an hour of your time. Those two mods will give you ~15hp, but the car will sound a lot better and your smile will be +15% when you drive it. Just my $.02.

Oh, one other thing. Some dealerships have approved aftermarket systems they will install for you, and those systems will definitely not void your warranty, or you can at least ask about your liability before you purchase. My dealer was a Corsa dealer. And they installed Corsa Indy's with Daytona tips and a Corsa xpipe and it was all under warranty.

 

CAI (Vararam), then GHL Bullets followed by LT headers of your choice!