what dd said is spot on.

what is the "apparent torture" you are referring to? and what is your current suspension setup? and what type of events are you planning to do?

you asked a very open question without giving much detail, so i don't think it can be answered any better than DD did.

what is an E1?

Wow looking great!

I finished the whole season last year (7 races)

came second in class by 1 point to a sunny, it was tight for points between 3 cars and that made it a lot of fun

but i had a lot of dramas, and spent a lot of hours keeping the car running. I think i won a high percentage of the stages i competed/finished in, but didn't compete in enough to win the year in fact the last race was the only one that really went super smooth and the car didn't need major work after

so due to time factor i'm not competing this year (kitchen renovations became high priority)

i did do 1 autocross at geelong early in the year, the little datto still loves a good thrashing, actually there is a couple of nice pics, will try to get around to uploading

So early this year i signed up for a Sandown raceway time regularity trial, and in the excitement i went to town on the supsension and tyres

Ditched the stanza struts that i put engine oil in the shocks like 12 years ago and the road tyres

Put in some supafatto coilovers with adjustable tops, maddat castor rods and new bushings (already had maddat sway bar)
Reset leaves and some heavy duty shockers in the back
Plus bought some semi-slicks

and finally - that meant i could fit matching wheels (work equip ones that were on back) all round the car

With the car all aligned and with the good camber and castor - wow - it made a huge difference!

Sandown was good fun, will upload pics in the near future

I put this car on club rego a year ago and have been using it as 1 of 3 club rego cars so that i dont need a full reg car (cheaper)

6 months back me and a couple of mates spent a day tidying it up and lowering it all round so that it looked a bit nicer

and i'm now putting together a bunch of spares to do up the mechanicals

-New seats, all black autotechnica
-H165 diff, 4.11 center
-manual! have a rebuilt smooth case 4spd which i will start with, and maybe put the 5spd in when claire gets used to manual
- quad throttle bodies, (should have most stuff except an appropriate surge tank) run by megasquirt
- correct crossmember for late motor (may need to modify AC brackets to fit)
- chin spoiler (but claire is adamant im not allowed to put that on)

also need some better extractors, which hopefully i have and will fit when the new crossmember is in
and i need to setup some decent thermo fans perhaps on a better fitting radiator

this all seems like easy enough stuff to do after playing with CA's for a while now

will get some up to date photos when i start work

getting pics on here is a little difficult, easiest to publish elsewhere first and then link

it is definitely easier to register as standard car first

cheapest way would have to be taller wheel/tyre combination on the rear, or change diff ratio, or put more psi in the tyres

other things that would help would be an electric fan instead of mechanical or electronic ignition as they improve high rpm performance

or try to make the car more aerodynamic

there is 3 things at play - your engine power versus rolling resistance + wind resistance

auto and manual are different so its probably worth specifying which you are after

If the chassis came with a bigger motor it is ok to put in without cert cause the factory/manufacturer engineered it for that motor.