What can i do

[wozza]

I own a Nissan Micra K11 1.0 GX. I have only recently passed my test although had the car for a good 7-8 months. I am 22 so insurance should fall quite quickly.
Now being a 1L the acceleration is not the greatest and overtaking is a pain in the ass so i have been thinking of doing a few basic mods (hence finding this site) The thing is i am compleatly new to the idea and never done any mechanical work on cars before so if possable i would like a bit of help.
What i would like to do is (in this sort of order too)
Change the breaks so it stopps. By the looks of it i could change the disks and pads for higher performance ones and that should sort that out. I have seen some black diamond disks and EBC green stuff pads on a web site but ate they any good?
Add alloys, from reading threads 14" seems the way to go. Looking round 14's seem hard to come by so does anyone know of a good place to get some (or is it an ebay jobbie).
Stiffen up the suspention. i am not to botherd about lowering the car but it looks like i will need to lower it for the results. Springs seem easy to come by so that should not be too much of a problem.
Fit an air filter, K&N seem to be the way to go so ill stick with that.

So having done no work how hard is this stuff to fit? The other option is a garage but do most garages do the mods or is there speciality garages. I live in Birmingham if that helps people out with mabe giving a recommendation.
If you go to a garage do you tend to buy the parts and get them to fit?
Anyone think of any other mods i am blatently missing? I want some more acceleration. Top speed is fine as i plan not to loose my licence. Again i would perfer to not have a car that you can hear from 2 miles away (i know i am on myt own here) so i thought a back box is probably not the way to go unless it does really help.
Sorry for being such a newb but we all have to start somewhere.

 

[Glenn]

Welcome to the club. I can almost guarentee that most of the people on here will tell you to upgrade your engine to the 1.3 if you are looking to make the car a bit faster. If however you dont feel that you are to up to that then pretty much all the things that you suggested will work a treat..I have fitted a K&N filter to my car:

Most people on here will reccomend the pannel filter instead of the induction kit if you are looking for power more than noise. All i can say really is just to have a good look around the site, you will find loads of posts of what you can/cant do!

 

[goldstar0011]

Try this site for some info
http://www.mightymicra.co.uk

 

[rlees85]

1.3 micra cams are good and fairly easy to fit aswell if you dont fancy doing the entire engine. personally id go with the 1.3 engine tho.

 

[wozza]

i have to say i do not fancy changing the engine or the car.
The engine i feel will cost too much and i feel would probably be too much hastle. The rest of the car is almost perfect too so i do not want to change the car.
I know i probably wont get the performance of a 1.3 and that is fine, seems like an air filter is a good idea then. Do better spark plugs do anything decent?

 

[K10Daz]

nah spark plugs wont make a difference mate! Big performance cars they can make a difference, but as for your naturally aspirated 1litre it wud b no difference, just a waste of money..Give the car a good service and change the plugs - that will make it run a bit smoother, thats easy stuff to do! Give your engine loads of TLC and look after it and it will last and be reliable!

Hope this helps you m8!

Daz

 

[goldstar0011]

Ye, if you're running fresh clean filters, oils, plugs, hoses etc etc it will allow the best performance of the car, a 10year old 1L micra probably won't run at 59BHP if not looked after.