Business Photo Slideshows

BMW 3 Series

The 3 Series spans a huge range, from the ragtop meant for blond Hollywood High seniors to the ripsnorting M3 hot rod. But it's still prime chip fodder, though BMW’s legendary refusal to sell shop manuals makes everything a tad more challenging for the home chipper (not that, at BMW prices, there are likely to be many of those).

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Acura Integra GS-R

Sold in the U.S. from 1986 to 2001, three generations of the well-loved Acura Integra have been prime targets for chippers almost since the first one hit the shores. Sold as a Honda outside North America—read inexpensive, sporty, and well engineered—the baby Acura was replaced by the RSX for 2002.

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Honda Civic

You'll see lowered, tuned, blackout-windowed Civics all over the country. And with the popular buzz-box exhaust canisters, you'll probably hear them next to you at the stoplight. Early models had double-wishbone suspension, just like expensive race cars—but being Hondas, they were cheap and reliable. What' not to like?

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Subaru Impreza STI

Honed in the tough-as-nails arena of World Rallying, the WRX and its even fiercer sibling, the STI, are wolves in sheep's clothing. The Impreza they're based on is truly a basic, nerdy all-wheel-drive sedan. But when it puts on its armor, it transforms. Chip one of these guys and you will cause serious angst among owners of cars many, many times more expensive—and prestigious. Perfect!

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Ford Focus

When Ford launched the Focus, the company took the radical step of showing modified versions at the gigantic Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show, even before the car landed at dealerships. S.E.M.A. is the customizers' mecca, where carmakers promote their models as tuner-friendly. Did it work? Not really. Focus tuners exist, but not in such numbers as for Hondas and Volkswagens.

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Audi A4

With a software upgrade, the A4 can take on a Jekyll-and-Hyde quality. The neighbors think you have an innocent, nicely machined German sports sedan; only you know you could lay stripes of rubber down their cul-de-sac if you wanted to.

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Porsche 911 Turbo

Close to the ultimate car to chip, the already fast (and not quite as furious) 911 tends to get tweaked for track performance as much as for street use. Performance kits for 911s—like everything else on the hugely expensive Porsche options list—start in the thousands and go north from there.

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Volkswagen Fahrenheit GTI

The GTI is VW's factory hot rod, but there's always more power to be squeezed out of an engine-control unit (at the possible expense of life span, gas mileage, and smoothness). Like other popular tuner rides, you're likely to see lowered GTIs with big wheels, low-profile tires, aggressive sway bars, and all sorts of graphics, lights, and blacked-out glass.

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