With all the talk these days in real estate about building up to your dream home via buying and selling consequent housing, it should not be surprising to find that this same technique can be used to attain the vehicle of your dreams.

The basic theory of this idea consists of purchasing vehicles at bottom end pricing and then selling them for a profit, then taking the extra money and putting it into a subsequent better car. By doing this again and again, eventually one could build up to a rather substantially impressive vehicle.

The key here will of course be to find the best deal when it comes time for the purchase of a new vehicle (people who need to sell a vehicle quickly for some reason), and then sell it to a collector who is willing and able to pay top dollar.

One of the most obvious ways to get more money out of your vehicles is to improve and upgrade it before selling. This will build up its worth and give the collector more of a reason to choose your car for the extra amount of cash.

Note: Keep in mind, that when upgrading, some upgrades can actually decrease the worth of a car. Heavy cutting and modification to a true classic vehicle will most likely decrease its ultimate worth. However, improved safety features of an older model classic is one case where modification is sometimes seen by a collector as worthy.

In general, a thorough interior cleaning, possibly recovering seats, replacing carpet, repainting or polishing the paint and then giving the car a good tune can make it worth as much as $20,000 over what you paid, depending on the popularity of the vehicle with collectors of course.

An example of how this works can be seen by a young man named Kalvis who began trading up cars at the tender age of 16. He began with a 1977 Porsche 911 that he purchased from a friend in decent condition for around $5,000. He reconditioned the interior, tuned the engine, and buffed out the oxidized paint.

It wasn’t long before he found a turbo Porsche 930 “wide body” in rough condition. The 930 did not run and the owner had not been able to fix it. When my friend offered the enthusiast an even trade between his strong running 911 for his 930, he jumped at the chance.

A few months of interior work, paint, and engine tuning and the 930 was already worth between $15,000 to $30,000 to a collector. Once again he found a collector who was a fan of the 930 and was willing to part with his 1996 Viper RT/10 in trade for the partially reconditioned Porsche.

Today, he is 23 and driving a Viper RT convertible… and it was basically purchased with an old Porsche 911 and plenty of elbow grease. Something of which anyone can do if they put their mind to…

…A 2007 MazdaSpeed3 that is.

With the enthusiast talk of the rival Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi EVO IX, it is easy to see how the Mazdaspeed3 could easily be forgotten and therefore underestimated on the streets.

The MazdaSpeed3 is based off of the “cheaper” Mazda3, but there are many improvements to like about this new Mazda performance vehicle and one of those is undoubtedly the stout little 2.3 DOHC turbo charged engine. The engine is reported to put down no less than 260 horsepower and many reviewers claim that upon the first drive, the purported 260 hp seemed just too low in comparison to their “seat-of-the-pants” estimation.

If there is anything that can be said against the new MazdaSpeed3 in comparison to its rivals, is that it is not AWD (All Wheel Drive). Mazda obviously knew this downfall and in its place prescribed a sophisticated boost controller that is capable of limiting the turbo’s potential during moments of acceleration to keep its traction.

In laymen terms, this means that the typical torque steer associated with high output front wheel drive cars is vastly reduced and even more importantly, in poor weather it should be able to hold its own in the traction department.

With all this talk of performance and horsepower it is also easy to downplay the fact that this Mazda should be capable of 30 mpg in normal driving situations. Thanks to its 1,500 psi direct injection and six-speed transmission, this Mazda can not only smoke most cars on the road today, but it can also rival their economy and emissions too.

On the artistic side of the MazdaSpeed3 it is quite improved upon the more boring base 3. It features 18-inch rims, an updated and functional body kit, and performance styles hood and rear wing. Functional and beautiful… two words that can hardly ever be used when talking about a performance car for under $25,000.

Performance Powertrain Specifications as reported by Mazda:

Engine: 2.3L DOHC intercooled 4-cylinder (263 horsepower)
-241 hp and 255 lbs torque to the wheels, as reported by Turbo & High-Tech Performance

Performance: 0-60 mph: N/A
Standing 1/4 mile: 14 seconds
Top Speed: 155 mph

“I was 5 when my dad drove the car into the driveway, all I can really remember about it was saying, Cool,” reminisces Ryan about his Honda drag racer back in its days as a daily driver. Keep in mind, this was back in the 80’s when the phrase, ‘There is no replacement for displacement’ was still very truthful. Today, we know that a Garrett turbocharger can change the rules of small displacement engagement with just the turn of a few bolts.

Ryan began to plot the resurrection of the faithful daily driven Honda before he could even drive. As many young tuners, Ryan began his quest with a simple body restoration to rid the Civic of body rot, and has found himself where he is today, with a 568 WHP fire breathing dragon, puffing 34 psi through its renowned GT35R turbo.

It was not an easy road to reach the 500 WHP goal he had set for himself. In fact, his first build only produced 260 horses, leaving the remaining 240 ‘combustionally’ challenged ponies suffocating in the Honda’s stock iron block until RLZ Engineering introduced a better ‘head’ onto the Civic’s shoulders.

Ryan initial Civic tuning was comprised of an Apexi turbo, 3” exhaust, homemade boost controller, and mostly stock tranny. Ryan’s Honda Civic could run 13’s all day long at the track with this concoction. Add in a pair of K-Sport Lower control arms and Progress Custom Valved Drag coilovers, and the Honda was able to see 11.9 @112 for the first time.

Using basic hand tools and his driveway as a garage, he installed a Garrett GT35R turbo as the base power from which he would build upon the rest of his transformation. Unfortunately, a flatulent monkey hopped on his back when the installation was complete and the Civic became bogged down with a waning power band that ceased to produce the numbers that Ryan had hoped for.

Thanks to a set of extensively machined RLZ heads and a few tweaks of the Honda’s AFC tuning, the cars disappointing 100 rpm power band leaped to 3,000 rpm and the car scorched the rollers at a very long awaited 568 WHP and this is all with a single cam mind you.

Anything can happen if you put your mind to it…