when I ran it bone stock it ran a 16.5 but that was in the middle of summer and I only ran it a couple of times stock. With just a muffler I was running 16.2's. In terms of most important mod, I really think it has been a combination of everything.
If I had to pick it would be 1. tune 2. header 3. intake
I definitely think the tune was the most important part. But I didn't just take the canned tune approach necessarily. I got it tuned by Tune Time, took it to track and didn't see the gains that I was looking for. When I got the tune the first time my car felt a lot faster on the street but that was because they got the tranny tune done right from the get go. It was definitely more fun to drive, but it took a few trys to actually get the improvements in my quarter mile times.
I dynoed my car and sent my computer back with the dyno graph and a graph of my a/f ratios. Went back to the track and saw improvement(lost another 2 tenths). Dynoed again, A/F ratios were too lean. So Mike helped me out by doing a data log and I sent my computer back for a third time with the log file and my dyno graph. That's when I started running low fifteens. So it took me some trial and error. Matt over at tune time was real helpful too. (by the way orlando resident I would recommend Next Level Performance for dyno services)
I'm sure lots of people get their computers tuned or get a chip and are just pleased with the seat of the pants feel. My oppinion is every time you mod you need to look to see if there are gains or not.(I learned this from pouring money into my dodge neon and not finding out that my car was slow as **** until I had spent thousands of dollars, it felt fast I swear). Now when I get a mod, I take my car to the track. I always would check my corrected times too, so I could compare runs from different days.

I can offer some useful info from stuff that I've done:

1. K&N>Weapon R
K&N intake was better than weapon r intake which is now in my wife's cobalt ss. I changed intakes and my times went down.

2. No need for expensive or custom catback
Just changing the muffler gave me gains instead of going out and paying 400 + for a cat back(my muffler guy even told me that it wasn't worth me doing a cat back even tho he could have made a couple of extra bills for making me a custom one)

3. High flow cats are still restrictive.
Got a down pipe with a high flow magnaflow cat and saw a small gain. Cut out the cat and my times went down more. (it's funny cause my down pipe looks like a frankenstein experiment.)

4. Pacesetter header>GMPP header.
GMPP header is a p.o.s. and not worth the money. Got it and saw little to no gain. Got the pacesetter header, my times went down and the car pulled much better.(sounded much nicer too, the other one is just sitting in my garage now)

5. Believe it or not, but lowering springs actually helped my sixty foot times a little

6. Prothane mounts helped my sixty foot times some more

8. Don't burn out stock tires!!!
Well hope the info is helpful

 

Thanks for the detailed, reasoned response davekicksyourass. Don't get that much on here.

Did Tune Time take out the TQ management? Were you charged full price each time you wanted better tuning?

 

they didn't charge me anything. When you get a tune from them, if you want to tweak it they do it for free. If you get any new mods and need to adjust the tune for the new mods it's free too. You just have to pay for the shipping, and you can choose whichever shipping method you want. It's a real solid deal. As far as the torque management on the order form, I didn't what to put down here and I think they told me 75% but I'm not sure.

 

coolness dude

 

what did you run?

 

yeah I was there I ran a 15.1@94.01 mph for my best run with a 2.4 60ft

 

whoops I didn't see that earlier...

so close, yet so far