Performance Noob Questions

[fatjerkgary]

Hi everybody, first time poster... be gentle.

Anyways, I'm the proud owner of a '07 Sedan (Jade Sea Metallic, yeah yeah), have had it about 8 months, 10k miles on it, daily driver, yattah yattah. Love the car, love the gas mileage. My only quarrel has been accelerating from stop lights on freeway onramps to 65/70. Semi-truck drivers in So Cali aren't that forgiving.

With that in mind, I don't have many plans or aspirations for my car other than to increase the low to mid range performance area ('cuz I like the 40ish mpgs I'm getting right now) and try to help out that acceleration issue.

Shopping list thus far:

Chino's intake (whenever it gets done) :D
NST Pulley (heard great things)
Custom Catback Exhaust*
Header**
16" or 17" machine lipped wheels (still in the market, possibly Motegi's)
HID (maybe)
Brake upgrade (maybe)

Whiiiiiich leads to my questions:

*I hear everyone praising custom exhaust setups. My first question is what are the pros/cons of catback vs axleback? The TRD is axleback isn't it? : \

**The headers I've heard that were available were all 4-1. It's also my understanding this won't do much for low/mid range as opposed to a 4-2-1 header setup. Are there any 4-2-1 headers available for a sedan?


Many thanks,
Gary