Well since you already did the swap just take your first year with a grain of salt, meaning get ready to be humbled. Don't show up thinking your hot stuff Cause you will be humbled by a 70hp Fiat if one shows up

Your first year of autocrossing is a learning experience anyway. So what you want ot do is get as much seat time as you can. Have someone drive your car, jump in other people's car (if your region lets you), passenger in someone else's car, etc... Take a novice school if it's offered.

In my book mods will only do you so much compared to seat time. A $1000 coilover system may shave off .5-1 second on a 60 second course. Whereas a Novice School can shave off 4-8 seconds on the same course.

Last year I took an Evolution School (http://www.autocross.com/evolution) and I thought I was hot stuff. I ran the course in 38.xxx seconds. Got it down to 36 seconds by lunch. My instructor wanted to run my car and on his first run he ran a 34.xxx! First run mind you. By the end of the day I got down to a 34.xxx also, but I was just amazed that this guy who didn't know anything about my car beat me