I raced my friend today (first time to street race in my car) and I lost. Not by much, maybe a car½ lenght, but his car is stock

its a 94 Honda Civic Del Sol 5spd MT

I can keep up with him (and kinda gain) when im hittin tha vtec, but when it goes to the next gear and out of vtec, i start fallin behind.

Aside from turbo/nos, what can be done to beat him?

I got a 93 Honda Civic Dx 4dr AT

I am still needing to do my exhaust system (still on stock)

How much HP could I possibly gain from headers-muffler? Could that keep me in front of him?

I like that hyper ground system that guy made, gonna hit home depot in tha mornin.