new owner - what to improve?

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Hello, I have recently got my 86 on the road and have some questions. The car seems base as base gets and is hard to steer. Is this simply due to no power steering?
The cats and such have been removed and a custom exhaust put on, what is the pipe heading back to the motor and what does/did it do? I want it fast but not as stinky...
Also what can I do simple at first to zip up this automatic non turbo basemobile?

 

The manual steering should be light and well balanced. Check to make sure that the ball joints and tie rod ends are not worn. Mine were worn when I got the car, resulting in hard steering that felt very stiff. Replacement brought the steering "spring" back.

The split air pipe is there to feed air to the cats under certain load conditions, and supply exhaust backpressure to open the aux intake ports. If the pipe is not connected then the ports may not be opening, resulting in a major HP loss at the top end. A search for "aux ports" will turn up a buttload of info.

Not much you can do to make the automatic fast. The transmission is a bit of a dog. If you are serious about modding it, then swap to a 5 speed.

 

take a picture of the engine bay, and show us.. we'll start from there... and you should search before asking