New

With time and money, anything is possible. Lol! No, serious though, there isn't much you can do to our cars to boost performance. The transmissions are a huge factor in that. Yes, you can add an intake and exhaust, but it's mostly for sound. You may pick up an extra 1-2 real world horsepower. Those claims on their websites are perfect world conditions and will not always get anywheres close to what they claim. I know, how dare they lie, right? Anyways, unless you swap out the transmission, you pretty much stuck with what you got. Now put a good 5 or 6 speed standard in it and then your options are unlimited! Turbos, engine porting, the works!

So, options...
1) spend a little money, get you an intake and exhaust you like, make it sound a little better, be happy and just drive!
2) spend even more money, swap out transmission, get some boost, wonder what else is needed to keep it where you like it.
3) spend a lot of money and trade in car for something that doesn't have only 144 horsepower.

Old thread revival.

Wanted to state some things and to clarify a bunch of misconceptions stated in various posts in this thread. First off, I've said continually when this topic comes up. If you want a performance car, you should have purchased one from the outset. The C-HR is NOT a performance car. No matter what you do to try to make it into one. What little performance parts that are out for it yield very little power gains for the money spent.

The statement that the C-HR is held back by the transmission for any additional performance is not exactly true. Yes, the CVT in this vehicle will not sustain much abuse or be able to handle a large increase in power. The key word is LARGE. There's no way the 3ZR-FAE engine in this vehicle can be modified to the point where power handling of the CVT trans is going to be an issue. Suggestions of possibly using the direct shift trans from the Corolla HB are wrong. Just because the Corolla HB uses an engine with the same displacement as the 3ZR-FAE does not mean the trans is a bolt on. You have to see if the trans can physically bolt up to the engine namely is the bell housing of the direct shift trans compatible with the 3ZR-FAE. This is in addition to if the torque converter will mount up to the crankshaft. Even if through some miracle all of that works out, you now have to graft in the trans computer for the direct shift and try to make it work with the 3ZR-FAE's computer. If you're going through all this trouble, you might as well do a full powerplant transplant with using the engine from the Corolla HB with the trans and drop it into the C-HR as one unit. But guess what? If you do that, you essentially have a Lexus UX200. So then you might as well buy a used UX200 where you have a setup that's not a science project.

With regards to modifying the 3ZR-FAE, a suggestion was made about forced induction. With forced induction, you have to ensure the compression ratio is appropriate and the internals are beefed up to handle the additional stress cramming a bunch of air under pressure is going to create. This means pistons, connecting rods, and crankshaft. All new induction plumbing has to be fabricated to accommodate the insertion of a turbo. A new exhaust manifold would need to be fabricated. The oiling system has to be updated to now account for lubricating the turbo. A new tune will have to be created to adjust for the increased air and fuel. Which now brings up the fueling system. The injectors would have to be upgraded to ones that can deliver more fuel which then means a new fuel pump would have to be installed to be able to deliver more fuel.

There are no bolt on kits for this car. All of the above would have to be custom which means big $$$$. That's if you can find a manufacturer to produce custom parts. The only thing I see as even slightly viable for real performance gains is nitrous oxide. And that brings in a whole another set of considerations and issues.