Hey all. First off, I'd like to say that this is an impressive community, I've found a wealth of technical information just searching through the various topics here. Thumbs up to y'all!

A bit about myself: I'm a 19 year old college student who just bought a '99 RS about a month ago with 105k miles. I'd like to start adding performance mods and such (mmm...turbo!), but cash isn't something that I can throw around at the moment. I've done some basic work with engines (changing oil and oil filter, belts, hoses, air filter, etc.) and could probably handle the easy bolt-ons, but would still classify myself as a relative newbie to the world of mechanics. With that in mind, I have a few questions.

1) My car is an automatic. I know this will slow me down, but how much? At what point in my upgrade path would I want to do an auto to manual swap?

2) Cost-wise, would it be better to trade my '99 RS + cash for a 2g GSX and start from there? Most 2g GSX's seem to run for $7-8k in these parts, so would the $3-4k difference buy me the upgrades to essentially make my RS a GSX in the performance department (including the drivetrain swap)?

I probably forgot something, but if I think of anything else I'll just add it later. Thanks a bunch.