I recently moved to Rhode Island and street racing has started to gain my attention. I have a 98 Honda Civic EX Coupe. On to my real question though, what would be the first mod you would make to your car? Or, what do you think, in general, is the best starting point?

Id hate to say this but your pretty much doomed with yoru car. Best bet is to buy something new, bcuz the money you will spend on mods (I.E around 3000+) will do more on something more willing to gain power.

DON'T BUY USELESS SHIT FOR YOUR CAR!!!!!

Make it fast before you make it look fast, cuz if you go out looking like your the fifth driver in a F&F movie and don't put up...your going to get laughed at. Penny pinch the next couple of months and get yourself a GReddy Turbo kit for your car. Don't buy any intakes, cuz your just going to get rid of it. For your car get:
GReddy Turbo Kit
Good big piping exhaust (5Zigen, GReddy, Apexi, etc.)
ZEX 59300 cam
New upgraded Clutch and Flywheel

That should make your car competitive.

If I were him i would swap in a B18 and then turbo it, cuz a B18 is gonna run you 300 bucks for the whole motor.

probably a cold air intake system or a catback exaust system

get a turbo to start with, greddy bitz or HKS,and cold air intake and you could make that car look real good to there are lots of cheap and good looking kits out there and i,d get some graphics to make it stand out from the crowd

me 2 ive been around it a long time ive liked it a long time but now is when im actually doing it.. trying 2 raise up a 92 integra and an 87 crx .. whoever can help with this let me kno plz..

where are you racing like I'm in Middletown witch is like all turns outher than West Mane i would work on grip and acell tell me where you are racing a i can help you

Just to kill this now:
A cold air intake, header(s), high compression pistons, and most cams are for all motor use. You can't install a cold air intake on a turbo kit, and even if you did, it's worthless, cuz the turbo causes the air to heat up and loose density. This is why people buy intercoolers, to gain back air density and cool the intake charge down. Few companies offer turbo kits for the D-series: DRAG, GReddy, and Edelbrock are the only ones i can think of off the top of my head. BLITZ nor HKS offer turbo kits for the D16 any more. HKS used to offer a turbo manifold but it was discontinued.
Rx's B18 idea is another good route if you don't feel like sticking with the D16 as well. And please PLEASE, never put a damn wing on your fwd civic, it's rediculous. You're putting down force on the back of your car and taking traction away from the front. And you are never going to reach the speeds necessary for it to improve any handling on your car as well. Stop making imports look bad.