[Nicks67GTO]

Who would have thought that in Waterloo, Iowa on December 14th I would be able to go outside and drive the car? Its 53* right now and we've had a few rains since the last time they salted the roads, so I got the car out and did a little work then took it for a run.

As much as I wanted the CPP hubs to work out and save myself some coin, I just couldn't keep my mind off of them. They came with Chinese crap bearings and the studs were too short for anyone to properly use on anything and since I bought them, iv'e read about a guy having issues cracking them. The front hubs are a critical component of safety and I intend to Auto-X this car and drive a lot.... so I bit the bullet for peace of mind, called up Kore3 and just bought Tobin's hub kit like I should have in the first place. The kit isn't cheap but its American made out of 6061-T6511 billet aluminum and that makes me feel a heck of a lot better about driving hard. I put the hubs in and reassembled my brakes.

So I took it out and bedded the Hawk HPS pads in. I put about 10 miles on the car today and my final analysis of the swap from 15" wheels and 11" brakes to 18" wheels and 13.4"/12" brakes is 100% positive. I was worried I was going to sacrifice ride quality but I think I might have actually gained ride quality believe it or not. Its at least a wash, I certainly did not lose any ride quality. I'm not sure if its that the Nitto555 tires are just superior in tech to the BFG TA's or that I have a little extra sidewall compared to the typical 40 series tires a lot of guys run with the car but i'm pretty impressed. I just wish it was completely dry out so I could have driven it really hard.

I also ordered up some flat caps on EbAY to replace the bubble caps on the wheels. they should be here tomorrow or Tuesday. I think i'm going to run the open lug's/flat caps for a while to give it a bit of the vintage trans am series look with the gray wheels.....