[old66tiger]

Nick, how did your ride quality change with the new wheels?

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by old66tiger

Nick, how did your ride quality change with the new wheels?

Iv'e got to finish my brake lines up on Friday and as long as there's no snow flying ill let you know.

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by old66tiger

Nick, how did your ride quality change with the new wheels?

Well I got to drive it a bit today. About 8 blocks. No snow or ice on the ground. I dont have 300 miles on them to give a really good response but I purposely hit potholes and dips in the road to see what would happen. The ride quality seems to actually have stayed about the same to slightly better. We will see if I feel the same way after 2-300 miles next spring.

[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.....