enuttage

Well they're here and mounted on the car. Had a local club meet tonight, so I couldn't get any pics before it got dark.

Initial reaction is that they...

a) Look about a zillion times better than the stock wheels.

b) Fit really, really well. Even better than I expected. Haven't put them under high g-loads yet but under standard, hard, full turn cornering, I'm nowhere close to rubbing. Very nice. And I have a good 1/2-inch, maybe more, clearance from the trailing arms in the rear. Why didn't I go bigger!!??

c) Grip is immensely improved in the rear. I haven't really pushed it yet, but so far I haven't broken them loose. It feels really nice not to spin 'em in the back.

d) They're quite a bit heavier. Stock wheel with what was left of my tires weighed in at 35lbs. ea. CCW fronts were in at 45lbs. Rears were 46.5lbs. That's 40 extra lbs of unsprung. Let's hope the grip is worth it.

e) The understeer is definitely there. I haven't decided whether I like this or not yet. I think ultimately if I can keep the throttle mashed, I'm gonna be happy with it. AutoX will be a challenge trying to re-adjust my driving style. Once I do, I think I'm gonna have more fun out there, even if I'm not making it around the course faster.

I'll post pics as soon as I can take 'em.

-E

alwan16

wait until you find out how much more grip you have....it is AMAZING! push yourself really hard next time in those corners. they should be good for about 2-3 seconds.

SleepR1

Pics, Pics, Pics!

Yeah, the understeer is good for high speed stuff, but not good for low speed autocross...

Try the 265/40-17 tire size up front on the 9.5 x 17, next time. That will decrease the size difference between front and rear, and get you closer to neutral handling.

DamonB

Typically tires weigh more than wheels. Certainly a bigger wheel is heavier than a small one, but I bet most of your difference is in tire weight. Put some Hoosiers on there; they're much lighter

enuttage

The one reason I can see that I may be headed in the right direction with a staggered autoX setup is that a repeat national champ in our club is running a staggered setup on his RX-7 (3xx in the back 2xx in the front), which (IIRC) has about the same hp as mine (a little bit less at the wheels right now).

Now...that being said, I have no idea what kind of crazy things he's done to the suspension to help "re-neutralize" the car. RRR1 may know.

A national champ can't be wrong. Right?

Pics should be up sometime tonight.

DamonB

Therein lies the rub. It can be made to work, but some things would have to be sorted.

enuttage

Gotcha. I'll have to pester him about his setup next event. See what he's done to combat the understeer.

-E

Coulthard Fan

enuttage - 2 questions:

1) re: your local AX champ - Are you guys talking about Dr. Strelnieks? I thought he switched to the Z06.

2) re: CCW wheels - Any idea if John sells any of his wheels with a silver/satin finish instead of polished or black? Just curious... I've already spent a few grand too much on my FD this month.

enuttage

Yup. He runs both. And I'm assuming he'll run the Z06 at nationals, but he had the RX-7 out at our last event, with the staggered CCWs. He finished just 4 seconds off one of the shifter-kart times. I know it's 4 seconds, but still...sheesh.

Not sure. Give him a ring and ask. The black anodized takes longer 'cause they farm it out. Perhaps he can do some sort of satin. Not sure.

-E

redrotorR1

Yup. Erik is running the Z06 in defense of his '02 championship. If you REALLY wanna know what it takes to run his setup, I can fill you in on the details. It ain't cheap ... fo sho.

Coulthard Fan

Erik is mad quik yo. (I have no idea what that means.) Beth is no slouch herself. I don't know their FD's exact setup currently, but I almost bought some used Koni double adjustables off them a few weeks ago (went with a Tein coilover setup instead). If you do find out, then I'm sure that inquiring minds would like to know. With those wheels, I'm guessing he's running in ASP or SM2?

Yeah, John could probably get them in pink if you wanted them that way, and put your money where your mouth was. To me, silver wheels always look better on a silver car, and polished looks better on red, black... and purpleen

enuttage

Cool. If you have time at next event while you're not running/prepping/working, maybe I could pick your brain and his.

Expensive? Bah! lol. What's not to spend. I keep thinking I'm almost done with my car and then the next thing pops up. MON-E-PIT.

Is his setup at all street friendly though? At a certain point a car becomes a chore to drive on the street. I don't want to get there.

Speaking of which...the CCWs and new tires seem to have softened up my ride considerably, which seems counterintuitive to what lower profile tires with stiff (stiffer?) sidewalls would bring.

-E

enuttage

Yup. SM2.

lol! Come on man, it's Blasberry, not Purpleen. Purpleen was some Mustang color, wasn't it? Or is that another one of DuPont's mutant colors?

-E

Coulthard Fan

That's why I didn't further pursue buying his old shocks. Beth said they were pretty stiff on full soft, even more so than the Koni sports I already have. I just don't care enough about autocrossing to ruin the streetability of my car over it. That goes for my track mods too. To me, the FD is a street car that is also REALLY fun to AX and take to the track. If I wanted a race car, I'd buy a formula ford/vee etc.

Finally, wasn't purpleen the color of LaBreck's eternally-disassembled-garage queen before he painted it blue? If it's called Blasberry, my apologies.

enuttage

lol.

Re: LaBreck's car...yeah prolly. Dunno. There are about five different base types of DuPont Chromalusion paint (which can then be altered farther by adding more black, white or whatever). These are 5-color shifting paints. For all I know there are 7-color paints now. It's been two years since mine was resprayed. My particular is "True Blasberry", consisting of purple, blue, green, gold and pink. Mainly blue and purple though.

Before that, Ford had painted a few Mustangs with a three-color shifting paint which may or may not have been DuPont.

Back on topic...if I ever get to leave work today, pics are forthcoming.

-E

enuttage

Ah...

Finally, some pics.

Not for the weak of modem.

Some of the pics are better than others. If they're good, my wife took 'em.

http://www.enuttage.com/CCW

-E

rynberg

They look really nice, man. From experience, I know they look better in person, too.

Congratulations!

DamonB

Yay! Polished! (pats self on back )

Car looks great. Lemme know how you like the MX's, I know of some low horsepower cars running them that really like them.

redrotorR1

It really depends on what your threshold for a stiff ride is. (oooh, that sounded dirty ....) Erik and Beth's car runs very stiff spring rates and equally aggressive valving in their coilovers. Add to that digressive damping curves. I haven't ridden in it with the new shoes, but I wouldn't want to drive that everyday.

275/40's right? A 40 series tire is not going to be noticeably different than a 45 series tire. The really rough ride change is going to the 30 series profile. Then again, new tires always feel more comfy.

Ride looks great, E. We'll have to swap rides again sometime.

SleepR1

Suh-weeet. I love the way the CCW P4 centers fill up the 17-inch wheel diameters. John uses this same P4 center on 18s, and the centers don't look right with the 18-inch rim halves.

Congrats on the choice. Looks fabulous, and the CCWs will give you great performance!

enuttage

An update for any of those still following this thread...

Finally got around to going to my first autoX with these things. Felt absolutely GREAT!

Now granted, I was on concrete (out at Texas A&M), but still, they just stuck like crazy, and if there *is* understeer it feels almost undetectable.

The car is balanced for my driving better than ever now. I know that if I AM starting to understeer a bit, I just mash the throttle and kick the rear-end out a little. But like I said, that wasn't even really necessary.

I love these things.

-E