2 of the wheels arrived today, but it was not the 2 I expected. The ones I ordered over 3 months ago still haven't arrived, but the 2 that were ordered a few weeks ago arrived.

18x9 +35. These are "Spec 2" which is more concave. So puurty.

 

what model are these? they look effin sick

 

Volk ZE40 is model. They are Volks new lightweight forged wheel design.

These 18×9 +35 weigh about 17.8 lbs per wheel.

The pictures don't even do them justice. Look better in person and the blue looks richer/darker. So many small details to look at.

They are currently my favorite sub $1000 wheel.

 

aah, yeah the ZE40's are awesome...

I like the lip design of the ZE40's...My CE28n are 18x9 +35 only 16 lbs if you want to trade let me know

My current fav are the G25's

 

Hehe. Think I'll keep the ZE40. Do you have the 8 or 10 spoke design? Where they on your car last year at the meet? What size tires do you run?

Your wheels might be a little lighter, but the ZE40 might be stronger. I like the anti-tire slip knurling, and center of wheel has a new overhang design for improved strength. A few other small details stand out.

 

Took car out for a quick drive. Pulled on a twisty back road, and saw something interesting in my rear view mirror.

It was a 1970 or so challenger or charger(not great with old muscle cars). It was flat black with a decent sized hood scoop, well modified.

Wanted to see how well he could keep up. To my surprise he kept up real well, even in the corners. I was able to pull on him in corners though. Did a couple 4-5k rpm pulls in 3rd gear to redline with him behind me.

Pulled up at a stop sign to turn right and saw he was going left. Stopped and rolled down my window to wave and he gave me the peace sign. That was fun.

New tires arrived. Feel so much stickier than my old Star Specs. Should shave a few tenths off my times.

 

Love the rims

Those tires should stick good, I think im going to get the Hankook Ventus R-S3 and give them a try next. Ive had great experiences with past Hankook S1 evo and rs2 tires

 

The RS-3 is a good choice. Cheaper and better ride comfort than star specs. I just think Star Specs have little better dry traction and better in cold.

Had Hankook RS-2 on the car before the original star specs. They were good tires but I like star spec better.

Want to try RS-3 or Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R on the Focus.


First track day in less than 2 days at Blackhawk Farms Raceway.

The 2 hour drive to and from track will be a pain. Construction the whole drive. Wish I could trailer the car.

Don't think I will do too many track days this year. Maybe 2-4 total. They are expensive, nothing is closer than 1.5-2 hours from me, most track days are during week, and the roads to drive there are awful.

Atleast with autocross it is cheap, only 30 minute drive, only on weekends, and roads aren't too bad.

 

Is anyone going with you? Get some pics if someone is.

I have the new star specs on my 340whp integra and I just blow them off, but they're nice in the turns for sure. I figured they would be a decent alternative to drag radials with a longer tread life

 

Noone is going with me. I am always solo at events. My friends and family are too focused on themselves to ever help me. Most of my friends aren't in to cars. That is one reason why a trailer isn't an option unless I can put car on and off trailer by myself. Don't have a vehicle to pull trailer anyway.

My local shop does 1-2 track day events a year. I can join them. Only thing they mentioned so far this year is a Gridlife Event at Ginger in Michigan. That is a combined car show/track day.

I will have my gopro to get some video footage. There is a track photographer I can buy pictures from but not sure I want to pay for them.

 

The autocross registration for may 17th filled up fast. I did not get a chance to register. Seems like there will be a lot of cars that day. A good amount will get turned away. I will still go early and try to get in, but I am planning on being turned away.

For the rest of the events really need to make sure I register the second online registration opens.

 

Was told other 2 wheels have a ETA of 5/20. Supposedly it is taking longer than expected because of a port strike in Japan.

Loosely bolted wheel up to get an idea of fitment and how the blue goes with silver. What do you think?

 

looking good man

 

FUCKING Love these wheels! ooomphhhhh


Yezzir had those wheels on the car this past meet...I am running 255/35/18 tires on them

DSC_3144 by Anil Sadhwani, on Flickr


DSC_3129 by Anil Sadhwani, on Flickr

 

Yea those wheels look nice. Love beefy tires.

 

looks good brian, is that mag blue?

 

Any way you could do a video clip of your car running and you drive off and come back? I'm curious as to what your exhaust sounds like since this is basically the same setup that I'll be going for. Our HMA Race Team's Accord sounds a little raspy until it gets above 4500 RPMs. I'm hoping the resonator takes care of that and any drone it may have. Again I'm going with the XS header's, to 2.5" pipe to a vibrant resonator more 2.5" pipe back to a 2.5" vibrant muffler.

 

They are matte blue gunmetal.

Maybe if I find time. Mine is quiet besides right at 3K rpm. Plan on replacing resonator with 1 or 2 smaller ones.

Gopro audio quality isn't that great.

Seems nearly impossible to get rid of all drone or rasp.

 

Gonna need to leave my house at 4:30 am tomorrow if I want to make it to track on time.

 

Hmm I'm looking at Vibrant products, they have a race muffler that I could put in before the actual muffler and I was going to go with their super quiet resonator...Josh is the guy here at HMA that built the Accord exhaust (from the collector back) he said the race muffler was basically pointless and sounded the exact same...I think it would cut down on the drone though when combined with the super quiet resonator AND the universal aluminum muffler. What resonators would you use if you put 2 in?

 

Not sure yet. Borla has a 5" wide I could use. Magnaflow or Vibrant is an option.

Coast fabrication has 2 stage muffler but it is expensive.

Mainly comes down to how much you want to spend.

Originally was gonna use Coast Fab one because you can repack it and it is super light, but King Motorsports convinced me to go Magnaflow.

 

KaleCoAuto.com, Your home for the rare, unusual, and hard to find auto parts. check this website out for a laugh my friend at work turned me onto it...anyhow I was hoping you would use the Vibrant brand resonators so I could get an idea of what it'd sound like without buying anything haha

 

Came down with a bad cold today. Might have to cancel my track day tomorrow since I can't sleep or barely breathe.

 

No track day for me. 28 hours without any sleep and counting.

 

Sorry to hear that man...You should chug a bottle of water then a bottle of Nyquil and hit the sheets!

 

Yea I am pretty disappointed. Was looking forward to it. My body sabotaged me.

 

+1 Nyquil or Benedryl

 

Hey Bud. I see nice progress, i like what you did to the car, it happened that i recently Auto X my G8 and i just came back from Track Night on wednesday. i wish could put my G8 on diet, it really needs one how do you like these tires ? im running Michelin Pilot Super Sport but im think to get something more agressive on a separate set of wheels and save Michelin for DD... swing by my thread sometimes !

 

Hey. I autocross with a G8 in my class. It does decent. That thing must be around 4k lbs.

Are you referring to the new Star Spec 2? I have not even mounted them yet. I would look at a 200 treadwear tire. Dunlop Star Spec 2, Hankook RS3, Potenza RE-71R, or Rivals. I'll check out your thread.

Getting ready for autocross today, but thinking about canceling. There will be some severe weather with chance of tornadoes and big hail.

 

I guess you did not make the autocross. was looking for u yesterday.


maybe next time.

 

Yea I decided not to go because of weather concerns and still being sick.

 

Planning now turns to focusing on the National Meet.

Going to mount front tires tomorrow, then test fitment. Ordered 2 245/40/18 tires for rear. Other 2 wheels will be here next week.

Going to use my current lug nuts on the Focus, so was looking at lug nuts online.

Stumbled onto these Front Upper Control Arms by Hardrace that allow -4 camber adjustment. These were not listed on the other sites. Wonder what other parts Hardrace makes.

https://www.jhpusa.com/store/pc/view...idcategory=158

Might need those arms with these new aggressive fitment front wheels. My current Ingalls arms only allow -2 camber at my current drop height.



Feel bad for not posting any good video lately.

I know someone asked for an exhaust video before, so decided to make a quick video. Just got the video in before having to pull over and shut off camera because it started raining.

Already had this "double the suction" mount, but this is the first time I used it.



Custom Exhaust Video


New Harness Bar Mount. It is a Joe's Racing 1.75" GoPro Roll Bar Mount. This thing is great and can be adjusted to any angle.




Taped off the Lexan Panel to run a bead of sealant in edge lip.



Sealant used.



Pushed the sealant into the crack, then removed the tape. Work fast because sealant dries quickly. Wiped off excess sealant and cleaned up.

Here is what it looked like after. The sealant is barely noticeable. Was stuck driving in a downpour today and I didn't even see 1 drop of water come through, so it works.

 

Those Front Upper Control Arms look robust.

For giggles, I just took a look at mine and wondered how the alignment techs get up in there to tighten fasteners like that while the car is on the rack.

Do you have to remove the inner fender liner first before attempting to adjust something like that?

Your racer is going to look Sierra Hotel with those new wheels.

 

You don't need to remove fender liners to adjust suspension parts. We just put it on the rack and stand below car. The in ground Rack is really nice.

I am thinking about removing front liners for extra clearance if needed.

Not sure what the Sierra Hotel reference is.

 

Sierra Hotel

Phonetic alphabet for shit hot.
Means something that's excellent, cool. Its used when your not allowed to swear. Often used in military.

 

your car is cleannnnnn and very well modded bud, it never gets old for me to say it!

 

Those upper arms look really nice and seem like a much better design then the ingalls. Hate my ingalls arms, and the balljoints themselves they use are junk.

As far as adjustment on the alignment rack, the shop I go to has a hydraulic helper lift under the car that can slide the length of the front end. They put it under the subframe and lift the car a bit so they can get access to the shock tower area for adjustment.

 

I understand now, thanks. That's what I was wondering, how the techs were able to access that space of the shock tower, while the car sits on the rack, to properly adjust the camber on an upper arm such as this. The multiple fasteners present to loosen/tighten during the process, with such little space available, must be a challenge to dial in with load on the suspension.

 

Front wheels & tires are mounted. The fitment is better than expected. Took the car for a drive and it did not rub at all(my drop height and stiff suspension helps). With these new tires the grip is amazing. Not sure if it is just the new tires or if the wider front track helps also. Tried some slalom maneuvers and the turn in felt much improved.

I am really pushing it fitment wise. The fit is so close.

With the wheel turned to full lock, the tire is so close to the fender liner in the back. It must be only 1-3 MM clearance. Closer than I prefer.



Decided to just remove the fender liners.

Here is the clearance after removal. This is better.



Not sure whether to leave tabs or cut them off. Left alone for now.



Fender Liners & Hardware removed. Weigh approximately 4 lbs.





Tire does stick out of the fender slightly on top. Will want a little more negative camber. Hard to show fitment in pics, but I'll try.

 

Lookin good! Those rims seem to change colour depending on the light.