KING OF FITMENT

So, internet reports were true: Nankang’s NSII runs considerably smaller than Federal SS595. The treadwear rating is higher than the Federals too, so hopefully they’ll last longer. I bought a pair of 245/40/18 NSII’s from tires-easy; they came after a week. I had them mounted at Island Tire on Wednesday. I have about 1″ extra clearance in the fender now and the tire looks even more stretched. Yay! Next alignment, I’m going to reduce the amount of camber slightly and lower the car another inch or two. Yatta!

I had another blowout on Sunday (sorry I’m only posting about it now). The car looks ridiculous right now (flushed front and stock 17×7.5 +42 or whatever-they-are in the rear) and I’ve been getting a lot of quizzical looks from passers-by and other motorists. Anyway, here are some photos:

This is what it looked like before Sunday:

… and this is what happened:

Right after this photo was taken, the wood block the car’s rolling on took out the rear bumper. Oy -__-;;.

The fender gap is so huge it absorbs all light.

…and that’s how i’m going to be driving it all this week.

I have a new pair of Nankang NSIIs coming — they should be here by next Tuesday. I’ll have the tires mounted and new photos then.

So what should I do about the bumper? Just remount it, spider cracks and all, or repaint? New bumper? Comments?

I just got back from San Jose again (I go there way too much -__-). On Tuesday night, I ended up having dinner at Santana Row (I forgot what the restaurant was called, but it served California cuisine). The good thing about eating at the restaurants there (if you’re outside) is that you can watch the cool cars drive by. That night I saw a pretty cool early 60′s Lincoln Continental hard top, in a cool pearly white color. Twenty minutes later, a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera rolled by. There probably were some other interesting things that drove by, but I was too busy paying attention to the conversation at hand.

The next day, we went to UC Davis and checked out some of the engineering labs. I saw their cool Formula SAE car (which was using Aurora rod ends, just like my Q!) and the absolutely insane machine shop they have in the engineering building. There was a lot of cool stuff that day, AND I got to drive a second-generation Miata. It was low on power, but it was amazingly fun.

We also saw a VIP’d out second-generation Lexus GS on the 87 North, but since I wasn’t driving the Q the driver and I didn’t make eye contact (haha).

I’m surprised that I haven’t seen a Tesla up there yet, though. Hopefully next time, huh?