No problem Brad. Glad to help out where I can. I was surprised at how close everything was after it was all said and done. Surprised and very pleased.

As for bowling...no. :/ I have never bowled a 300. Ever. Haha. Today was the closest I've ever been and that was a 257. Haha. It was good to bowl a "good" game though...with my new ball and shoes. Using the DV8 Thug and if you still keep up with that stuff....serious back end reaction haha. So getting used to that takes a while but once you get it....wham wham wham! A ridiculous sound as it crushes right into that 1 and 3 pin from the side....crazy indeed.

Awesome to hear John. Your car is pretty much perfection personified (if it was a person)...and I always look forward to future endeavors from you.

Well all, time for Underworld Awakening with the wifey. Take care and a happy Friday night to you! ZDayZ next week! I may be a bit excited.

 

Well, had fun going to a local DIY Garage's open house this weekend. While there, got my midnight black grille installed. Took like...30 minutes maybe.

I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but I'm getting vibration at 60mph+. I bought some "SSR" branded hub centric rings, and will be getting those installed tomorrow. If that doesn't fix the problem, I'll be going to get another tire balance done.

Here is a final pic of how the car is sitting, and a pic of the grille.

 

Now that the grille slats are black, you can certainly see the intake pipes behind it.

How do you feel about that?

 

I absolutely love it. Even though...for the sake of reality, it doesn't do much in terms of overall performance...the aggressive look makes me tingle. Oh, and it definitely gets attention. People at C&C or other places are constantly bringing it up and probably think it adds like 40HP or something haha. It does start conversations though. Never thought I would have guys coming up to me to talk about my 300HP sport/luxury sedan.

 

Figure it could go either way, but that's certainly a good attitude to have. Personally, before I ditch my R2C setup for a long-tube intake, I am 90% sure I'll be powdercoating the pipes behind the grille in satin black.

 

IMO that's what gives the Takeda so much win, that look of the bright tubes w/ the perfectly centered and rather significant filter looks very nice back there.

But you've got a pretty amazing engine bay look going on John, so whatever you end up doing w/ your setup will look proper

Carl, hopefully those hub rings will get rid of the vibration, that's pretty common to have that happen when mating aftermarket wheels without them.
Looking forward to more pics! That grill is a nice touch.

 

Yea John, I honestly never even thought of powdercoating or anything like that. I really love the look of the chrome screaming out behind the grille, but I understand where you're coming from with the blending in and presenting that subtle appearance.

Thanks Brad. Yea, I hope that it does get rid of it. Feels ridiculous driving the car and it vibrates like a 1984 Suzuki....if there even is such a thing.

 

The tapered lug nuts should bring the wheel into the hub correctly, however there's still no way I'd install aftermarket wheels without hub rings for fitment. Surprised you did that. Moreover, I'm surprised your wheels didn't come with rings. Vossen sends plastic rings with their rims, but I bought some aluminum ones anyway.

Maybe I'm over-thinking it. And likely the vibration is an unbalanced rim.

Also, everything that anyone takes for granted was at one point something they had to learn for the first time. So there's that.

g'luck

 

Haha. You will learn that about me John. I don't know much at all when it comes to cars. Oh wait, you knew that the first time I posted lol. Yes, it was brought up that I might need hub rings, but the wheels didn't come with them. At least, not that I saw. But now I have a set and I will put them on. As for the balancing...yea, it probably is that, it just stinks because I took them to a really nice place to have it done...and I just "assumed" since it was a shop for exotic cars, they would probably do a good job balancing my tires/wheels. Oh well, we'll see.

 

Quick update: First, the balancing by Gator was fine. It was the hub rings. Once on, the vibration was significantly reduced. I don't feel any at all up to about 70, and after that, it's so minimal I probably wouldn't be able to even tell if I hadn't been paying so much attention to it recently. So I would say the lack of hub rings definitely was the culprit.

I also just got back from ZDayZ, so there will be a writeup on that coming, as well as pics and a vid from driving the dragon and other twisties.

 

Can't wait (even though I must)

 

Tease? Why yes...yes I am.

 

Wow, nice look w/ the black & white stencil feature, looks like an awesome time. Who was your lead dog?
At first I thought you got real unlucky and had to run in a snowstorm, lol.
Seems like the dragon should be one of those bucket list events eh?

 

Thanks, the video was just a quick put together of the drive home...which happens to take you through the dragon (US129). It's like a quick last wave goodbye haha.

The "lead dog" was...of course...my "mechanic". Haha, the guy that has worked on the car for me. He has an 08 coupe that is pretty sick. On air and some nice GT-R wheels. Nice stuff indeed.

I feel like now that I know the dragon exists...I'll never be able to forget it. I will feel drawn to it each and every year haha. I'll be sure to post more videos of actual driving at normal speed so you can hear the car, etc.

 

That vid was amazing, definitely makes me want to make it to the Dragon sometime this year, fortunately for me its only about 3 hours to get there, and I can also hit 6-Gap in GA, which I've never done in a car, but I have done 4 of the gaps on bicycle.