This should really be many posts. 1) The brake job2) The new ’99 fascia with proper gray paint and matching IC ducts (courtesy of cpark @ powertix) 3) New tires and the trip to tire rack 4) Going to Road America Consider that the Cliff’s notes and proceed to the pictures and if you are too lazy too lazy to scroll here is the highlight pic.  This is the “Luke shot” with my car and the new Dunlop Super Sport Race CompR tires
Now for the diehard tt.net people read on. This weekend I went to Road America, and got many pictures and all that but you guys will have to wait (probably Sunday) for the full write up on that because I have some pictures I can’t scan until I get home. (next paragraph is very boring and should be skipped) For anyone who cares its been really busy for me and my Z lately. In the last two and a half weeks I packed my house in Dallas moved everything but the Z to St. Louis, flew back, took the Z to Hallett, OK with the Z club of Texas (didn’t get any pics as I was rushed and extremely late at that event), drove back to Dallas, painted and cleaned my house, got my wisdom teeth removed, installed my new fascia (with much help from aliaz –thanks a ton bro), packed up my last few belongings in the Z and drove to St. Louis where I will now be living , put my house on the market, drove the Z to Lafayette, IN to visit the girlfriend, drove from there to South Bend IN on Friday(tirerack), had dinner that night in Chicago with my father and some friends, and slept in Milwaukee at a friend’s place, drove to Elkart Lake, WI to go to Road America and back to Milwakee to sleep twice for the two day event, stayed with my grandparents in the North West Chicago suburbs the last two days, and am at my father’s place in downtown Chicago tonight (praying my wheels don’t get stolen and using his highspeed internet to finally post some of these pictures). So, DFW->Hallett->DFW->STL->LAF->tirerack->CHI->MIL->Road America->MIL->Road America->Suburbs->DowntownCHI. I washed my car today at my grandparents house and might be able to get some good shots of it actually clean (all shot below are filthy due to all the traveling). Be on the look out for some clean car pics later this week. About the car I know it is missing the splash shield in the front (was damaged when my USDM fascia was destroyed by slapping into some semitire retread at 80mph), and the fascia is a bit warped from the baking at the body shop, this will be fixed later this week hopefully before any other shots are taken. By the way thanks michealkih aka college boy for recommending the shop (K&W paint and body in Lewisville) to shave and paint the fascia. 1) The brake job Last winter I spent a lot of time and money getting my Z ready for a summer of track events. Suspension mods and Big brakes. So, once again aliaz did most of the suspension work and I installed the big brakes myself. So last may (MayFast) at Hallett guapo notices my calipers on are on the wrong sides (they bleed from the top and not the bottom). And we switch them and re-bleed the system. Nixit also comments that the rotors may also be on backwards and I should double check that as well. Well, I didn’t but should have. It turns out the veins inside the rotor were sucking in hot air not blowing it out. The result was after one trip to Hallett and 2 at MSR (really hard on brakes) by the time I was back at Hallett for my afternoon with the Z club a couple weeks ago my rotors were quite warped. I was able to keep up with faster cars (and more skilled drivers) by outbraking them but my rotors were so warped by the end of the day when trailbraking the front wheels would actually hop! Time for new expensive brembo 332mm floating slotted rotors. Lesson learned pay special attention to nixit when he gives advice on brakes. So the morning before Road America I spent putting new rotors on my car. Kate at Race Technologies (brembo reseller) also talked me into using new brembo branded ceramic track/race pads and a set of brembo ceramic street pads. Here is a pic of the parts for the brake job in my girlfriend’s apt parking lot (Lafayette, IN)  I also had to buy some much needed tools to do the job.
Lession leaned on the brakes. I will go on with more about how they worked in my Road America write up this weekend. 2) The new fascia properly pained with the gray between the signal marker and the fog lamp and the fog ducts. I think it turned out pretty well. Still needs some finishing touches, but overall I am pleased. I will try to build some custom ducts for the Stillen Intercoolers using the fog ducts in the spring. See the pic at the top of this post, again I think it looks hot. Here is an OK shot of the front.
 3) The rest of the pics are from the tirerack. I got there and while waiting for Luke to come down I took a look around. Here are the pics.  You can see the front of the tirerack in this shot and they aren’t watering the grass in this shot but rather the track looks odd, but how else are you going to test wet traction of tires?
 Drool! I love BBS wheels and here is the motherload. The LMs in the upper corner are my obvious favorite.
 SSR comps would be my ideal track wheel. Just need the additional $$$. Maybe next year.
 Amazing - this is one of MANY rows of ¼ mile of inventory you have to see it to believe it.
 Shaking hands with Luke after getting a great deal on the new Dunlop race tires same price as online 285 18 30 for $129!
 Shaking hands with the owner (Pete) of the tirerack who happened to be walking buy. Luke says he’s in the warehouse working everyday and he’s like 70 or something. Seems like a heck of a guy to me.
 Pete the owner’s car with some wheels that were custom made for it.
 Another employee’s car. This is probably my favorite car besides the Z. 993 turbo. The last of the legend. Sweet car.
 You can see how my old tires didn’t match in size well from the front to the back.
 Once more with this shot see how much better it looks with tires that are matched in size. I should be posting better pics with a clean car later this week.
4) Look for my Road America write up this weekend. I got a couple sweet shots from the professional photographer I need to scan before I make the post. If you are still reading this nice work. Thanks for checking out my post.
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