New wheels and tires are on the car. I went with the Advan A052 in 275/40/18. The only 200tw tire I am somewhat interested to try would be the Nexens, but I don't know if I will make it that far. I haven't done any objective testing but I really enjoy the Advans so far. Like many have noted, they run wide. I took a side by side during the swap.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cd0364a2_z.jpgIMG_20190719_201604 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

Both tires are 275 section width, but the BFG is on the factory 19x10 and the Advan is on my new 18x10.5. The bfg had a bit of stretch on the on the 10 while the Advan is bulging on a 10.5. Hopefully Yokohama continues to expand the size range as I would be interested in trying the Advan in 35 series, but the 275/40 works just fine. Turns out you don't need tiny sidewalls when you can run as much negative camber and caster as you like. Definitely looking forward to seeing some of you guys at nats and having more technical discussions on here, but enjoy some of my homemade wheel and stu prep z porn :3

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bdf725c5_z.jpg_BES2844 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4333df19_z.jpg_BES2841 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5b85e40b_z.jpg_BES2845 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dd8d8b46_z.jpg_BES2846 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

Video of my first event on the new wheels and tires below. Coned away my ftd but the delta is getting smaller. Still need to work on my driving and continue optimizing the car, but there is a lot of potential.

The Nexens are very cold blooded. On a hot summer day and with two drivers, they are difficult to maintain optimal temps. Luckily, the don't just suddenly get greasy. They gradually fall off. As a single driver, or someone in colder climates Nexens can be a fantastic tire. At least they are on the STI that I won Nats in, last year, and the ProSolo championship the year before that. They might allow a little too much slip for a RWD car, but I'm not sure. My only experience with them is a year and a half on them with an AWD car, and that car freakin' loved them. They also have fantastic contingency payouts.

I am interested in trying the Yokes. With 19s, though, I'd have to go down to 275s, something I've been contemplating to expand my options.

The last few weeks have felt great in the car. I got the Packwood Tour win. We ended up running the STI the following weekend for the Packwood ProSolo, winning Bump class because STU only mustered up three of us, even though I made my Z available for people to fill. This weekend had two different events from two different series at two different sights (both runway sites - Sanderson Field and Bremerton Motorsports Park). The car felt great both days. Unfortunately, Saturday's course was one that gave you great times if you were on top of the cones. Unfortunately, I was on top of too many cones, and had to add distance to just get a decent clean run. I ended up uploading my fastest scratch.



Today went better as I was able to keep it mostly clean and ended up fourth overall PAX behind those with squishy indexes.



Also, non-Z related video is the only footage I got from the Pro in the STI. This is round two of the Super Challenge where I was eliminated. Both the STI and the Z are fast STU cars, but both do it in extremely different ways. The STI promotes a very aggressive style with steering and throttle inputs to keep the car rotating, allowing you to throttle out of trouble. The Z would punish you if you drove like this, requiring much smoother throttle inputs and less flicking. With how well my car is doing these last few weeks, I am extremely annoyed I'm not going to Nats this year with my car. I think John Hale's going to be the one to beat, this year. If I went and was on my game, I think it's a pretty good chance the Z can come out on top.

Anyone want my G37 rear bar? It's free.

If you are going to Lincoln, I can bring it.

I thought you had sold it. I'll take it off your hands.

I have been absent from the forum for a bit but I too have had issues with abs failure all season (not ice mode, separate issue and that's why I sadly can't run xp's :( ). It's been extremely frustrating as it's difficult to replicate and is random occurrence. My co-driver is inexperienced and flatspot corded an almost brand new set of 285 71's.

I also have a z1 diff cover that I added when I installed my pro-gt at the end of last season (and abs failures did not occur until this year)..

Anyone make any head way on the ABS issue? Just had it cost my co-driver a shot at a podium in BSP at Solo Nats. Basically had to drive the car with intermittent ABS on day one which didn't provide any confidence in the car. On day two the ABS decided to work and the co-driver was setting times that would have put him near the front. :mad:

Two bits of info that may be of value:

1. On day one we were using tire covers to keep the heat in the Hoosiers but on day two we skipped the covers in hopes of keeping ABS functional.

2. On day one the co-driver was heavily trail braking where as on day two he greatly reduced/eliminated the trail braking he was doing.

NLZN and I have been trying to see if the distance between the rear sensors and the rings is an issue. He measured with the stock rear cover at around 0.98 mm gap. I measured it with the Z1 cover at about 0.7-0.8 mm. Just today, I added a 0.3 mm shim to add some gap and will see if it makes a difference this Sunday.

Nationals was fun and a learning process as usually. I was only able to get a mid pack finish but it was an improvement from how I did at spring nats earlier in the year.

On day one I ran into fuel starve issues so it's good to know that the new stiffer springs up front allow the car to pull enough g to do this. A different but similar prep z was able to make into a trophy spot. It will be fun to see if the chassis is capable of winning with more development.

As far as my car, I am pretty happy with the balance but don't think I am ready to add power yet. However, a seat is pretty high up on the list after sitting in the other z. Looking to add one next spring

Any video of the runs?

I put them up on instagram but I can see if I can get the link to work here

not sure if this will be workable unless you have an account there
day 1
day 2

Day 1 lesson was just to run more fuel in the car. It now pulls enough g to fuel starve so the long sweeping corners weren't doing me any favors.

Put more fuel in the car on day 2 but blew the braking point into corner 2 so I had to stand on my clean but slow second run.

I'm bummed I missed Nationals, this year. It would have been fun hanging and racing with you guys. I watched Jimmy's (Evo 3rd place) and John's (STI 2nd place) videos of their runs. Seeing how much John had to contend with the STI's stupid gearing I think I could have had a good running for second place. I haven't seen any footage from Mayfield's runs, but with how he destroyed the class, it may have been very difficult for me to keep up with him. But, I look forward to trying, next year to regain my title.

Any plans on doing Crows or Packwood, next year, Brendan?

Also, to follow up on the ABS issues a few of us have been having, I did have a local event, today after shimming my rear sensors. I only got four runs, with some moderately heavy braking zones and had no issues. It'll take a couple more events of no lock up episodes for me to be convinced that it's fixed.

as of right now I plan on doing mid divs in Lincoln next year before nationals. That other stuff is a bit too far for me.

Awesome. This is the kind of development I was looking for. Hopefully you can make it out to nationals next year.

So did this make any difference?

So, I've gotten three events in, 11 runs total, three of them in the rain, today, and I haven't had an issue yet. I'm fairly convinced it made a difference, now. I still have two more events for the year to be even more convinced between now and October 20th.

I decided to increase the rear spring to 16k. This makes my current set-up 18k front 16k rear with the hotchkiss bar up front and no bar out back. I feel like my driving has gotten to the point of where I can handle a little oversteer on entry. Justin was nice enough to gift me a g37 rear bar so I will try that if I still need more rotation.

I have yet to encounter any ice mode issues but it's good knowing that we may have found one solution depending on the cause.

It is so fun being able to actually fix issues as oppose to drive around them in street class. Even if the car isnt capable of winning (which I think it is) it's much more enjoyable than it was in bs by a long shot.