Parts, tires, oil.. OH MY!

PARTS:
The 964's Euro pre-cat arrived yesterday. Ah... can't wait to get that installed and see how much weight it saves (that and.. well.. you know why they are *good* upgrades). Right now the Mercedes is in the dry dock so it's going to be some time this weekend before I get around to attempting the install. At least this FabSpeed piece looks like it's manufactured the right way. That's a bonus.

TIRES:
I do believe I coverd this before, but with the Toyo Proxes installed on the front of the 993 it fixed most of the weird little wandering and vibration the car had at highway speed. It still night need a front steering overhaul (rebuilt rack, new tierod ends, etc.) but for now it's quite pleasant to drive! Althought I'm not sure how good these tires are supposed to be. With a 280AA treadwear... how good *can* they be? I'm suspecting they will be no better than the ES-100's on the other car, and Toyo Proxes (S and R) are notrious for having very soft sidewalls. Maybe the soft sidewall makes the car seem just a tad more loose than the 964 with it's ES-100's. What might be an interesting experiment would be to swap the tires on the cars..... ah.. like I havn't already made more work for myself.

OIL:
Yikes. Well.. not really too bad to be 1/2 quart low in a system with 13 quarts of oil. I found out last night that I'd not checked the oil level properly on the 993 and it was actually low! I had a quart of 15-50 Mobil 1 handy in the boot, tossed that in and good to go. Oil tank gauge showing midline to high when warm. Good! What is really not full is the PS fluid! Ya know.. when a dealer does a PPI one would ASSUME they would check this sort of stuff! Makes me wonder if they did much of anything at all for $250.

So, the 993 is parked today until I make time to go to the parts store and get some more PS fluid. Thought I had some at home but could not find it this morning. Better to be on-time to work in the other car than futz around with trying to find a $2.00 bottle of hydro. Plus the rear tires are at 30PSI. Much lower than I want to run them. More stuff for me to do tonight..... plus the car needs a bath something fierce. Yellow really REALLY shows the dirt (maybe more than black). Plus I want to toss on a coat of Aeroshell polish. It sure did make the 964 look even better!

Yokohama ES-100 - el JUNKO!!!

I just completed the second event on the Yokohama AVS ES-100 tires. Without qualification I can honestly say with clarity of soul and purpose. THEY SUCK! Termine la materia fecal. Nicht gut!

For a street tire that seems low to perhaps moderate use. They are probably fine. But when used in a sprited fashion they show serious limitations. When used competitivly.. they are completely inadeqate and bordering on dangerous.

Following 2 70 second runs on the course, the rear tire sidewalls were rolling over. My instructor had me increase tire pressure twice, finally ending at 47 PSI, to keep the shoulders of the tires from chunking. The rear tires were getting incredibly hot. Trying to power out of a turn became impossible due to constant wheel spin. It was not really enjoyable.

In conclusion: I'll have some used ES-100's for sale to anyone with a Porsche garage queen. Any other purpose would not be suitable for these tires.

TWO THUMBS DOWN!

Time for the snow tires to go!

The car handled just fine but the tires are Bridgestone Blizzak studless snow tires. Not exactly the most performance oriented tire for a performance oriented car. It needed to be changed.

After spending a fair portiong of the week specing out 205/60R16 and 225/55R16 tires from a variety of sources I decided to get the same tire I used on my Miata. The Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212. Armed with checkbook and ready to spend it was off to price out the local tire shop.

Upon arriving I made a rather grim discovery. My car did NOT have the stock wheels for a 1990 C2 instaleld but instead.. 17" turbo twist wheels off what I think was the '91 C4 AWD version. Regardless.. all my research became moot since this also meant I had much larger tires than I have originally thought.

After a couple of hours at the shop.. thinking about the upcoming winter driving season and how few auto-x events remained.. my focus shifted to more rain oriented tire, and they just happenedt to have a full set of one option in stock. Not wanting to deal with this any further I ordered them installed and went and grabbed some lunch.

A couple of hours later I was rolling out of America's Tire with a set of Yokohama ES-100 tires in 225/45R17 front and 255/40R17 rears.

Handling did not seem to change adversly despite the harder compound of these tires compared to the Blizzaks previously installed. Ride is quiet. There may have been a slight decrease in understeer from the car but most of that problem, I believe, is due to imporper right height and old shocks. Both of which to be addressed soon enough. Next weekend, is that autocross so it's hoped these tires hold up to the punishment!