I remember a time when Sundays were used for resting, for recharging energy and mentally preparing for the Monday to come. This was not that kind of a Sunday. It was quite… exciting.
The day started with a special delivery of Accelera Phi tires for the RX-7. Originally rolling on grippy tires, Richard needed to make a quick change to less-sticky all season tires for a car control / tutorial event on Tuesday. Anyone remember Drift Association and Drift 101? Well, I do, and apparently they’re still around. Wow. I’ve tried these tires on my own car before, and they’re fine for drifting… pretty easy to break grip at low speed, so they’re really good for learning.
What a beautiful car. I hope owners never let this platform turn into your typical S-Chassis / 240sx beater. The first thought that crossed my mind when this entered my periphery was, “I still want one of these one day.”
Fittingly, this FD3S came with aggressive, wide TE37s. I made sure not to let so much as a scuff befall these precious wheels. Aside from a few tiny nicks likely from debris on the road, these TEs were pristine. And so, out went the Bridgestones, and in went the Acceleras.
Once that was all finished, Richard positioned his car outside for a while, and I couldn’t help by sneak a shot of the side profile. One car down, one to go.
Up rolls Phil’s S2000. I heard it from about a block away, but it didn’t sound the same. It had a bit of a whistle to it. I recognized him through the window, but … wait… that’s not his usual black S2K.
This familiar S2000 used to be owned by the owner of Wheel Flip. But, now it’s Phil’s. Aside from the obvious precisely-installed aero, this S2k supposedly has about 500HP thanks to its supercharger setup. The wheels you see here are some new ones that Phil built himself at VR Wheels. Interestingly enough, what came off the car were also custom-made wheels from the previous owner. The job here was to remove the tires from the old wheels and install them onto the new ones.
Here is one of the previously-installed wheels. At a glance, they’re really nice looking, but they had a couple of funky things about them like oddly-shaped barrels without the typical curvature in the middle, and the lug holes were unusually tight. Still though, they were some very slick looking wheels that reminded me of something made by CCW. Here’s Phil’s doggo Luis checking out the Arcane wheel lol.
The final sprint of the night involved 10 loose wheels brought over by Vinh. I swear, the guy has a bunch of cars, and he takes all of them to Grange / AVS. We had a pair of 20″ wheels that needed tire swaps, two wheels that looked like 15″ Konig Rewinds, and a full set of mesh Volk wheels in 15″. The “Rewind” wheels required use of the Cheetah to get the stretch to work, but it was nothing too far out of the ordinary. Two of the Work wheels were really strange though — each wheel had 2 valve stems, one on the face and one in the barrel. Benefit of the doubt, perhaps it was meant for Nitrogen filling, although one of the wheels had the valve stem pointed into the tire, completely blocked from access once the tire was mounted.
I started at about 5:30pm and left the shop at about midnight after cleaning. All in all, it was a long night. But it was a good night (no pun intended). I wonder who I’ll run into next. 🙂
Youtube Vlog Channel up net. Tire Fitment DIYou too:)
Hmm it may be a thing 😀 just depends on … time, I guess haha