Had some fun with the car today.

[ApexHunter]

Took the car to the local mountains today for the first time in a few years. I snapped some pics and i really liked how a few of them turned out. Clearly, the car has seen better days cosmetically, but the old girl still manages to charm me now and again and today was one of those days. I had a great time driving it too and gained some insight and motivation for upcoming work on the car. Side note, i forgot how weird 4WS feels sometimes.

 

[strokin4dr]

That looks like a fun area to drive. What wheels are those?

 

[ApexHunter]

That road was a lot of fun. Very few streets bisect it and there is good visibility. A fire rolled through a few months ago, so it's got a bit of a mad max/dystopian vibe to it in a few spots.

Weds Farmas DP-V. One of the center caps came off on the freeway back in '11. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif Still trying to track down another one.

 

[snailspool]

Those pics make me miss the roads around Camp Pendleton/ Lake Elsinore. That used to be one of my best stress reliefs, tearing around there in my original Talon. Car looks great too!

 

[ApexHunter]

^ Thanks, and good eye! Yeah i love the country out there. Those pics were taken about 3 miles south of Ortega Hwy, on S. Main Divide Rd., near the paragliding port. That road has a ton of gravel strewn about and can get a little slippery, so the gvr4 was perfect yesterday. The area between Hells Kitchen and Lake Elsinore was ravaged by a fire back in early August. Amazing that these people were able to save that house!!
(Yesterday's pics taken from the very top of the hill directly above that house.)

 

[BpuVR4]

looks awesome...sounds like a great getaway. wheels look great for the car too.

 

[minneSNOWta]

Those WEDS wheels are legit. When were those made? Have you tried their brake pads?

 

[ApexHunter]

Not sure. I bought em used back in '10. Late 90's? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

No i haven't tried their pads, have you? I'm surprised they make a pad that fits these cars.

 

[bobdole]

Nice pictures.

 

[GSX_TC]

Quoting ApexHunter:

This is a great picture David.

 

[ApexHunter]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

 

[ghostinthevr4]

Looks good man I just moved to Smell some more I can't wait to hit the Ortega when I finish my car.

 

[jogalant]

Nice! Lookin' good and love your rims.

 

[KiNgMaRtY]

Very nice pictures! It is a fun road as long as you don't get stuck behind a slow poke.

 

[omertaitalia]

nice!, i love ortega

 

[turbowop]

Wheels look great! Weds ftw. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[G]

Looks awesome. You'll never find a center cap for those in north america. Looks better without them anyway. Looks like you're running staggered wheels. What kind of offsets?

 

[ApexHunter]

Thanks everyone /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

G - I like them w/o the caps, but it would obviously be nice to have them all complete again. I basically gave up looking, but had a slight glimmer of hope rise up the other day. The Weds NA guys were delivering to one of our vendors while i was there. I mentioned my dilemma. They are emailing Weds JP to see if there are any stashed away. My expectations are low but wouldn't that be lucky. Yup, staggered. 17x7 +45, 17x8 +43

edit: Regarding the stagger, the plan was always to run a reverse stagger with 225's on all 4 corners. This plan was derived from an article Dave Coleman wrote about the Bozz Speed EVO VI back in 9/2002.
"At the suggestion of Rays Engineering, the wheel sizes were even staggered, with a wider 9.5 inch wheel in the front and a narrower 8.5 inch wheel in the back, both wearing 255 width rubber. The theory here was the front tire's carcass would be more square, offering high grip and exceptional turn in. The rear tire, rounded from squezing onto the narrower wheel, would break away more progressively."

My car isn't going to the track anytime soon, so for now i am using long treadlife 215's all around with a conventional stagger.

 

[jogalant]

The tire experts can chime in here to correct me or expound but it might be detrimental to the 4wd system if you run the same size tires on a staggered setup. The difference in circumference b/w front and rear might be too large. You might have to run a slightly wider tire with a lower profile on the rear to closely match the fronts. But since yours is only an inch difference it might not matter. In my case I had to have two different tire sizes because my rears were wider by 1.5 inches. This was on my Celica, not the Galant.

 

[EHmotorsports]

edit: Regarding the stagger, the plan was always to run a reverse stagger with 225's on all 4 corners. This plan was derived from an article Dave Coleman wrote about the Bozz Speed EVO VI back in 9/2002.
"At the suggestion of Rays Engineering, the wheel sizes were even staggered, with a wider 9.5 inch wheel in the front and a narrower 8.5 inch wheel in the back, both wearing 255 width rubber. The theory here was the front tire's carcass would be more square, offering high grip and exceptional turn in. The rear tire, rounded from squezing onto the narrower wheel, would break away more progressively."




I remember that article! I always wondered how it worked out for them. seemed to make sense but I wonder how well the drive train held up.