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You know what sucks? Paying a ton of money for something… and not seeing it for months. That’s how it’s been lately when I order wheels.

The past 4 times I’ve bought wheels, they were made to order – which is cool, because they were made specifically for me and not just sitting on a shelf somewhere. But the wait is HORRIBLE! From the time you order wheels to the time they arrive at your door is usually about 3-4 months.

Here’s what I’m currently waiting on…

For the G35 sedan: Work Varianza F2S 20×9.5, 20×10.5
My first set of dubs! The sad thing about the G35 sedan is that it’s not setup to have really deep dish wheels like the coupe. Anytime you see a G35 sedan with wheels, chances are it has pretty sad lip. The good thing about these Works is that they’ll have close to 3″ in the front and 4″ in the rear. I don’t know how! It’s just the way it is. I can’t wait to see how they look. I’m kinda nervous because the G35 is an interesting car – it’s a sporty luxury sedan – what kind of wheels do you get for that? I just went for the luxury wheels because this is the first time I can!

For the skid machine: SSR Professor SP1 17×9.5, 18×11
Man, I spent WAY TOO much time trying to figure out what wheels to get. And even when I decided, it took me too long to figure out what size and offset. For once, I’m thinking about FUNCTION when ordering wheels. I’m not going with the widest lowest offset wheels possible that will fit under my fenders. Instead I’m thinking about available tire sizes and cost, weight, and my ultimate goal – getting my car to be my desired ride height and the wheels to fit perfectly WITH my desired alignment settings. You can get almost any crazy wide low offset wheel to fit on your car, but you have to make sacrifices to certain things like ride hight and alignment. I want my car to look good AND fun to drive! I have a little suprise coming with these wheels :)

No, I haven’t been racing in the Mazdaspeed 3… yet. But I often drive the car thinking about how great a car it is and how much fun it would be on the track. In fact, I often drive it and look over at some kid driving a fixed up s2000 or 350z and think to myself… you know… I bet my car would outperform that car on the track even though they aren’t even giving a second glance.

I searched the internet today to see if there were any lap time comparisons against the Mazdaspeed 3 and lo and behold:
Motor Trend’s article: “Track Attack! We find America’s Best-Handling Car”

Yes, at Laguna Seca, the MS3 took out the S2000, the Civic Si, a Mini Cooper S JC Works GP, and a Porsche 911 GT3. Just kidding about the Porsche.

Here’s just a few of the results listed in order of cars they thought would perform from worst to best. C’mon where’s the confidence guys?

Mazdaspeed3 GT
Best lap (min:sec): 1:50.375
73.0 mph avg
1.31g peak lateral acceleration

Honda Civic Si
Best lap (min:sec): 1:54.990
70.1 mph avg
1.55g peak lateral acceleration

Mini Cooper S JC Works GP
Best lap (MIN:SEC): 1:51.733
72.1 mph avg
1.28g peak lateral acceleration

Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR
Best lap (MIN:SEC): 1:47.926
74.7 mph avg
1.36g peak lateral acceleration

Honda S2000
Best lap (MIN:SEC) : 1:50.738
72.8 mph avg
1.40g peak lateral acceleration

Porsche 911 GT3
Best lap (MIN:SEC): 1:39.517
81.0 mph avg
1.69g peak lateral acceleration

The rest of the lap times

Last week, Logs was talking to me about pictures that HKS posted on their blog about the new intercooler setup on Taniguchi’s drift Aristo.

Apparently, they often drive the 700hp car in super hot weather and keeping the engine cool is a problem. Instead of going with a v-mount setup, they went a different route. They separated the traditional front-mounted intercooler into 2 individual side-mounted intercoolers. This allows the radiator to receive 100% (maybe 95% because of the oil cooler) of the air passing through the center of the bumper and the intercoolers to receive 100% of the air passing through the sides of the bumper. The intercoolers are also mounted at an angle, which is supposed to help with allowing the air to pass through more efficiently while the car is drifting.

Turbo V6s have been doing this for a long time, but for other reasons… this is the first time I’ve ever heard of it being done for cooling reasons. It’s cool, I think… and possibly much cheaper than fabricating a v-mount setup. Has HKS started a new trend? We’ll see!

If you do not already know, Kumakubo and Tanaka have decided to enter the European Drift Championship (EDC) this year. Their first event was at Silverstone… check out this great video:

SILVERSTONE DRIFT TEASER