Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Small Car recommendations...

Gorgeous car, Mike. One thought I had was that with all the money you put into tuning it, did you ever consider the tires. As you mentioned, below about 40 degrees those summer tires get a bit greasy. Tires that fit the front and are a bit narrower for the back, such as the Continental Extreme Contact DWSs, could extend your safe driving temperatures quite a bit(not heavy snow, of course)and give up very little in warm weather cornering.

If you want to pay through the nose, you can get 100 octane gas in California from select 76 stations.

You Ontario folks just always have to have an extra one of everything! Just like grade 13 in your high schools.

Thanks John, I’m pretty partial to the looks of the car myself. I’m still in disbelief when I look at it in my garage. I’m also still wondering why in hell I bought it. It’s certainly the most impractical thing I’ve ever bought by a long shot.

Finding Z rated tires for this thing is a point of contention. I’ve been looking, as I know I’ll need some before long. I want to go with a run flat, as the car does not have a spare. The Z06 forum guys tend to like PS2’s and Bridgestone’s, but most of the guys BS’ing on the forums live somewhere warm. I’ll check out the tires you mention. I need 275/30/19 and 335/30/19’s. 345 will fit as well. 325 are also an option, but probably not quite wide enough for acceleration traction. I was spinning shifting into second at 5000 rpms / 50 mph and redline is 7000. I spun a bit shifting into third too, but won’t mention the speed. It definitely got my attention to say the least. Hopefully, they will not spin as easily with warmer temps.

Do the tires warm up after driving a bit or can you not overcome the ambient temperature?

Beautiful car, Mike (even though I don't like Vette's much). Black is the only colour of vehicle I'd have; hence my newly painted black van. Craig is right about blemishes though. Have you thought about getting it clay barred yearly at least? I highly recommend it. Then follow up with a good wax and polish.

Mike, if run flat and the very wide rears are absolute musts, the Conti tires I mentioned aren't suitable. I was aware of the sizes and that they're run flat, but I thought that a change was possible.

First, I think that run flats suck. I don't have a spare, and carry one of those emergency kits to shoot goo into the flat so that you can limp to a repair station. Hope that I never get a flat.

The Conti has the size for the fronts, but there's nothing wider than 295 for the rears. This should still be okay for handling, but if it absolutely has to be wider for acceleration, then it's out.

Even with the tires warmed up, the cold asphalt plays into the equation. Michelin has a new PS tire coming out that is supposedly better than the previous version. I may end up with them at $550 ea.

I've had four different black vehicles through the years. After the first one I told myself never again and I've repeated that after each vehicle since. When I detailed it last week, I started with some Dawn dish soap, then used clay, then washed again with a shampoo, then I polished it. I used a new system by Meguiars with a Griot's 6" random orbital polisher. It was my first time using power tools on paint and am amazed at how easy it was and how well it turned out. The Meguiars kit is a two part system designed for use with these RO polishers. It uses micro fiber pads and it's just about impossible to screw up your paint. Look it up if interested.... they call it their Microfiber DA correction system. I bought it here.. http://www.autogeek.net/newproducts.html

Hyundai has built a Sonata station wagon that they're displaying at some of the car shows. It's not known yet whether it'll make production for North America, but they'd be crazy not to sell it here.

Drove a $61K '11 Yukon for a couple of days, this was the 5.3L/6-speeder, fully loaded, leather, sunroof, blah, blah, blah. Nice riding vehicle but it was the shorter wb version which was noticeable on the highway compared to my '10 Sierra (I'm sure the longer wb Yukon would ride better on the hiway). These 6spds don't seem to work as well with a gas engine from my limited experience with the Yukon(vs my 6spd/Duramax). It never seemed to be in the right gear wherever I was driving, as if you needed to kick it down to a lower gear to wake the engine up. I guess they're trying to squeeze all the mileage they can out of it, and the tranny is set-up as such. All in all, I don't think it was anymore economical than my diesel and imo, not worth 61K(maybe 40-45K).

With the popularity of the Smart Car, there's a whole bunch of new, small cars coming to showrooms!

Smart Car:




Smorvette:




Smaudi A3 AWD:




Smamborghini:




Smorsche:




Smerrari:



Even a small horse for those who want to use no gas at all!