Here are some pics of what everyone has been asking about. "What kind of rims are those?" The rims are Cromadora from Italy as I was told. They are 17x7.5 with 5.5" of backspacing if I remember correctly. I run 235/40/17 and 245/45/17 for the tires. Next time I'll go with 245/40/17 for the rear tires instead of the 45's. I was just to impatient to wait for the other tires to come in. The rims are for a Honda car which explains the offset and the need for the adapters that are shown in the second photo.

The adapters come from Modern Motorsports. As you can see they just bolt onto the hub just like a set of rims and then the rims bolt on to them. I did change out the studs to a longer stud so the lug nuts would have added bite on the stud. You want to make sure that the lug nut goes on atleast all the way through the (open ended) nut and have some if not half the distance of threads showing. The studs I used came from a Mazda RX-7 convertable 88-89. The only real down side to the change is that you'll have to by new lug nuts for them the thread pattern is 12x1.5 vs. the Z cars 12x1.25. Also they are .1mm (12.9mm)larger in the knurled portion of the stud which makes installing them alittle difficult. You can still do it with out any machining but, it's time consuming and kind of a hassle. You will save some bucks though as the Nismo studs are 8 bucks each and these were 1.50 each. The adapters are very high quality and perfectly balanced.

There has been some debate on the web about the adapters and how they effect the bearings and handling of the cars. What I know about the topics is just from my experience. The adapters with the rims and tires really woke up the handling of the car. I had some Centerline 15x7's on the car with a decent set of tires and they in no way compare to the performance that this change has made to the car. On my Honeymoon I was fortunate enough to have an increadable highway in West Texas to travel up and down everyday along with all the other perks of a Honeymoon. It was the best road I've ever been on. With the handling of the car at this time I was able to really put the car in any place on the road that I needed to be to get the most out of the road and the car. When the tires did start to break away it was pedictable and easy to control. My wife even enjoyed the ride. After one trip down the mountain she had an imprint of the "OH NO" handle in her palm for about an hour. And that was from just hanging on "Right." Overall I recommend the upgrade to anyone with a Z or ZX

Strut Tower Bar

Here's a look at my Strut Tower brace that I made up myself. This an old picture and hopefully the engine bay looks a little better than it does in this picture. The main straight section I bent up several years ago. The smaller sections I made last year and welded on. I think eventually I'll add two more bars that will go from the strut tower to the firewall. The car has more and more creaks and rattles as the miles add up so anything I can do to help it out is for the better. I have one made up for the rear of the car aswell but, don't currently have a picture of it. The rear bars design is very similar to the front bar without the short sections on it. Again the redesign of the rear bar is is in the plans also but, it's pretty far down on the list.

One thing is cetainly for sure and that is that this really helps the car in how it handles. I've driven with it off several times and each time I can really tell a differnce.

A more current photo

Rear Suspension

As the rear suspension I have some Energy Suspension bushings for the rear control arms and some N.O.S. subframe bushings to be installed aswell. Hopefully this will help to plant the rear end while racing and help drivablity while just crusing on the street. I would like to do something to add some adjustablitiy to the rear end so I can compensate for lowering the car. This looks good but, can upset the alignment of the suspension and wear the inner section of the tires and not the total wear surface of the tire. This ofcourse reduces traction which is never good.

Heres a couple of pics of the rear subframe bushings. The rubber one is the stock setup that is very worn out. The Aluminum bushing was made up by a guy on Hybrid Z. He reported that he was very happy with the new setup and that the ride was not degraded. Sorry but, I can't remember his name to give him credit for the photos or the bushing. As soon as I find it I'll give him the credit he is due.

As you can see the stock bushing is well used up and leaves alot to be desired in the way of performance.