I'll pick up Hagane's story where I left it, starting with a quick visit at the doctor. Indeed, some annoying cracking/knocking noises coming from the front left suspension when going over humps had me suspect that the bushings were getting tired. After a check up at LTM Performance, the mechanic confirmed my diagnosis (dead bushings on a five year old car, the previous owner must have been flying over humps!). A week later, I sent Hagane down for a day of surgery, and she came out with new bushings. Problem solved.
The next "upgrade" I did to her, which is killing those tacky blue LEDs. Gone is that annoying blue glow at my feet, and gone is the reflection of my feet in the window when I drive at night!
Once this was done, I made a quick stop at Autobacs and got myself a set of pedal covers. After explaining to the staff at the car parts shop that I was big enough to install them on myself (what the hell, I'm editor in a car magazine! If I can't do that then I might as well find a new job).Anyway, these Räzo pedal covers are not meant for show (still I made sure to find good looking ones) but purely practical, as they allowed me to bring my accelerator and brake closer together, making it much easier to heel-and-toe.
The Falken tyres I had when I picked up Hagane offered limited amounts of grip (I'm trying to avoid saying that they were just bad... Oops I said it), especially on wet roads, where the rubber struggled to get grip and let the wheels spin uselessly. Add to this the fact that the thread was reaching the end of its life, and that was a good reason to change the tyres. For safety reasons, of course.
Of course, since I was changing the rubber, I might as well change the rims, since I wanted to get the looks more to my taste. A little bit of wheel shopping and I stumbled upon some K-Speed Sport rims (thanks Sam!). While I was looking for deeper looking wheels, the dark gun-metal and chrome, 16-inch five-spoke rims caught my eye and tagged along for the ride. For the looks, of course.
To go with these, I opted for Federal 595 Evo rubber, which provide good grip for a reasonable price. For the fun, of course.
My Hagane now sits on those much better-looking wheels, although still way too high. I really need to lower her...
