'95 firechicken

Installed extended ARP wheel studs on the front to accommodate the new wheel/tire combo. I haven't tackled the rear yet, I think they may be a pain if I can't get the studs out through the ABS sensor hole.

My R888's will ship sometime in the next month but I also bought a complete second set of used 17x11 ZR1's with new Hoosier 317/35 A7's on them. The tires are a few years old but I got a crazy deal on the setup and they've been stored properly so should still be damn sticky. Hopefully my front hubs won't snap off, which is a real threat on these cars.

ARP wheel studs by Rented Mule, on Flickr

Installed a Mighty Mouse catch can and replaced all the lines in my PCV system. I was getting a lot of oil in the lines and intake so this should take care of that.

catch can 2 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

I also picked up a strut tower brace and deleted most of the AC components, which didn't work anyway. That cut 20 lbs off the front end and made some room in the engine bay

STB by Rented Mule, on Flickr

Last but not least, I'm waiting on a used Momo Start race seat to arrive to replace the awful, worn out stock seat. It's nothing special but it's FIA certified so at least it's decent quality.

New wheel and tire setup is ready 

R888 315s by Rented Mule, on Flickr

I had to get a shop to pull the axles to install the extended studs on the rear, should be ready today. Then it's just a bit of sledgehammering on the wheel wells and it should be good to go.

so....much....tire.....

At some point I'm going to try fitting them on the truck to see what it would take to make them work. The rears will be easy, the fronts....

They fit fine if you take out a bit of steering angle

But really I was shocked with how little it took to work on the Blazer. Well that is if you don't think about the tie rod clearance. Is your truck on drop spindles?

No, I'm still on stock spindles so maybe it won't be so bad?

Stock f-body 245/50-16's for scale 

R888 315s 2 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

dayum

Harley, you have 315s on the blazer?

Harley, you have 315s on the blazer?

All 4 corners.

That's fantastic.....is it in your build thread how you got them to fit? Might have to read back through again. Haha!

It's in there somewhere...

Some here:
http://www.pro-tourings10.com/index.php?topic=87.msg14693#msg14693

Basics are 18x10, 0 offset wheel (after spacer) with 315/30R18 tires. Wheel hit the tubular UCA with stock spindles at full droop. With drop spindles there was interference with the stock tie rods, but I got some heim joints to work with adapter studs that I modified. I modified my LCAs for an adjustable steering stop to keep everything from rubbing. Also used S10 brake line brackets because the Blazer brackets are right where the wheel wants to touch the frame.

I haven't tried them on the truck but they fit fine on the car. Lock to lock with no rubbing. I'll test them in anger Wednesday at an auto-x but my initial public parking lot appraisal is that there is an ass-tonne of grip.

R888 315s 3 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

Yummmmmmm 

Thanks for the info Harley!

Can't wait to hear the results of the autocross event with those new tires! There is a camaro of that vintage in milwaukee that is very well set up for SCCA autocross and it is very very fast.

The tires were quite an improvement over my 275/40 NT05's. I could launch hard at about 3100 RPMs without significant wheel spin, which is up ~700 RPMs from last year. My times dropped from ~9 sec back of FTD to ~3.5 sec back - everything faster had at least equivalent tires or full slicks, similar power, and were lighter (e.g. Locost, FD RX7, new type R civic). I beat some friends in a focus ST and a WRX STi that I haven't beaten in a few years too 

Good to hear! Good tires can make all the difference in the world! NT05s are an ok tire, but definitely not the best for autocross performance. So do you guys run big open courses like SCCA has around here, or do you have tighter courses? The club I run with uses a lot of places that are somewhat confined in space so we end up with tracks much tighter than SCCA.

Our courses are very tight for the most part, I rarely get out of first gear. We do have a few events every year at air strips that are more typical of the big SCCA or Optima events.

So do you tend to place higher overall at the bigger courses or at the smaller ones?

I usually do better on tight courses, despite the fact that both the truck and car are large compared to the competition. For the truck, the auto trans kills me on large courses. When it's tight, it's got plenty of torque in 1st gear and it's easy to steer with throttle. I'm probably just more comfortable on tight courses too, since that's what I learned on. I also consistently place higher when it's raining for some reason.

Sounds like you must have good lines and a high level of smoothness. Haha! Very good things!