thanx for the compliments.
Cam, I chose those tires because I wasn't gonna put anything less sticky than stock on there
The stock Bridgestone RE050 are a 140 treadwear gumball!! These are 200, so they should last longer, but with advances in tire compound and design in the 4 years since the RE050 was made, they have more grip as well as last longer. As well, they are better in the rain than any other UHP tire out there. The only other tire I considered was the Kumho XS, but its only better after 2-3 hot laps. I don't get too many hot laps in on the drive to Abby.
As to how light they are I really should have weighed one, it actually pisses me off a bit. I just forgot is all. They say "light weight" on the box and they feel pretty light for big wheels.
Cole it does scrape going in and out of my driveway, so thats low enough for this cowboy.
Just the front vertical splitter piece, not a biggie, but still, scrapes...
Cam et al, I won't be lowering this car. I like what the folks at Mazdaspeed did with the suspenion on this car. I don't want to frig around with the geometry. I think it would be detrimental to the balance of the car. Lower/bigger/more is not always better when you start out with something well designed. If I was going to use it as a track car, sure, big changes, but then I would have probably gotten something different for that task.
I should put a pedo-bear sticker on it for Cole and a BCDSM one on the front window to piss off the Mazda guys