As most of you know, we will not be running our 350Z this year in Formula Drift. We do still support many of the drivers with tire and service from City Tire. But I wanted to take this oppurtunity to grab some tickets and go out to Long Beach to be a spectator. Laid back, great weather and crowd and cheering on all of our friends competing this year. One of them being Formula Drift Rookie Fredric Aasbo from Norway. He was killin’ it all weekend and easily became a crowd favorite finishing 4th!!! Great job Fredric!!

Many new cars and teams in their first debut on the track. On the left is Joon Maeng driving the Full Tilt – Bergonholtz RX8 from last year. On the right is Conrad Gruenwald in the brand spankin’ new Hankook Camaro. In my opinion the best looking car in Formula Drift. <3 

Sam was in the new Charger, showing phenominal control in that giant beast. Jarod (Formula D announcer) hyping up the crowd.

All day people were getting crazy with this wall, scraping all over it. Andy Yen (Formula D Judge) approves.

In the end it was J.R. taking first blood. Round 1 Champ was elated! Congrats to Falken, Ford Racing, and J.R.! Great way to start the season.

www.formulad.com

Both representing common partner Hankook Tire, AE Performance and our driver Carl have entered a hard-charging team collaboration for the 2010 season of Redline Time Attack with the main target to go for podium positions with full force. Alongside AE Performance’s  Redline franchise ‘factory’ cars and drivers; Paul Dentice in 370Z, Rich Taylor in BMW E92 330 and The Fast and the Furious Paul Walker in BMW E92 M3, AE Performance will also back Carl in the Porsche with track support and tuning parts.

With this we can also officially announce that we as a new Hankook Race Program Dealer will keep our focus on Redline Time Attack and other possible racing venues this year, and pass on 2010 Formula D. We are working on a plan to bring the City Tire Formula D Nissan 350Z TT to one or two demo events during 2010 though besides development / testing / practice to give our fans and supporters a chance to see Carl and the CTO Z33 lay down those clouds of Hankook tire smoke at full drift.

Our good friend Alan, has been coming to CTO for a while now. Changing various setups on a couple pairs of wheels that he has. He came to us for some help on a track setup that would be reasonable for him to drive as a daily as well. He started off with Large Rotora brake kit and was having a difficult time finding a wheel that will give him enough clearance to do something semi aggressive.

First things first, in order for him to have the right stance in which he wanted, we installed a KW Variant 3 coil over kit to improve his handling around the track. It also will allow us to set a nice aggressive stance on the vehicle with the new wheel setup.

http://www.kw-suspension.com/us/

 After some advice, Alan wanted a light wheel that will still look great, be strong, and have enough clearance for the Rotor brake system to clear. This is what we came up with!  Volk VR. G2 in Formula Silver. Sized very aggressively they are 20×9.0 and 20×10 with Yokohama Advan Sports in 245/30R20 and 295/25R20.

http://www.rays-msc.com/wheels/index.cgi?d=4

http://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/advan_sport.aspx

The combo came out great, just what Alan was looking for. Really great stance and performance now!

Fitment is so close! We had to do a little fender trimming to get everything to fit perfectly flush while still be able to clear without any rubbing issues. Thanks Alan for bringing your car to CTO!

Do we work on a lot of Nissan Z’s? Yes! But now we have a new Z Chassis to play with.. the 370Z! 

Charlie from Kallusive clothing (www.kallusive.com) and City Tire have been working on this new project for the past couple of months.

First and foremost is some new rubber. We decided to go all out for an upcoming track day, and wrapped his 19″ wheels with some Yokohama Advan Neova AD08. Considered the best performing tire in its class, the new AD08 is gripper and better in wet traction than its predeccesor (AD07). Another great advantage over tires in its class is that it lasts about 1 and a half times longer than the competition. Not to mention the 19″ sizing that they offer now!!!

http://citytireonline.com/Yokohama_AD08.htm

With better tires.. we decided to go with some intense braking power. Stoptech big brake kit with 380mm rotors! It really filled up the front wheel with this set up. Looks and feels amazing. Hit us up if you are interested in any kind of brake work. Whether its OEM replacement, or a big brake kit such as this Stoptech kit we’ll get you oufitted in no time!

Now to get this project setup the right way for the weekends track event we needed suspension! The picture above is of our tech Oscar measuring out the KW Variant 3 coilover setup for the 370Z. KW has been a proven brand in performance and reliability on a various amounts of applications. Let us know what setup you’d like to go with and we can definitely point you in the right direction when choosing your suspension application.

With the new KW Variant 3 Coilovers and Stoptech Big Brake Kit installed, it was time for some ride height adjusting and alignment. All done in house!

Even Oscar has to appreciate all the hard work that was put into the car thus far. But the story doesn’t end here. There are some big plans for this project!

We would also like to take this time to thank Tanabe for using the 370Z as a test car to dress it up with a Touring Medallion Exhaust earlier this year. It sounds like a beast with a nice freeflowing exhaust. Quality parts as always from Tanabe!

 www.citytireonline.com

http://www.stoptech.com/

http://www.kw-suspension.com/en/30_Products/20_KW_Coilovers/index.php

http://www.tanabe-usa.com/

Contact us anytime if you are interested in City Tire services for your car.

888-977-TIRE