_rs_

I decided to spend some quality time with the S this Memorial Day Weekend. Here's what we were able to get done.

1st Paint the Calipers:

On Wednesday DougEFresh and I decided to do some caliper painting on Saturday. So I made the call to the Tire Rack and ordered us up 2 blacks (they were all out of yellow ). I started things off on Friday and by Sunday the wheels were back on and all was good.

2nd Swap the Lug Nuts with Black CR Lugs

At Airgate's Tech Day someone (it may have been Raul) mentioned that the new CR black lug nuts would compliment my powdercoated wheels and newly painted center caps. I pondered on it for a couple days and decided to give it a go. So I ordered them up and they arrived last week. With the wheels off for caliper painting, they would get the black nuts once complete.

3rd Drive some Twisties

After we got through with the calipers DougEFresh and I decided to put them to the test. We got up early Monday morning and headed for Shady Valley. We got up there about 11:00 We ran the 421 South East and North West runs a number of times. We also hit the South West run on 91 a couple of times and did the North East 133 run once.

For those that haven't been up to Shady Valley I highly recommend it. It's close enough you can go up and back from Charlotte in a day. Both the 421 runs are pretty intense. They are each about 8 miles and are full of switchbacks, multiple apex turns, etc. I think I spent most my time bouncing off the rev limiter in 2nd . The 91 Run was also awesome. It was also about 8 miles but had a slightly different feel. It was recently paved and had a guardrail right up against the downhill lane. It had a couple of stretches that reminded me of banked chicanes or slaloms. I spent most of time there in 3rd but both 2nd and 4th saw some use. We also tried out 133 but the road just didn't do anything for us. A couple of sweeping turns but nothing to write home about.

All in all we spent about 5 hours there and got home at about 7:00 PM.


Here are some pics from the weekend for you visual people. Unfortantely I didn't take many at Shady Valley ( I was too busy driving!)

Friday Afternoon: All Jacked Up


Calipers Before


Calipers After Some Grinding


Plastic / Rubber Protected Prior to Applying Brake Cleaner


Masked Off & Ready for Paint


Painting In Progress


Saturday Afternoon DougEFresh Finally Shows Up


Calipers Done and Cured


Wheel On..Complete with CR Nuts


Almost Time to Set Her Down


Finished Product in Natural Sunlight


Sunday @ Tega Cay 1


Sunday @ Tega Cay 2


Monday Hose Down After Shady Valley


DougEFresh


_rs_


-Rick

Clemsons2k

Very nice. The black lugs and calipers really tie everything together. I wish I was that productive this past weekend, haha. All I did was an oil change.

kuruma

Berlina Black FTW!
Looks great!

nfrs2k

looking good but I think you should have gone with yellow

_rs_

@Clemsons2k:

Thanks for the compliment. I definately agree that the look is starting to tie together. my2ks2k suggested changing out the badges to the charcoal CR badges. I may do that or just debadge the whole car. But it's definately getting closer.

@MouseS2000:

Having 2 Berlinas in my garage was awesome!

@nfrs2k:

I know there is at least one person out there that truely believes that.

rajun asian

Calipers and CR lugs look awesome!

batguano

Fantastic. Looks like it was made that way.
BTW, what kind if stands are those?

_rs_

[QUOTE=rajun asian,May 27 2008, 10:11 AM]Calipers and CR lugs look awesome!

_rs_

The jack stands are Torin 3-Ton Aluminum. I think you can buy them at Costco & Pep Boys.

airgate

Black nuts always look better.

Seriously, Rick...your car is finally looking good!

Great pics. Wish I could've joined the drive.