Dude, can't thank you enough for your advice. I'm going to go with the 245/40's you suggested, and hopefully I'll have enough time to beat up Discount Tires after work today!

Edit: Discount Tire matched Tirerack.com, but taxes & misc fees put the set at $1064.xx. Tirerack.com didn't have taxes, ended up getting the set for $915!

 

Why bother with car computers when you can get an AVIC-D3 for less then $600. I plan on going that route with some cheap subs/speakers from stereo warehouse. Then exhaust... Then intake/spacer... Wheels... Oh god I'm poor.

 

Because I don't like doing things halfway.

 

IMO you should get 'em from Tirerack and then have 'em mounted at FTL Performance (http://www.ftlperformance.com/) since they look to be closer to you. If you were further south I'd recommend TNT Racing (http://www.tightntidyracing.com/) both places will mount 'em for about $50. You'll save $100 off Discount Tire's price. For TNT you can even have the tires delivered to them so you don't have to try and fit 'em in your Z (not sure about FTL), make arrangements w/ them first ofcourse.

 

That's pretty much exactly my plan, thanks to that handy tire changinng thread from a few days ago. I'm in Totem Lake, FTL's just off 100th. The folks live in Kenmore and have a truck, so I had the tires shipped to their place. Dad and I'll get the car up on jackstands and haul the wheels and tires over to FTL for the mounting. They said they'd pull the wheels off themselves on their site for an additional fee, but I didn't get the impression that they particularly enjoyed it...

Bummer about FTL's name though right? They should be FTW!

 

Gotta say the Goodyear GS-D3's are pretty nice overall. The noise difference between my feathered OEM's and these is like night and day! They don't follow commuter ruts in the freeway, and have noticeably improved the ride quality.

As was mentioned before, the steering response has suffered to an extent. Nothing to the degree of a loss in confidence, but it's there. How much should be attributed to the sidewalls versus the tread height of any new tire remains to be seen. To give you an example of what I mean, jiggling the steering wheel back and forth at freeway speeds no longer produces the tight, almost go-kart directness of a response. The delay introduced now makes me feel slightly more like I am compensating for the previous jiggle by turning the other direction, a sensation which I'm confident will be alleviated in time as I understand more of the feedback these tires are sending me.

At the time of this post I have only put 100 miles on them and definitely have some break-in ahead of me. Despite that, the tires' grip feels potent once they've heated up, and I'm looking forward to putting them through their paces after a couple hundred more miles.

Plus, the tread pattern is just friggin' sweet. Now when I park, I turn out the wheels so people can bask in the awesomeness of my tires!

 

Testpipes/Sway Bars/GT-Spec Braces, I think would be the best bang for the buck, performance wise.

 

I can pretty much agree with that. I'd add high-perf brake pads, short shifter, and lowering springs to that list.

 

Yea those are also great for the money. You might be a tad over a grand though

 

Buying used, like many of us do for certain parts, you could have all that for under a grand. No problem.