Originally posted by Just1MoreDave The flares that I really dislike are often black/not body color and with visible bolts. Pretty similar to a pickup truck accessory. I think the look must be deliberate, but it doesn't look right to me. At least your kit is a smooth line.
The original body must have conformed to Japanese width rules, where they taxed anything wider than 1.7m before 1989. So it does improve the looks just by widening, making the body a width you're used to seeing on other cars. You can shove the wheels out five inches left and right before it's as wide as a Corvette or Camaro. Depending on the racing series rules, that could be really important.
They do that to cram more tire under a Z. the stock wheel size is 6.5 x 14, with a skinny tire.
I've had slicks on my race car as wide as 10", and the race tire for the production class I ran was a DOT(right) Radial, (molded at 3/32" tread depth but quickly wore mostly smooth) 205/55 14. The BFG and Goodyear 205 tires were about 8 inches wide or so. I ran mostly the Hoosier Street TD bias ply, also 205/55 14, but they had 10 inches of tread width, and the compound was sticky like slicks.
I had to roll the fender lips in the rear, and trimmed, and rolled the fronts, and took a baseball bat and rolled it between the tire and fender while we rolled the car back and forth.
With the widebody kit I should be able to get 14" of tread easily within the fenders.
The street tuner look is an acquired taste, and even then not all of them are really appealing.
I snagged this one because the stance, black and white scheme, and clean finish look better to me than some I see.
A similar one done about the same, but with fender mirrors.
This car is a street car fitted with the same bodywork I have for my race car. The owner has had the car since before the body kit. It started out as a basic Z, that someone had dropped a Chevy engine into. It has evolved, and gotten more and more extreme with each step.
One of the earlier versions....