Meet The Tick, or, How to Cross 4 States In A 4-Day Round Trip! - Day 3

While I was in town, I asked if we could give The Tick a more detailed inspection. While he was on the lift, we started to dismount the wheels to balance them out (the car had been threatening to shimmy the car apart at anything over 65mph). I'm sad to say that I discovered why: one of the tires was totally bald (with a slight gash in the center), one had a tack in it, and the other two had nearly bald inner treads:























(the 4th tire was still on its wheel on the car as we had to soak the lugnuts for several hours--I don't even want to guess how much they'd been over-torqued!)

My new tires were coming a little sooner than I'd planned on :( . I was able to order a set of Riken Raptors (I think Riken's owned by Michelin) from the local shop, but it took them almost the whole day to deliver them from their warehouse. While we were waiting, we removed the pinstripe (didn't get an "after" pic...too stressed).

Once the tires were mounted, I bid The R-Speed crew goodbye and headed for Knoxville--though I was now leaving Atlanta at the same time I'd expected to arrive in Knoxville!

Major shout outs to Taylor and R-Speed for making a bad day a lot better!

With the new tires on, the ride was smooth as a baby's butt, though it really needed an alignment so that my new tires wouldn't get eaten as badly as their predecessors had been. That would have to wait until the next day...