Bigger brakes, wheels and tires to go with IPD Swaybar kit

[crh]

Hi all,

Need opinions and ideas... on our trusty DD (a 1998 XC named Irene) with full Stage 0, a strut brace, new control arms+Boge/Sachs struts, IPD HD spring seats and new strut bearing plates, IPD ss brake lines and Zimmermann cross-drilled 280mm front rotors, I'm now wondering if the 17" IPD Pegasus 'R' replica wheels and 215/50/17 Continental ExtremeContact DWS XLs I just ordered (exactly the same 25.5" O.D. as stock, BTW) are the way to go for the best grip/handling and most of all fully leveraging the IPD sway bar kit + IPD HD end links... any opinions? And if I go with the 302mm front brake conversion kit, are Zimmermann drilled front rotors available in 302mm?

We do daily 30-mile runs through the Santa Cruz mountains, up and down many miles of winding 11-12% grades thick with frakkin' deer... need all the safe handling, power, braking and lighting we can get. Motor is as I mentioned Stage 0, plus IPD ECU kit, RIP Kit, Ram Air intake kit, Turbo Inlet Kit, Heavy Duty Compressor Bypass Valve kit (blue spring), HD TCV, NA cams, a dual R exhaust and all Samco silicone hoses throughout... we've already installed the IPD projector headlamp and marker light kit with 55w+70w H7s... for this kind of constant mountain driving, is there anything else we could use to maximize our chances of getting home every night safely?

[JRL]

Rotors are available (I had them but removed them for noise on my wife's 2000 V70R).
She did not use them hard enough.

This is what you need to do to stop the low speed rumbling that comes after a few thousand miles with them.

Sure, the brakes are great but are you sure you want to spend all this money on a 98 XC?

You need a pair of these mounted somewhere on the front!

[crh]

Rotors are available (I had them but removed them for noise on my wife's 2000 V70R).
She did not use them hard enough.

Oh, they'll be used more than hard enough... no problem there. Maybe the Big Brake Kit will help over the 280mm Zimmermans... which are so far pretty good, but we'll see after a week or two of doing the 'Plummet From the Summit'.

This is what you need to do to stop the low speed rumbling that comes after a few thousand miles with them.

If hard use is required to keep the rumble away, that's fine... my only worry is how much braking power and fade resistance I can get.

Sure, the brakes are great but are you sure you want to spend all this money on a 98 XC?

Yeah. It's my favorite year and model of AWD, for my needs the best, too. Despite its relatively primitive AWD system and roly-poly suspension... with the cable throttle, old-skool ignition system, LPT power/torque delivery and reliable 4-speed automatic, I'll stick with her... hit a 200+ lb. deer doing almost 70 mph on the highway outside of Wilkes-Barre last summer and it barely got my nine-year old son to look up from his book in the back seat... pulled over after we'd punted the hooved vermin back over the guard rail, pulled the front right quarter panel away from the Nokian and just kept on going all the way back to NorCal with a beat-up hood, quarter panel and no A/C, which gave its life to save the radiator... despite one headlight getting crunched, both headlights worked until we got it all un-deered at a good body shop this fall... no frame damage and 29 mpg with a full load at 70 the rest of the 3500 miles... I know any XC could do that, I guess, but she saved our lives, no doubt. Since it's already my favorite year and model and I need the ground clearance more than I need the R on the rear hatch or a high-beltline 2001+ XC that looks like a Ford Taurus from the dash back, we'll keep her... so yeah, I'm sure.

You need a pair of these mounted somewhere on the front!

Done the driving light thing on everything from F350 diesels in VT, Canada and Montana to 1972 Beemer 3.0 CS and a '66 122S for years... PIAA, Hella, Cibie pencils with floods on the corners and fogs underneath, the whole thing... so far, 55w+70w H7s in the IPD projector lights is good for short-to-medium-sight-line-filled mountain twisties, hairpins and sweepers... if it turns out I need a few million more candlepower I'll invest once again, but so far, so good. Thanks for the reply, JRL- it's a lonely job being the silverback around here, what with the flood of opinions so far...