In preparation for the auto-X this weekend, I have been trying to get my car aligned to non-stock specs. What an exercise in futility that has been. I wasted a day with my car in one shop and the tech refused to do it - liability issues - wish the manager had said so before I tied the car up for a day.

Got smarter and called alignment shops after that. I called 5 different alignment shops and got a no-go from all of them ( I was about to say nasty things about AZ at that point). Finally did a search on the site here and found the name mentioned of an alignment shop here in Scottsdale. I called them up and talked to the owner.

He said - no problem - give him the specs and he'll get as close as he can. Liability is not an issue because he will have me sign a paper saying that I asked for these specs. He does alignment on a lot of Corvettes, and he was familiar with the S also.

Anyway, the name of the shop is Jordans on McDowell about 87th street. I am taking the S in tomorrow, will do a followup post with the results.

Oh yeah, got the Kumho R compound tires installed yesterday. They have been shaved to 4/32". It leaves block tread on the inside shoulder of the tire and the outside shoulder is one big slick with a single groove. Should be interesting. I'm taking the car out tonight to heat cycle the tires.

 

took my car there. they did a great job.
-Lee

 

What kind of liability issues are there?

 

Bob is one of the most talented suspension guys I know. He

 

Sorry guys, just back from LA so I didn't have a chance to post my impressions and results. First off, Bob seems like a top notch guy. He spent some time talking to me when I came to pick up the car. He was able to get my specs (-1.5 camber front and -2 rear), but he said that there was no more negative camber left - it was maxed out.

He was very knowledgeable about the car (and suspensions in general). So at this point, I would say I have found my alignment shop.

BTW, the car is very nervous on the freeway with the alignment and Victorracers. You really need to pay attention and keep both hands on the wheel. Trying to drive it to LA or Las Vegas this way would be a real chore.

 

OK first auto-x in a loooong time. Here's what happened. First time out - cold tires, hot foot, and serious brain fade = 360 on the course (that was a big DNF). Second time ourt I did a clean run - but was definitely humbled from the first run, so I was pretty conservative.

Third run - I felt like things were beginning to make sense again, but I was not looking far enough ahead. Oh well, that will take some seat time to get it back.

For tire pressure, I started out with fronts at 37 cold and rears 35 cold - way too much tire pressure, I was not getting near enough roll onto the tire shoulders, and I was getting some push too, so I dropped about 3 pounds front and 2 pounds rear for my third run. After the second run, my tire pressures were 39 front and 37 rear, so I dropped them to 36 front and 35 rear.

Examining the tires after the third run, still too much tire pressure. I'm probably about 1-2 pounds high front and maybe 3 pounds high on the rear.

On the third run, the car felt pretty stable, but had some off throttle over steer - reducing the rear tire pressure (as talked about above) may help with that.

The March auto-x is the day I am flying back from vacation in Hawaii, so I will probably have to wait until April to try again.

My plan is to start with 33 front and rear and check the pressure and tire shoulder roll after the first run and adjust accordingly.

 

Do you ever check tire temps? I'll loan you my pyrometer next time. It's a great tool.

 

I had thought about getting a tire pyrometer, but I'm not sure I know how to interpret the results. I know that the temps across the tire face are supposed to be even, but if they are not what do you do? Do you adjust camber?

Would love to borrow your tire pyrometer, but if you have some expertise in interpretation of the results, that would be even more valuable.

With the benefit of no knowledge, I believe that if the inside edge of the tire is higher, you are running too much negative camber, and if the outside edge of the tire is hot, you are not runnig enough negative camber.

Damn, I need to get that book "Tune to win"

 

sure, i'll meet with you on the next trackday. ru going to PIR on the 21?

 

Joe bud,

I'm not going to be at PIR on the 21st. I have to do a complete brake system flush, put on braided steel lines and pick out, buy and install some track pads before I would venture forth. I'll probably buy one of those power brake bleed systems from Motive or some other brand for the brake system flush.

If I can get all that done in a week, I might make it out to PIR, but I'm not counting on it.