So I got my Koni + Espilar springs on the car and needed an alignment. Was at GIR with Bill for the road course test & tune and the car was all over the place (butt dyno told me way too much negcamber up front and not enough rear). I had intended to get the alignment done before GIR but a racer recommended shop could not get the lowered car on the rack without damage so I went to GIR anyway.

Well I take off work to go to Rhino Motorsports, which was recommended on this forum. Rhino primarily works on BMW, but I knew they were track day enthusiasts and prepped other people's dedicated track cars and figured they would set the alignment to my specs.

I'd told the shop owner (Warren?) that I wanted as much negcamber in the rear as possible and then once that was set I would decide how much negcamber to have up front. Warren argued that he normally sets the front to max negcamber and then the rear to a deg or 2 less. I made it clear that that was the exact opposite for what the S2k needed since it is very tail happy. I agreed that if this were my old E36M3, that his suggested setting would be perfect...but not for the S2k.

They get it up on the rack but customers aren't allowed in the shop so there was no way to see the machine display. Instead a tech came out to tell me the current settings so that I could decide how much negcamber to have. He comes out and tells me baseline I have 3deg negcamber in the rear and 1.5 front. This sounds pretty good...I had some toe specs (0 front, 1/4" total in rear...Warren had said he normally sets the front & rear to 0...I said a little toe in at the rear will make the oversteer more predictable) and asked to have those set and asked if he could get another 0.5deg negative front and rear.

When it came off the rack...just eyeballing the wheels it did not look right (honestly, looked almost the same as when I came in...too much negcamber up front and not enough rear). But I accepted the work and drove off. Drove spiritedly for a bit...could tell the handling was still not right. Went to some of my favorite twisties that I know very well and pushed hard. Definitely not right...the car was just as unpredictable as at GIR.

Today I go to TK Performance. I had heard some unkind things about them and was warry, but they had a proper rack for lowered cars. I slipped the tech a $10 and he let me sit in the car and worked with me to set the car up EXACTLY the way I wanted it.

The base specs that Rhino had set for me:

-3.2 deg front
3.2 deg caster left; 5.2 caster right (had asked for max caster and assumed he would have understood they should be pretty even)
0 toe front

-1.2deg rear right; -1deg rear left
0 toe rear

Either there was a misunderstanding and the specs were reversed from what I asked OR it had been set the way Warren had wanted to begin with.

 

i would call rhino and complain showing the specs..

they didnt give u printout???

this is why i got to fourniers in orlando and get printouts

 

Rhino didn't give or offer a print-out...and that was another warning sign that should have tipped me off.

I have a print-out now though. Pretty happy with TK Perf at this point. The 3 techs there today were primarily street racers and fellow enthusiasts. I noted that a former Stage6 employee came in to get his own car serviced and there were a couple Velocity Trend cars sent from across the street. The lobby and majority of cars there would make you think twice about letting them work on your car (almost all 20" bling chrome). But the techs don't have that crap on their own cars so they can't be too bad.

 

Call Howard, he is the Owner of Rhino Motorsports. I have never had an issue with them EVER! I know of several S2k owners that loved their service as well. Now not all shops have a printer for their alignment machine so don't get upset because you didn't get a piece of paper. 1st question, why didn't you go back and talk to them about the way the car felt instead of paying a 2nd person? 2nd, the reason the former Stage 6 employee was there is because they'll let him work on his own car because he used to work there.......

Charles

 

Stupid I know...but the usual reaction I get from mechanics when I complain is indignation (how dare I, some laymen off the street challenge them). And I certainly got a lot of static from Howard when I was asking for alignment specs that he did not agree with, so my perception was that he saw me just as some wannabe off the street.

Not saying all mechanics are like that...I've had good working relations with a couple who know me and know that I'm not completely car or race ignorant and will believe me if I tell them I can eyeball the wheels and see they are not at 3deg negcamber. I'm still working on finding mechanics like that here in Jax.

So, instead I decided to check the work at a place where I was allowed in the shop so I could see the results for myself. And at this point, since I verified the specs were completely opposite of what I'd been told I was given, how could I trust that Howard would give me good info when I complained even if I had given him that chance (and I admit...I did not give him that chance)?

 

That's strange about Howard. I've sent several people there and he's even worked on my M3 when I had it with no problems....sorry for the recommendation that didn't work out. I take it personally when I recommend someone and it goes south. You can bet I'm going to call Howard......if you need anything in Jax again don't hesitate to ask and if I can I'll make a call ahead of time for you...(not that I'm your dad).

Charles

 

No problem Charles. If I still had my M3, I would not hesitate to take it there as I'm sure we would see eye-to-eye on what should be done to the car.

I think having specialized in one brand for so long makes you forget that even though in general car knowledge is very transferrable...there are some quirks to each brand that need special attention. And we all know that on the S2k it is anything effecting handling; be it tires/pressure/size/brand or shocks or alignment...they all have much larger impacts than normal cars.