Suspension and geometry setup
- Thread starter Flack88
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Spot on.
Caporegime
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- 22 Oct 2002
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- Boston, Lincolnshire
That is crazy. I do mine myself using the Axle stands and string method. Do my camber using a digital inclinometer mounted to two pieces of angle iron mounted on a hinge. Basic maths and can do it to what I want. Test drive it then change it again. Only cost to me is my time. Also very accurate to 0.1 degrees.
On mine I can change pretty much everything apart from corner weighting with just ~£40 of parts.
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Absolutely. The difference between 'its all green m8' and a proper geometry setup.
Saying 'fast road setup innit m8' is also a bit weird because fast for one person isn't always fast for someone else.
We can all do stuff we pay other people to do for nothing, not really a fair comparison and your ability to set a car up to the extent someone like Centre of Gravity could, would be miles apart. There is little point using his services for a normal car with limited set up options as it is expensive for limited gains, but on something like a race car or highly adjustable sports car like a GT3, which are very changeable in set up, you are paying for his experience and skills in building a bespoke setup not simply applying a 1 size fits all approach like 99% of so called set up people do. Bespoke is what you pay for, a tick box, pub chat and print out is what any backstreet hunter alignment operation can do for 100 quid.
Horses for courses. I have used Centre Gravity, JZM, Parr, Blink and Fearnsport to put set ups on my cars and I have used BMW, Audi and others to put them on to a standard set of stats. The difference is significant but (not aimed at you) sneering at princes from that standpoint of ignorance is, well, ignorant.
Indeed, it's very ignorant and shows a total lack of comprehension of the differences between some grease monkey with a hunter device and some settings and a chassis expert who will spend a whole day....or more, just working on your car, driving it, getting you to drive it, weighing you, weighing passengers, corner weighting it, putting a ridge height on it, determining your use profile and adding camber, toe in etc etc until it's perfect, not just 'it's close mate look'.
I would say fast road is road driving & occasional track day use.
Caporegime
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- 22 Oct 2002
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- Boston, Lincolnshire
I know the difference between a £350 set up and a kwik fit job is huge I was just pointing out if you have the passion and patience you can do it yourself. I spent the entire weekend setting my car up on my garage floor. I have two set ups. One for road and one for track (3 degrees negative on the front on a road car is horrible but fantastic on track for example).
Only difference is mine is not corner weighted but pretty much everything else has been adjusted (F/R camber, F/R toe, F/R bump/rebound, F/R ride height, rear anti roll bar, rear differential etc. Would love to get it corner weighted at some point but as owning any classic performance car something more important is always taking up my limited wallet
.
The key thing here is what are you actually getting for your money....consider that these are height adjustable, dual perch coilovers, so you have ride heights, spring preload and damping that is adjustbale, never mind the geometry.
£40-70 gets you a basic alignment from most places, but what of spring preload, ride height adjustment, and corner weighting?
The quote from Centre Gravity seems a little steep to me but if you are getting the full works done (installed, ride height set and measured, cornerweighting and alignment) then this is considerably more time consuming (and needs more specialist equipment) than a place that will just attempted to 'equalise' the ride heights (with dampers off the car), bolt them up and just do an alignment.
You need to actually state what you are actually being quoted for (or what specifically you are asking the garages to do), else it's all a bit pointless.
Centre Gravity will probably (given their habit for doing things the 'right' way) quote for a gucci setup with cornerweighting, whilst other places won't necessarily have the equipment to do that, so will quote you without.
£40-70 gets you a basic alignment from most places, but what of spring preload, ride height adjustment, and corner weighting?
The quote from Centre Gravity seems a little steep to me but if you are getting the full works done (installed, ride height set and measured, cornerweighting and alignment) then this is considerably more time consuming (and needs more specialist equipment) than a place that will just attempted to 'equalise' the ride heights (with dampers off the car), bolt them up and just do an alignment.
You need to actually state what you are actually being quoted for (or what specifically you are asking the garages to do), else it's all a bit pointless.
Centre Gravity will probably (given their habit for doing things the 'right' way) quote for a gucci setup with cornerweighting, whilst other places won't necessarily have the equipment to do that, so will quote you without.
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My £350 quote was simply for factory settings.
I would happily peg WIM alongside Centre Gravity and WIM are certainly not the get it into green it will be fine type of chaps. The guy is just ripping it left right and centre.
Yup, I genuinely can't afford a £350 wheel alignment.
Tbh when people are bringing in £80,000 Porsche 911's it would make sense that he is charging what he does at CG. But for my car it's more than excessive, however it was just a rough quote but they said if anything is seized (nothing is) it can cost a lot more, which is understandable as seized car parts can be a right ballache, especially when you cant put much heat on coilovers unless you want a nitrogen filled shock blowing up in your face.
Tbh I don't think they know what my car is due to it being a bit of a sleeper and an import.
Does anyone know if Centre Gravity gives a printout of all the settings for the car after it has been done?
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He charged me £233.82 (I just checked the invoice) for my wife's MX5 back in 2010 and he spent the entire day working on the car. When I collected the car after some test drives it was much more sorted and the steering feel was transformed, I mean night and day weighting. I think something around £500 would be for significantly more. I think JZM charged me £350 to put a full track setting on my GT3 (too much for road) and Fearnsport were around £300 to adjust it. BLINK were around £200 including corner weighting.
Yes they do full settings sheets provided.
Great to know, thanks Housey.
Haha your sig perfectly sums up the fast car & bike tunnel experience.
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