Daaave

So are you saying that a geometry check before the suspension gets changed isn't worth it? I wasn't suggesting adding lots of aftermarket bits, but if there's something that everybody always changes then I'm interested to hear; otherwise I'm happier to leave it as-is as it's less expense. The main reason for me asking in advance is so that if there was a 'must have' item I knew what it was and could find out whether it was right for me before turning up and being forced to make a decision on the spot.

Ok, following some advice on the club forums I've now bought a set of 15's and they're a lovely fit. Next question relates to a full geo that I'm booked in to do on the morning of the 23rd... As the MX-5 is fully adjustable, is there scope to set the car up for fast road/track without any aftermarket bits required? The car will still be a road car but I hope to do as many trackdays as I can afford! Hence I'd like as little understeer as possible but with nice gentle progressive oversteer so I can learn how to corner properly (first track experience). If you strongly recommend some aftermarket adjustable bits what are they, how much £ and do you keep them in stock? I fully intend to get some P5 Sportdrive suspension so that side of things will stay 'as is' for the moment. Thanks.

Now that the original question has been answered, I can hopefully hijack this thread slightly... Tony - you may remember I brought my old 350z to you a while back - Old thread. I've just bought a Mk2.5 MX-5 Sport and I want to set it up for track and road. I'll hopefully squeeze in as many track days as possible but still want to use the Mazda on the road. I'll be my first car for learning how to drive on track and have fun so I want something that's set up to be enjoyable first rather than grippy as hell and faster than everyone else. Zero understeer with a smooth transition to easily catchable oversteer would be nice. I'm going to replace the original 16" wheels with something smaller and lighter. Can you recommend the optimum size in your opinion? I don't think a 14" wheel will fit over the sport brakes (but correct me if you know differently), so I'm looking at 15" wheels, probably 6.5" wide with either 185/50 or 195/50 tyres. What offset should I try to get? As mentioned previously in this thread, the Mazda wheels have a 40mm offset. In terms of handling, what would a 30mm offset do? At what offset would I need to start worrying about wheels touching the arches? Thanks.

Just a quick note to say thanks Tony. The car feels sorted now, not sure how much of it is the new boots or the tweaks to the geo, but the strange feeling appears to be gone.

I think you're right. Confidence is everything, and the last bloke who tried to sort it didn't inspire much confidence whereas Tony obviously knows a thing or two... So the settings on this machine are the originals pre-customer complaints? I'm wondering if I have any grounds to go back to the place that did this work and ask, politely, for my money back?

:angry: Hmmm, money not well spent methinks... I hate having to complain about anything, depending on the nature of the person you deal with you'll either get an ultra defensive response and then you'll not want your pride and joy anywhere near them, or you might be extremely lucky and get a positive response - but I never hold out much hope. Perhaps I should have just spent the money on the fuel to get to WIM eh? :angry: Thing is though Tony, to turn the adjuster from the original position to the final position, would the guy not have had to turn the adjuster past the lobes and then surely he would have seen it on screen? As I pottered about whilst he was doing the work I don't remember ever seeing the camber change much, it certainly didn't go green. Just to confirm, here's what he pointed out:

I have really struggled to find anyone that has a clue about secondary angles, most places with Hunter systems that I called said that they would check camber, castor and toe only. Some said they could check other things but had never tried and were willing to give it a go - that didn't give me much confidence either as they probably wouldn't understand what they were doing. Anyway, so I took the car to one of the most local places with a Hunter DPS600 and got the primary angles sorted as much as was possible. But it's still not perfect - see pic: The rear camber was taken as far as possible (see pic), the guy said that a new set of bushes (see pic) might help to bring it back further. The front camber isn't adjustable he says... What do you reckon Tony? Cheers. After camber adjustment (note shiny bit where it was before). The bush that he suggested changing.

Thanks Tony. I'll go to a local specialist as suggested and see how I get on, I'll post the results back when I do. So just so I understand correctly... Will the Hunter systems use a base default setup to compare to, and if so will it matter that I'm on a different wheel size and ride height? I'm guessing these systems will compensate? I just want to go to a place armed with a bit of knowledge on how to interpret the print out, as last time I was led to believe the red bits weren't an issue. Cheers.

I didn't request anything from them. Just a new set of boots and whilst we were at it I thought an alignment check would be money well spent. They altered the front toe and from memory suggested that the camber wasn't that far out and was probably due to the lower ride height - so no problem. I didn't really know what the secondary angles bit of the print out meant and hence wasn't concerned, until now... Sounds like I need to get this sorted ASAP. Can you recommend anyone with your sort of enthusiasm and knowledge in the vicinity of Birmingham or Derby? Cheers.

Er, I've looked properly again at the report and I've made a right hash of this... So rather than keep trying to explain it and get it wrong, here's a scanned copy of the report (names removed as I don't want to be accused of libel!).

Hi Tony, I think I've mislead you slightly. When I used the ~ sign I meant 'roughly', it wasn't supposed to look like a - minus sign. None of the measurements were minus. Dave

Hi Tony / everyone, I have been recommended by a number of people to pay you a visit to have a chat about my 350z, but you're a bit far away (I'm just outside Birmingham). So perhaps you can give me a bit of advice on here and recommend someone good near me? I've noticed the car feel a bit twitchy at the rear when I'm going over roadwork repairs and large sections of paint on the road but only when grip is a lower in the rain. The tarmac generally has to be the sort you get in small transverse strips with either very little or no visible aggregate at the surface so it's really just shiny tar. I can be driving in a perfectly straight line on a flat smooth road and as I drive over these strips at >50mph in heavy rain the car twitches enough for it to feel like my body is moving in the seat in response. This doesn't feel particularly fun and in the back of my mind I'm wondering about the day the rear aquaplanes and the last and first bit of grip it has during the 'flight' will be with some form of sideways force... I can post up the full details of the last geometry check I had done, the problem though was that my car is sitting slightly lower than standard (Eibach springs) and is on the optional 19" rims - both of which weren't an option as default settings on the geometry machine to compare with. So I don't know if I can trust the 'default' suggested settings on the print-out...? My front camber is ~1°30' on both sides, the rear is ~2°40' on both sides (both slightly over the suggested spec on the print-out). The front toe is ~0.2 on both sides, the rear is ~1.8 on both sides (front within spec, rear 1-1.5 over spec). Last two times I've changed the rear tyres they have been evenly worn, I'd guess at no more than ~1mm difference across the width, with the more worn section being on the inside (the tyres are 275/35/19). From my noddy understanding, if the rear tyres have a positive toe then this is toe out and will help when cornering (not sure how?) but straight line stability will be reduced. Am I correct? I don't track the car so I'm not that bothered about eking out every last drip of cornering performance and I'm not keen on the wiggle in the wet so should I have the rear toe dropped back to the within spec settings (0.1 - 0.5)? I've also noticed Any advice appreciated!