Need to rant...

[rjastra2]

Is what he's said on the money? Or should I be asking for mine back? If their advice is dodgy I think the Vic club should seriously reconsidering recommending them :/ I'll be driving it like this for another week or two then I'm going to Pedders Hawthorn where I can confirm all this advice..

Are you an expert or not at wheel alignments? Please decide

[KIJIMA]

RJ, pull your head in and stop being an unhelpful smart arse!
Rather than be your usually smug self, why not try to help kudos, being a keyboard warrior alog with your snide comments just isnt helpful.

Kudos, I will go out on a limb here and recommend somone, and I hate recommending somone, especialy since you have had the troubles you've already described, but I reckon you will get resolution with these guys.

You need to speak to Chris Albertini @ Centerline suspension. They do brilliant setups and will either do the setup youve asked for, or recomend what they believe your car should be setup, depending on the driving you do.

They just completed fitting a tein protype suspension system to one of my best mates cars, an MPS6's and its changed the car dramatically. Its gone from what felt like a heavy GT car to a much more nimble machine with more grip and far less body roll. Chris also runs race cars, he does suspension work on some of the V8 supercar teams and he is nothing short of brilliant, so your in good hands

The only catch wil be they are in thomastown on lipton drive, and chris will no doubt want your car for the enitre day, as he will want to test drive it several times before he is happy with it. You might want to at least ring them, and when you speak to chris, let him know you were recommended by darrin who has the MPS6 with the teins he just fitted this week.

http://www.centrelinesuspension.com.au/

Goodluck, and I hope this helps.

~ Dan

[AJ]

personally, i'd get it put back to factory specs & start again if i were you, looks like it started off badly & went downhill from there, it seems to me that it's been hacked so many times now that noone knows where it should be, including yourself, & now you have yourself so wound up that it won't matter what ANYONE does, you won't be happy with it........i know a few owners have been ticked off about dealer settings, & i'll get the whole \"yeah we know your car is perfect AJ\" bullshit, but the wheel alignment settings haven't been touched on our NC right from new & it's still exactly how i like it (given that the car isn't tracked), it has slight understeer which is totally predictable & overcome with judicious use of the right foot, the tyres are wearing perfectly with no sign of scrubbing on any corner & on a decent piece of straight road, both hands can be taken off the wheel & it won't wander at all...............IF i was going to track it on a regular basis, yes, i would want it sharpened up a bit, which of course would detract from it's normal on road predictability......................i guess my question would be, what do you want out of it???

[Fatty]

re kijima's recommendation - chris at centreline has been recommended to me by a couple of the motorsport guys in the mx5 club too. i'll be taking my car there when i get the new suspension installed.

[kudos]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies - even rjastra's :/ I know AJ has a point about getting worked up about things. I acknowledge that its been getting to me more than it should but I see it as a very simple thing..

In my job if someone comes to me with a database problem whether it be across Unix/Linux or Windows I can usually solve it and improve the situation and I do my utmost to ensure thats the case. With the whole wheel alignment situation I would expect these guys to have the knowledge to advise on the relevant problem and offer a solution - I'm paying decent money so why not? I know I'm no wheel alignment/tyre expert (thanks rjastra) but experts in any field should be able to back that up... Again - I don't think I'm being unreasonable.. I shouldn't have to go to 3 tyre centres (one being directly related to the car manufacturer) to solve the problem..

If Pedders Hawthorn doesn't work out I'll try Kijima's suggestion. I appreciate all your comments very much.

Tonight was interesting. A Golf GTI over took me in a 60 zone and I wasn't interested in being silly and let him go but whilst I watched him accelerate past me to over 80 kmh I saw him go around a corner at a particular speed and there was no way I could do that with the current wheel alignment - I would lose it and hit the curb... Before the very first wheel alignment I watched a Jeep take a sweeping bend at around 80kmh that I could never take.. After the first alignment I could take the same bend at 90+kmh which is what I would expect but it was all wrong (specs were maximum/race specs). All I want is the car to feel as sporty as it looks and I think thats reasonable. My NB was magic to drive with the right alignment specs. I'll let you guys know how it goes after my visit to Pedders on the 7/9.

Thanks again all

[KIJIMA]

Kudos, let us know how you go. Also, you need to update your sig.

[jules]

RJ, pull your head in and stop being an unhelpful smart arse!
Rather than be your usually smug self, why not try to help kudos, being a keyboard warrior alog with your snide comments just isnt helpful.

Ouch....Go Kijima.

Jules

[kudos]

Quick update...

Booked the car in with Jack at Pedders Hawthorn on Wednesday.. He wasn't 100% happy with it so asked for it back today.

Picked it up after lunch today and woah.. lordy...

THIS CAR SHOULDN'T FEEL SO GOOD!

The cornering potential is amazing and the feel is MORE communicative than my NB with Kings/Konis. It holds straight and firm and feels 'planted'. The overall handling would be between that of an NB with stock suspension and an NB with stiffer, modified suspension. Throwing it around a corner the car just *won't* lose grip, understeer is mild and oversteer is only just detectable (and very predictable) in very tight maneuvers - I can feel every part of the tyre on the bitumen as it progresses out.

Jack was great, took me for test drives, and really cared about the way the car felt to drive. He looked over CB's recommendations and then put forward his own and tweaked every part of it till it felt 'right'. One interesting thing is the effect the long suspension travel in the NC has (vs previous models) and the weight/forces present when driving. In his tests he found that the camber and toe of the rear wheels in particular would change dramatically with driver/passenger weight and g-forces - almost as much as *double* and in my case forcing toe in to dramatic toe out - not something you want on the rear wheels when taking a corner hard.. Taking this into account he balanced it based on the potential at laden weight. This is exactly what I wanted - someone who knew their sh*t and actually cared about the outcome.

The front steering was definitely out of alignment and even after his first go I had tell him that it was still out (could tell by feel and by sight). Rather than making me feel like an idiot he took it for another test drive and could see what I was saying.. even when he re-aligned it he said that the settings were largely the same but that he could tell it was obviously out - something for young players - getting a straight, even alignment of the frontend (with slight toe out) must be very touchy/tricky with the NC.

Thanks for those that recommended Pedders Hawthorn - I thoroughly recommend anyone with an NC in Victoria after an alignment to check them out. Also thanks for putting up with my rant

I'll post the specs up tomorrow for all to see.

[Juffa]

Kudo,

Good to see that Jack hasn't lost the touch. If I wasn't living in Chelsea I would still be using his services.

J