TheSpeedDemon

I am looking for a good, OK, great alignment place in the East Bay, outside San Francisco.

I live in Oakley, so anywhere out my way, or in the Walnut Creek area, or San Ramon Valley, I am willing to travel further too, but would rather have it done locally.

The place must know how to do 4 wheel alignment on my 1999 C2 with a lowered suspension and aftermarket wheel sizes (19's).

Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

discoganya

Not exactly near Walnut Creek, but in the East Bay tho !

http://www.devekperformance.com/

DEVEK Performance Products, Inc.
20983 Cabot Blvd
Hayward CA 94545

++ Highly recommended.

TheSpeedDemon

Called them spoke to Susan and I am set for next Friday. They look and sound like a great outfit and they specialize in Porsche's which is a bonus.

So thank you for the recommendation

MagnusB

Custom alignment in Mountain view are really good as well.

http://www.customalignment.com/

MarkD

Hey Steven, I almost met you over at Darin's place... I live near him. I would have liekd to see your 996 in person, looks great here.

If Devek doesn't work out (it will) Roger Kraus Racing in Castro Valley is excellent. No affil.
Hopefully I will see you around Oakley

mooty

i take roger kraus over devek any day.
and dont just go to a place b/c it's close.
i know of two very season'd track drivers who would have their car trailered to nevada (they live in CA) to have alignment done!

akif

Speed Inn in Hayward. Haven't actually gotten any work done from the yet, but the guys are a TireRack recommended, members of SCCA and work close to/with a racing shop (I forget the name).

Have gone there a couple of times for tire questions, and they spend the time and seem to give honest advice.

TheSpeedDemon

Hey Mark. I am thinking I will be over at Darin's probably soon, not sure exactly when though so it would be good to meet you there also. Thanks for the kind words on my car too, much appreciated. Oh, so if you see a car like mine you see here driving around Oakley more than likely it is me, so if you are in your Porsche don't hesitate to get my attention.

At this moment I am still set on going to Devek (I will be responding to another persons recomendation about Roger Krause)

TheSpeedDemon

I have looked into Roger Krause before and did some research on them and to be honest, I found more complaints about there work for street driven cars than I liked to find. Sure there was a lot of positive and I am sure you have no problems with them, and I know what they do and it is very good work, but I was put off a little by other threads (not on Rennlist) with complaints, so unless I saw an overwhelming response on this thread about going to them I was not going too.

I am also not looking for a place just because it is close, believe me I have found others a lot closer but ruled them out because they are not to my liking. I am willing to pay good money for a great alignment and an alignment that the place can stand behind.

As of now Devek I set my sights on, if my experience with them is bad, I will make a point of that here on Rennlist. If it is a Positive experience, which I am expecting then I will also be letting others know.

Basically there are several places out there and people go to them. I am looking for a shop that can do it all when I need it and build that relationship. But I am also OK with having different shops doing different things and having relationships with multiple places. Some shops are strong in one area, finding the one shop that is strong in all areas is tough.

So I have nothing against any shops and I am now in the learning process of finding the shop that works for me.

With that said, thanks for the 'positive' feedback' on Roger Krause and the recommendation to go to them.

TheSpeedDemon

This could be Devek as they are Tire Rack recommended.

TheSpeedDemon

Well I just wanted to let you know that I had a very bad experience with Devek. It wasn't the work they did, it was the fact they are no more

So here is what happened: I had an appointement on Friday, August 3rd with them. I had an emergency business trip that I had to take Tuesday to Seattle and was not returning to Oakland Airport until that Friday morning. So I called all last week to confirm my appointment and let them know when I will be there but knowone answered the phone, I got a answering machine which I did leave messges on. So when I arrived back in Oakland I picked-up my car from the covered valet indoor parking place and drove over to Devek. I had the address but could not locate them. Eventually I found a small little sign in a window with the name Deve on it but all the doors were locked, no signs on the outside liek there website states, no other Porsches or any cars outside.

But it does not end there.

Fortunately I still had my appointment at Carlsen Porsche and so I went over there. Nopw keep in mind I had 4 hours sleep the night before and no breakfast because I was in a rush, and now I had to drive to another place. I sat around for 3.5 hours only to be told that there (Carlsen Porsche) alignment machine just broke and that they could not align my car

So now I am annoyed but I kept my cool. I basically told Carlsen that I had to have the alignment done today as it is out of wack and that I am going to be driving up to Thunderhill this weekend (which they were sponsoring). So they called around and I finally had the alignment done over at Mathews-Carlsen Body Works in Palo Alto. OK it is a body shop but they have a good enough machine for setting-up my car for the street and they did just that. It was way out of wack and so I am glad I got it done as soon as I did.

I finally got home at 8:30 PM after landing in Oakland at 9:30 AM, what an efing day.

So bottom-line is that Devek is not a place I will go to, if they even exist anymore.

Carlsen Porsche I will have to call to make sure that what I need done they can do it, meaning that there machine(s) is not broken.

I am back to looking for a great alignment shop although currently I am not in need of one, but I would like to be prepared and not go through this again. So would this be Roger Krause?

MarkD

Steven, wow. That is a bad day!

I can't speak for 996 alignments, but Krause is known for their ability and skill in setting up 993s. They can do the kinematic toe on them, a rare commodity these days.
I have had excellent experience there and Brandon Krause knows his stuff. Actually, he knows T-hill very well too... I understand he is pretty quick on that track.

Hope to see you around town.

ride67

I've had good luck at Custom Alignment in Mountain View as well. I haven't taken the 996 there yet; but I took my E36 M3 there and had great service/results, and will take the 996 there when I need to. If you were willing to go to Carlsen, you may as well drive a little further to Custom. Give them a call and see what they have to say about your 996.

Also, I buy all my tires from Tire Rack and have them shipped to Custom and mounted/balanced there.

Good luck.

discoganya

Wow, interesting. Did you go to the right location, because Devek moved their shop earlier this year? I was at their shop in mid July (last month) and they seemed well in business, so I'm a little surprised that you found their shop closed.

Good luck! Keep us posted on where you get it done and how the experience is.

TheSpeedDemon

I went to this address as advertised on there website:

DEVEK Performance Products, Inc. opens facility in Hayward, CA
New Address:
20983 Cabot Blvd
Hayward CA 94545

I also called the number listed on there website:

Phone 510-264-1642

I will say that I saw a trailer stuffed in the back area up against a fence with Devek on it and a Porsche symbol, but there was nobody around. If they do exist there they sure are hiding it.