Matt Romanowski

More important that anything is consistency of setup in the equpment. I've seen people do all kinds of stuff wrong in setting up cars, but it works becuase they always do it the same. I know a championship winning driver that set his ride height after doing his alignement!

fatbillybob

Opps I'm old and not as sharp as I used to be. Add a tape measure and 2 pieces of aluminum angle iron and there is always a 2x4 around to get the angle up off the ground past the bulge of the tire.

fatbillybob

I sort of understand what you are trying to say but it is really hard to get good results if you do smoething consistently wrong because you never really understand what is happening. It could be the champ was the proverial blind squirel who can always find a nut in the forest sometime. I think with car set-up there is nothing more critical than starting with a known flat floor but....I'm no champ so what do I know.

Matt Romanowski

You have to seperate accuracy with repeatability. Does it matter if your tire gauge reads the right number or is repeatable? Same with alignments. The true number of the measurements doesn't matter as much as you can do it over and over. That way you know your base setup is the same and you can make accurate changes.

I agree that you need a solid foundation of a level base and square car. But in the end, make sure you do the same thing every time to get it repeatable from setup to setup.

wanna911

The BBX hubstands seem to eliminate the need for the ramps,leveling platform and turning plate from what they claim.

Scales (1k), BBX hubstands (1k), Smart Strings + Smart Camber ($699).

I probably easily spend that trying new setups in a year. I would corner balance on the scales and then remove the scales to do the alignment to prevent any flexing (as much as possible) as scales are not needed for alignment.

The best part is that this pays for itself over and over again. I learned to cut my hair at 15 years old, and though I took a lashing for about a year, I've probably saved 10k doing it on my own, not to mention the time and money saved on transit.

The freedom of not being dependent on anyone is worth it by itself to me.

fatbillybob

From this picture of the GT3 setup they are using slip plates and the hubstand is adjustable for height that's why.
http://www.bbxracing.com/UserFiles/I...ts%20cmprs.jpg

There is no question I would want the $1000 pretty setup but there is a way to build a really ghetto setup and keep the 1000 for tire budget. All local steel places will sell 12" square plates in aluminum or steel. You buy 8 and grease them making 4 tables to us as slip plates and or turntables. You use 4 spent rotors which have your bolt pattern and you weld then to angle iron or similar and you will have your car sit at darn near rideheight. It does not take too much smarts to figure you can get camber off the rotor and mount a jig to measure front and rear toe and thrust. Math will calculate caster etc. I always say I'm going to do this everytime I set my car up but of course I'm too lazy. But it saves huge time if you don't have to keep rolling the car back and forth or lifting it up and down to access adjustment points.

wanna911

According to this picture you can still get 30* of wheel turn even without the super expensive pro series ones in your picture. Would make it impossible to do toe without being able to turn the wheel some.

chartersb

Here's one of the best step-by-step explanations and records of a complete DIY alignment and set-up we've seen. It includes a segment on how to get your floor (or set up pad) leveled in your garage or at the track. We created HUBStands to make setting up or aligning your car easier, faster and help you get better results by taking the wheels out of the equation and wrangling wheels out of the process.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/blog...alignment.html

LC MotorSports

Byrion, that is a fantastic DYI write up.

chartersb

I'll take credit for HUBStands......but that whole set up post was done and written by two brothers in Pennsylvania. There is an earlier post that actually starts with a list of the equipment they were planning to purchase before they even started. We've also found a few other very techincal articles on specific set up details. It all makes a difference.

LC MotorSports

With anything we do... It is always in the Details.

kurt M

Got that right. Good form and method works wonders fancy tooling aside. Poor method negates good equipment.

wanna911

LOL, I had searched youtube for DIY alignment about about a year and a half ago and found the video of the EVO that is linked in that post. Even went as far as to level my garage floor with tiles using the bucket method, I have a stack of floor tiles that's pretty high. I also managed to use the jack stands to measure to. However I fell short because the car on the tile ended up being to low for me to adjust anything without scales or hubstands. Plus I didn't know how to adjust it anyways. I outlined the spots on my garage floor with painted squares and recorded the number of tiles I used on each spot so I could go back and make it level at any time. (I have since recoated the floor so I would need to do it over again).

I'm thinking I could make this happen if I had the hubstands.

Dubai944

I use ART Laser String. Handy for doing thrust alignment and bump steer. Can also be used for toe adjustments, but I use laser toe gauges for that.

chartersb

Contact Chris Smith Racing about buying a set of HUBStands and how to set up the suspension on a Porsche. With Grand Am and World Challenge experience, he's one of the smartest Porsche/BMW guys around and one of the nicest as well. And he's in Brasleton. Send me an email and I'll forward you his contact info