wheel alignment in newcastle- suggestions?

[JDM hachi]

About time i got a wheel alignment in my ae86, who do other Newcastle people recommend to do a good job, and not look at me like I'm an idiot when i give them my specs? (has happened before, he them proceeded to set it to factory spec!-wanker). I have been turned away from some other places due to "lowness" of my car (not stupid low, but "wont fit easily on their aligner").
Let me know your suggestions guys, I've had a good hit rate of great answers on here of late, don't break the winning streak!!!!

cheers,
matty.

[Harreh]

I had Argy in Lambton do an alignment on my daily and it was a fucken horrible job. Might be far for you but I get all my alignments done at road2race in gosford. Guy's incredibly good, happy to alignment to exactly what you want or have a chat with you about what you want and go from there.

I've found all the tyre places in newcastle hell to deal with, and stupidly expensive on S/R comp tyres and most of the time unwilling to even help

[manny]

+1 for Peter at road2race in West Gosford - top bloke, is an enthusiast, knows his stuff, value for money and has new accurate/modern gear

[Hiro]

I've found all the tyre places in newcastle hell to deal with, and stupidly expensive on S/R comp tyres and most of the time unwilling to even help

Yeah I've found most places up here will charge a good $50 more a tyre than down in Sydney - it's bad enough that I'm paying $200+ a corner anyway for decent tyres in the first place.

[old_mr2]

John Collins Dyno will set it to your chosen specs for $100 - $120.

Otherwise take the drive down to road2race, you will come back grinning!

I have used both and wouldnt go anywhere else...

[Hiro]

Hmm might be worth checking out, I've still yet to get a proper wheel alignment since I got the suspension done, let alone the new wheels or tyres......need the new rear swaybar installed first though, so would hope to get that done all at the one time, as well as fixing up a perpetual knock from the front end during RH corners.

[Harreh]

Yeah I've found most places up here will charge a good $50 more a tyre than down in Sydney - it's bad enough that I'm paying $200+ a corner anyway for decent tyres in the first place.

Most of them talk to you like you're an idiot when you ask for those spec tyres too.

GARN GIT YERSELF SOME RETREADS FOR YA COMMIE YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEWWWW!

[JDM hachi]

well thanks for the reply's guys, gotta sort it out asap, haven't driven the thing for 5 months!!, it's killing me.
Thank god(?) they treat everyone else like idiots also, i thought it was just an aura around me that made them do that.....while I'll concede, I may be a dickhead, I don't think I'm too retarded!!!

[Hiro]

Normally it's like this (at somewhere like Argy or Tyrepower):
"Hi what have you got in a 205/40/17 (obviously a performance size), good grip in both dry and wet, like a Bridgestone RE001"
"Sorry we don't have any Bridgestones in stock at the moment, but we've got some Austones, they're an awesome tyre, I've got them on my car and they're great in the wet"
"Nah, after something a bit better than that"
"Well we've got some Nexens, they're an awesome tyre, I've got them on my car and they're great in the wet"
"Don't think you quite understand, I want a _proper_ good tyre"
"Ahh, well we can order in some Yokohama C-drives, have them by the end of the week, they're an awesome tyre, I've got them on my car and they're great in the wet"
"Look, just STFU - I basically came in here wanting an RE001, so far you've given me nothing even close. Just give me a price on RE001s, and anything truly comparable that you can order in, and then go fuck yourself when I go elsewhere due to your complete incompetence".

Had this last time I went hunting for tyres, ended up going straight to Bridgestone where the dude knew his stuff and had bought up a whole heap of stock of RE050As when they went out of production, so I got them for less than half price (and cheaper than a new set of Falkens or Nexens, let alone RE001/RE002s)...

[Harreh]

HAahaha yeah.

I called up one of the joints, asked for some RSR's/KU36's or anything in an S compound and the response was "Ummm what size?" 195/50/15

"Oh... In that size we can do you some Sunny's"

No. *hang up*

[dnegative]

Tyre shops = run the fuck away!

1st alignment - Beaureperas - I had the idiots press and fit a wheel bearing and the lousy fucks lost the eccentric washer on me, did a dodgy alignment without it and washed their hands and asked for more than they quoted. I think I still owe them some money for the job but I called it even the same day when I inspected their 'work' and noticed what they had done.

2nd alignment - Pedders jobby, drove ok but it was still all over the shop

3rd alignment - Different place, the guy couldnt come near to what I wanted as it wasnt in his computer nor could be manage it by hand. Was mediocre at best.

4th (last) alignment - The dude just didn't give a fuck, the front left camber was set using the eccentric washer yet the front right was set using the camber top I should be thankful he kinda got it close to what I wrote down for him but fuck me sideways

[trdee]

"wheel alignment shops" are a rort. if you dont go to a chassis tuning specialist who knows what's what then you are wasting your time. as shown in the above post. you'd be better off doing it yourself by eye...

I drive all the way to gosford from sydney to get my alignments done at road2race, as Peter is the only guy i trust to get it done the way i want and now that weve been working together on the suspension setup through a few iterations we are converging to a very good setup. We have a good chat after every trackday describing what the car was like after the previous tweaks and it is netting results. The last trackday I did before I did the turbo swap, I took 2 seconds off my time from the alignment settings alone.

[Draven]

having said that Vito, I've had 2 GREAT experiences in sydney.

Baulkham Hills Tyre King did a great job, dialled in exactly what I wanted without asking, used hand tools on my alloy wheel nuts. Alas, they're now too far away (although I did like watching the apprentice stall my car 5 times getting it onto the lift)

Recently went to Spinning Wheel Tyres. Manager there is an AWESOME bloke, wheel alignment guy looked at me weirdly when I gave him my specs, but he chilled out after I explained the car to him (ie: these are for the track, not so I look like a knob) - even suggested some more camber (which would be good in pure race)

[Hack]

About time i got a wheel alignment in my ae86, who do other Newcastle people recommend to do a good job, and not look at me like I'm an idiot when i give them my specs? (has happened before, he them proceeded to set it to factory spec!-wanker).
cheers,
matty.

Nope, your not alone there...

Tried 3 shops in town and they all set it to factory, after I asked for more camber, even though the outside of the tyres were obviously worn much more than the rest.
Tried Bob Jane in Nowra of all places, and the guy was more than happy to set it as close to what I wanted as the adjustment would allow. Bob Jane in Warrilla were pretty good too, Cost all of $55 buck too, unlike the locals.

Hack