jayxx83
Oct 9th, 2008, 08:16 PM
Having owned the car for almost 3 weeks now, I decided to speak to a some specialists about the lacklustre handling of my MCS JCW. It had recently been lowered on Eibach Pro springs by the previous owner, but this thing could not handle to save its life and as a result made the car a bit of a handful to drive and not very enjoyable.
Cue a full GEO check at Elite in Rainham, Essex who are renowned for their super accurate alignment systems.
Every corner was out toe wise, but luckly there is some negative camber which is not excessive and well within tolerances.
Final result for a stock car was 0.10 toe on both front wheels and 0.50 neg camber on both front wheels.
On the rear, I wanted more toe to make the car more "pointy" so had this wound up to 0.15 on both sides. Steering angle and thrust are both set at 0 and rear camber is around 1.5 which is a lot but nothing can be done until I get some camber adjusters for the car.
First impressions were lighter steering (running 18" rims with 205/40 rubber), and more initial response to smaller steering inputs.
On long sweeping bends now the car holds its own with no drama whatsoever and seems to accelerate more smoothly and feels like there is nothing holding it back now. When it comes to roundabouts... omg, you can chuck the car into it with massive confidence... even though it does wash out sometimes, this is easily adjusted with the throttle and nothing a upgraded rear roll bar and spacers at the front wont sort imo. Might knock a PSI or 2 from the front boots as well to give it a bit more bite.
All in all I am a lot happier with the car now and the simple geo adjustments have made it immensley more useable with less requirements for braking now. Those who have lowered without adjustments get it checked asap.
Cue a full GEO check at Elite in Rainham, Essex who are renowned for their super accurate alignment systems.
Every corner was out toe wise, but luckly there is some negative camber which is not excessive and well within tolerances.
Final result for a stock car was 0.10 toe on both front wheels and 0.50 neg camber on both front wheels.
On the rear, I wanted more toe to make the car more "pointy" so had this wound up to 0.15 on both sides. Steering angle and thrust are both set at 0 and rear camber is around 1.5 which is a lot but nothing can be done until I get some camber adjusters for the car.
First impressions were lighter steering (running 18" rims with 205/40 rubber), and more initial response to smaller steering inputs.
On long sweeping bends now the car holds its own with no drama whatsoever and seems to accelerate more smoothly and feels like there is nothing holding it back now. When it comes to roundabouts... omg, you can chuck the car into it with massive confidence... even though it does wash out sometimes, this is easily adjusted with the throttle and nothing a upgraded rear roll bar and spacers at the front wont sort imo. Might knock a PSI or 2 from the front boots as well to give it a bit more bite.
All in all I am a lot happier with the car now and the simple geo adjustments have made it immensley more useable with less requirements for braking now. Those who have lowered without adjustments get it checked asap.