harris_i

Had these recently applied to my 04 GT3, although I asked for a little less camber front and rear.

I am slightly concerned that the workshop may have misinterpreted my request for total toe of 35' at the rear, although not being the most technically minded I hesitated to bring it up when they showed me the printout.

I suffered a couple of spins whilst trail braking at the last track day, although I am prepared to concede this is very likely as a result of my own ineptitude rather than a fundamental problem with the set up (the car felt fine otherwise).

Could someone kindly confirm whether the following seem OK for a GT3 predominantly employed on the track? (Particularly toe front and rear).

Front axle:
Castor 20deg: left +8d 39' right 8d 21'
KPI 20deg: left +18d 35' right +18d 19'
Toe out on turns: left -1d 43' right -1d 56'
Camber: left -2d 8' right -2d 5'
Indiv toe: left +5' right +5'
Total toe: +10'
Setback: -16'
Included angle 20deg: left +16d 27' right +16d 15'
Max steer to left: left +35d 25' right +29d 5'
Max steer to right: left +30d 17' right +35d 40'

Rear axle:
Camber: left -2d 5' right -2d 5'
Indiv toe: left +37' right +32'
Total toe: +1d 8'
Setback: +6'
Geometrical driving axis: -3'

The shop claims they took 14 hours to set up the car! (They are the authorised Porsche dealer in Dubai). They claim the rear toe settings caused them a real headache. Am I right in thinking they have doubled the amount of toe required?

If so, what will be the effect on the car's dynamics under these settings?

Thanks for any advice on the above,

Harris

Bob Rouleau

Harris - the toe-in on the rear wheels should be 34' total, that is 17' toe in per side. With the present settings your car will be very stable in the high speed corners but rear tires will wear out quickly and straight line speed will be reduced.

Regards,

harris_i

Thanks for the confirmation Bob.

I will see how I get on with these settings for the next couple of track events (ie can hard practice overcome lack of talent!) and watch the rear tyres for wear before deciding on whether to reduce the rear toe a little.

Harris

maximu5

I cannot compare a toe measured in degrees as Manthey, who set up my car, measure toe in milimeters, but my toe at the rear is 2.5 times that in the front.

Z06

With this much rear toe they say that you can apply more throttle on exits...I did not like it...I go with what Bob said or slighly less toe.
Any hyway driving and you will wear out the insides quickly, 14hrs is to long to set the alignment.

Is this the alignment set-up you asked for?

If it's not take it back..you will lose the rear tires.

harris_i

Appreciate what you are saying - if only life were so simple.

After a big argument with the dealer (I refused to pay for so much labour for what should really only take a couple of hours), we agreed a cost for the alignment, and I didn't question the printout before leaving (my bad). I want to ensure a good relationship with them as they are the only authorised Porsche dealer and have previously been good to me (for example, after another protracted negotiation they agreed to maintain my warranty on fitment of an RS clutch and flywheel).

Rather than march in and demand a realignment (which will probably have the workshop staff rolling their eyes as I am currently the "difficult customer" with unreasonable demands), I think I will write to the general manager to confirm an appointment for the upcoming flywheel fitment and mention why I think they took so long over the alignment "for his future reference" - see what he comes back with and play it from there.

Cheers,

Harris

Mr. C4

Did the 14 hours incl. corner balance? If not, they are robbing you!

Go to Ivan at AAT in Sharjah, he knows what he is doing in terms of track/race alignment and corner balancing. He did my GT3 and 964 to perfection and as per my data/feedback.

Ciao,

J.

LVDell

Then if you don't feel like holding them to what they were supposed to do (and don't get me started about the 14 hour b.s.). Next time, you get a quote, you agree to it, and they do the work. What they did should have easily been under 2 hours. But if you fee like the relationship is worth not upsetting them over requirement to complete the job properly, then agree to pay for .5 hours of labor to fix the toe settings.

harris_i

Johannes - I am in total agreement with you. That's why I spent an hourin the shop arguing the toss over the finer points of customer service, refusing to leave until the general manager called me. In the end I paid for 3 hours labour. Now I wish I had paid more attention to the whole printout instead of when I got home - I can see why they found it so difficult. AAT in Sharjah is not really a practical solution for me: it's been a while since you were in Dubai - traffic between the two is now like living in Hell presided over by Ken Livingstone. Trailer is an option I should consider maybe.

Dell - I will see what the GM comes back with. Hopefully he will offer to fix it for free without my prompting...

LVDell

Hope it all works out for you.

Phokaioglaukos

Courtesy of Bob Rouleau.

Phokaioglaukos

My car is being aligned, and attached are the settings I requested.

Mr. C4

Drop the car with House of Cars and let them flatbed it to AAT. Have Ivan do a corner balance and your geometry specs. (But don't shoot him if you don't like the settings) I gave Ivan my specs and we talked through the current handling and how I wanted it and agreed for Ivan to also drive the car and give his input before setting up the car.

Both the GT3 and 964 came out beautiful as you know. God I miss kicking the *** of all the modern P cars and other exotics at the Auto X with the 964, that car ruled!

Don't waste you time with the (s)dealer. Perhaps worth having a friendly word with Karim as he is their (the (s)dealers official driver or with Blair as his manager, about setting up your car.

Ciao,

J.