Trip to a very cool alignment rack..
 

The guy who did my LS2 tuning recently bought a new alignment rack. This thing is so cool. It can measure bumpsteer, check if the chassis is square to the body and a host of other things. I guess it cost over $50k installed and uses digital cameras on targets. The technology and graphics were stunning.

Anyways, the best news was that my car is perfectly square.. to the hundreth of an inch. :woot:

And even though my car is a bit lower than optimal the bumpsteer is very minimal. Almost none in a rise and very slight to the right on a compression (1 inch each way).

Sorta cool:
http://picsorban.com/upload/bmpsteer.jpg

My thrust angle was at about 2-degrees so we brought that to around zero. Scott was impressed with how easy the LD three-link was to adjust. We went for a good performance street alignment since that's where the car will spend 90% of its life.

The final specs:
http://picsorban.com/upload/finalspec.jpg

The alignment wasn't cheap but I feel it was worth every penny. The car tracks dead straight, doesn't "hunt" the ruts in the roads and feels great. We also did some computer fine tuning and figured out my front squeek. When I had my alt bracket powdered they coated the nub where the idler rides by accident. I cleaned it off, but not good enough thus causing the pulley to ride at a VERY slight angle. This causes the chirp. I will order up a new brackt tomorrow and just paint the damn thing. lol

I also found out that my car runs out of gas at 1/2 tank on the gauge.. don't ask but I need to adjust the sender. :_paranoid

The rack:
http://picsorban.com/upload/pennyrack.jpg

Man that's one cool machine!!

Yeah, that is really cool.

What do you think of the tires? Does it hook up at all?

Wow you really can't ask for more. :thumbsup:

Cool picture on the rack. Your pictures make me want to buy a new camera and take some photo lessons :lol:.

Nice rack! :unibrow:

Any idea what the make and model of that rack is? I'd like to see if somebody around here has one.

You know, it's not required to have fancy equipment to do an alignment, but MAN!!!! It sure makes the job a heck of a lot easier, and virtually always more accurate because you eliminate measurement error, etc. That is one very nice machine, with this type of technology available, it'd be silly not to go to a shop that has it.

And, darn it Steve, for the last time, your car isn't "Square," it's actually really cool! (Sorry, a bit slap happy this morning, long day ahead...)

Nice stuff, very nice stuff.
Mark

I did my daily driver on one of those recently, it is very cool and has a lot of capabilities. I will do my Camaro in the spring at that place.


Jan

The owner was very suprised.. he said that most cars he gets in that have heavily modified suspensions aren't even close to square. He also liked how easy it was to adjust the thrust angle on your three-link.