mx-5 mk1, its my first car, ive been driving for about 7months, i have nothing to compair the handling too, apart from driving my dads John Cooper Works MINI which has awsome handling and is front wheel drive. the mazdas’s front has scared me a few times with somewhat floatyness and understeer taking corners .
How easily can the geometry get screwed up? where i live there are a few nasty pot holes that have caught me out on 60 roads and scared the s*** out of me with the noise the car has made going over them, could this effect it. Also i lost the rear on a wet off camber round about i over steered too much, exited the roundabout veered to the left of the road and the front passenger side wheel slammed into the curb, im guessing this has screwed geometry? but i cant really tell if the handling is bad or not because i only have 7months experience and a 25 grand 09 plate mini to compair it too!
its also 13years old, could the geometry have drifted?
Ha thanks for the quick reply, wasn’t expecting one until tomorrow hmm ye i thought it would be, ive read alot about alignment and geometry here but ive also been reading about people getting settings, how do i get a setting? and will the alignment center know what setting or do i need to bring them some kind of spec?
and yes im going to have to look around for an alignment center, i do have a friend whos next door neigbour works in a garage had some seriously suped up honda civic and had a “lazer” alignment resently ill ask my mate if he can find out about any places near by.
I’ve had my car for about 6 months now, and other than on very greasy roads with cold tyres, I’ve never once had it understeer. In the dry at least, and probably in the right hands in the wet, it should out corner the mini.
You need to ensure that you go to a proper suspension geometry centre - http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/ and CLCM are regarded as being two of the best if you happen to be near them, but there are plenty more out there if you don’t want to travel. I would avoid any ‘normal’ tyres&tracking/alignment style garages, such as HiQ, Kwik Fit and so on, because that’s not what the specialise in (despite what the man at the desk might say)
The garage should know what settings should be used, but you should be able to find some settings on the forum if you want to take them in, but a competent garage won’t need them.
Get the alignment checked, make sure you have dencent tyres on it set at the right pressures then get some driver training.
Understeer or oversteer should always be a choice you’ve made with the controls of the car. If you find it just “happens” then you will benefit from some training (even if it’s just training to observe when the road conditions are likely to include a diesel spill).
Great advice guys, ye i think i will get geometry done and also look into some driver training, i know how to make the car do those things but i’ve jsut noticed the front very floaty when taking corners pretty slow coming on and off sharp round abouts.
and really the mx-5 out performing the mini? its no ordinary mini, its a John cooper works, pretty awsome stuff!
Go to alignmycar.co.uk. This will give you your nearest centres which have Hunter alignment setups. They are very unlikely to know what settings to use. See my post about a centre in Gloucester for a cautionary tale and some settings which may apply to your car if you have a similar ride height. My MX5 was transformed from utterly scary to awesome!
i over steered too much, exited the roundabout veered to the left of the road and the front passenger side wheel slammed into the curb, im guessing this has screwed geometry? but i cant really tell if the handling is bad or not because i only have 7months experience and a 25 grand 09 plate mini to compair it too!
hmm ye i thought it would be, ive read alot about alignment and geometry here but ive also been reading about people getting settings, how do i get a setting? and will the alignment center know what setting or do i need to bring them some kind of spec?