What a difference...

Power Surge · #1 (**permalink**) 11-29-2008, 06:33 PM

Even though my CSX has been a blast to drive over the past 8000 miles, it's still never been perfect. But two changes recently have made the car a real pleasure to drive now.

The first change, has to do with the tires. I run the Goodyear billboards, which are not the most precisionly made tires in the world. From day one, they were pretty out of round. My car would shake pretty good over about 70mph. Over 100, the windshield would shake violently. Well recently, I pulled the wheels off and Road Forced them here at work (I manage a Goodyear). The road force machine measures the total wheel runout, and then you can measure the rim runout seperate. Then it tells you where to rotate the tire on the rim so that the low spot of the rim and the high spot of the tire match up and make the overall wheel more true. After that, no more shake, and the car is smooth as silk.

The second change, which I did today, was alignment. The car has been feeling darty lately, and always felt a little off. Now I DID lower the back of the car when I first got it, and that DOES throw the entire alignment off. I wound up eating the rear tires up and just had to replace them.

So I contacted Tom from Tom's Motorsports in LV (he is the authority on Shelby and Kirkham suspension), and asked for some alignment spec advice. Tom hooked me up with some specs for my car. Today, myself and my alignment tech spent some time on my car on the rack. It was REALLY off! We set the car to Tom's specs, and now the car drives SOO much better.

So moral of the story is... for a really enjoyable ride out of your Cobra, make sure your tires are as good as they can be, and make sure your alignment is on the money!

lineslinger · #2 (**permalink**) 11-29-2008, 08:59 PM

Great analysis, do you feel confident about posting any specs? Or..........is this specific to your sled?

Mike Bartlett · #3 (**permalink**) 11-29-2008, 09:05 PM

Sal good to hear your car is feeling better to you. My next set of tires I would like to try the Billboards and now know what to do to get them correct. With my Eagles it feels pretty smooth well over 100 but the car feels a bit squirrelly at times. I have had my car aligned to "stock" Shelby specs. Any chance you could share Tom's specs?

Thank you

Mike

Power Surge · #4 (**permalink**) 11-30-2008, 12:15 AM

Thanks guys. The specs Tom gave me are specific to my CSX I would imagine, because they are based on a certain ride height. I also don't want to post his specs publically because I don't know if he's protective of that info or not, being it's his business. But if you have a Shelby or a Kirkham, then I definitely wouldn't hesitate to e-mail him and ask.

tomsmotorsports@hotmail.com

Silverback51 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-30-2008, 03:52 AM

When I first bought my car the left rear had 0 degrees of camber and the right rear had almost +3 degrees. It was totally out of whack.

I now run a negative .75 degrees of camber and love it. Little harder on tires, but it's a trade off I will make.

terry lee · #6 (**permalink**) 11-30-2008, 08:15 AM

Sal,
Are you selling the Billboards thru your store?
I am also in need of a Goodyear trailer tire for my enclosed trailer.
Send me (PM) a phone number and I can give you the info on the tire size.
I'll be heading back down south in acouple of weeks and driving thru Daytona on I-95.

Thanks,
TL

jmimac351 · #7 (**permalink**) 11-30-2008, 11:07 AM

Yo Sal, send me a PM with where you are. I'm in Palm Coast every few weeks and I'd like to come by and see you with my Billboards. You are very right about alignment. I've been playing with mine to get it dialed in. I'm running about as much caster as I can stand with the manual rack - 5.5 degrees. I know it's close enough to put on a rack and check where it is but it's amazing how little the difference is between "right" and "this car sucks".