Carbonwurks was founded originally from a motorsports background with owner Daniel McKenzie having raced at the highest levels of motorsport (Formula 2, Formula 3, European Le Mans etc). With this wealth of knowledge, Carbonwurks wanted to offer services which highlighted our abilities in bringing race car performance to road cars. Although we offer a range of performance upgrades for vehicles, one element of car performance & maintenance is correct wheel alignment. It’s all good and well having a well sorted chassis with a whole range of upgraded components but if your wheels aren’t pointing in the correction direction, it’s completely wasted. In this blog, we explain a little more about what’s possible and what you as a driver should be looking to expect from your car.

We have gone into a lot of detail in various sections of our website highlighting the technical aspect of wheel alignment and geometry, it’s worth having a look to understand a little more in depth on these areas. These are referenced at the bottom of this blog.

When it comes to setting up a car for normal road use compared to fast road and track use, the difference is quite significant. Understanding what you require from your vehicle is very important to ensure the best setup as not everyone will have the same requirements. It’s worth noting that a good road going set-up is not going to be good on track and likewise a well set-up track biased geometry can handle badly on the road and can even be dangerous. Once we have understood your requirements, we will be happy to give our expertise on the optimised set-up based on the adjustments that can be made with your vehicles hardware. Sometimes additional components are required to allow for adjustments outside of the manufacturer specification (if required).

Generally, a factory or “OEM” geometry is set-up to allow handling and stability in a range of different environments and to help optimise fuel consumption. Over time suspension components are susceptible to wear and tear with frequent knocks and bumps the tyres/wheels may take from hitting pot holes and kerbs along with aging of said components. This can cause alignment to fall out of specification and although no components have been changed, bringing this back to how it should will have a multitude of benefits.

Where a fast road or track biased setup changes how a car is adjusted, the goal is to create a sharper handling car with enhanced performance with cornering grip, braking and heat management over the width of the tyre. This however can come at the detriment to tyre life and sometimes stability driving in a straight line along with wet driving capabilities. As the level of camber is increased, this can help with cornering where the car will be sat on the largest contact patch of the tyre during car leaning/transition, the downside is less longitudinal grip (acceleration and braking) and as such reduced wet weather stability. Toe angles can be adjusted to change how the car turns and rotates, depending whether a front, rear or 4 wheel drive different set-ups can dialled in to obtain specific handling characteristics. Small changes can come with a drastic difference to how a car behaves and it’s a fine art to exploit the car in the best way for each driver and preferred usage.

At Carbonwurks we believe each car and setup should be treated in an individual and unique way. We have the ability to set-up each vehicle with a specific desired outcome depending on each customers preference and will do so based on our experience. The other factor to consider is alignment equipment is only as good as it’s operator. Carbonwurks has dedicated technicians who are not only trained and qualified but have their own wealth of experience and knowledge with track and race cars from many different manufacturers.

If you would like to find out a little more about wheel alignment and geometry please click on the links below for some additional information.

Vehicle Geometry Explained – Geo Explained

Wheel Alignment Services – Alignment Services

Trackday Preparation & Performance Upgrades – Track Prep & Performance