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Darren and Chris Nishimura are as meticulous as it gets when it comes to alignments. First the car goes on the scales. Then the ride height and level are set. Then the rear alignment and the front alignment are adjusted. The car goes back on the scales again. After that they do that whole process all over again making minor adjustments.
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Reading the Yelp pages on West End Alignment is pretty funny. Some folks regard Darren as the Samurai master of alignments which he is, but Darren and Son Chris are about as chill as they come. The shop foreman is a cat!
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No computers or laser guided alignment at West End. How's this for precise? |
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Chris checks the negative camber in the rear. Let's just call our setting aggressive to clear the rear fender lip on our 225 series tires. We’ll address this permanently later.
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The SI gets twitchy in the rear with short fast bumps and Progress' rear bar really helps reduce a large amount of the roll when weight transfers to the outside wheel while cornering hard. The “twitchy” feeling is largely due to bushing deflection and the loss of negative camber when under a heavy cornering load. The larger rear bar combined with urethane bushings and the stiffer springs produce much more driver confidence when exploring the limits of the car's handling. Surprisingly the car is more comfortable than stock while freeway cruising. The only compromise in comfort is short/fast bumps on uneven pavement. We happen to have a couple roads like this where tree roots have lifted the pavement in places. This minor inconvenience is far outweighed by the enjoyment of the increased performance and confidence from the Progress Suspension while driving the car hard. In its current form I'd like to think this is as close as Project SI can get to a Type-R. We've picked up a couple issues that need addressing with our modifications: rubbing with our wheel and tire choice and a bit of excessive noise at freeway speeds with our exhaust. Both of which we will address along with some minor fixes for the transmission.
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