Geo set up

tut · Post by **tut** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:45 pm

I was around at Mark Hutchesons, Inverurie yesterday, for a full geo set up. Last time was at his parents garage in Banchory, but now he has a large farm building leased from TuscanThunder (John Sorrie).

Tis always a pleasure to spend a day with Mark, chatting, watching him at work, and now admiring the competition car projects that he is working on. He is well on the way to finishing the first of his MH Ghosts for Jonathan Rarity for next years Championships, with another in the pipeline.

The workmanship is exquisite, tubular powder coated space frame, front and rear aluminium CNC machined structures that should be hanging in the Tate gallery, brake disks and forged wheels that you can pick up with one finger, and 1.4 hi spec Hayabusa engines putting out 250hp. Every single component is so beautifully built that it begs not to be hidden.

In the meantime he is setting up N3 TUT for the geo, and also checking up on anything else that needs sorting/replacing, and six hours later we are finished. Normally it would be less than that, but he was in relaxed mode.

Existing settings were surprising, I thought that they would be very conservative, but rear camber was -2.3 and -1.8, and the fronts -0.8 and -1.3. He set these to -2.3 and -1.3.

Toe was not far out, so was set at a wee bitty out at the front, and 1.2 in at the rear.

Corner weightings were a fair bit out, so were evened up on the ride height settings. They averaged out at 105/115.

Mark asked me to announce that he will shortly have his four post ramp installed, and that he is taking on a well qualified and very keen lad, to join in with him. As a result he is going to start taking on more work for competition cars and the Elise family, ie any servicing, but more importantly, ball joints, wheelbearings, toe links, wish bone bushes, steering racks, ie the parts that really matter to us. As we all know, a Lotus service is just an oil and filter change.

He has his own shot/sand blasting machine, lathes etc, and can either paint wishbones/uprights himself, or have them powder coated locally.

His labour rates are still silly, will go up a bit, but still below £28/hr, he is a real enthusiast, and one of the big differences is that you can sit around and chat, have a coffee, and watch him at work without getting in the way.

His contact number is 07780 743622, e-mail mark@racing.plus.com

tut

caleebra · Post by **caleebra** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:18 pm

Good post Tut

He's set my car set up twice now and Mark is the only person locally I would trust with the car for anything like that. Was fun going into the new place in the snow earlier this year

I just wish I could afford to go for his "refurb package" and get all my wishbones etc stripped off and powdercoated, bushes & balljoints replaced etc. Next year maybe!

Mr Momo · Post by **Mr Momo** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:00 pm

Agree with everything you've both said.

I was up last week to drop Gareth off and the MH car is looking great (but always worth a wind-up on the progress .....)

I'm saving up for the wishbone powder-coating.....

Matelotman · Post by **Matelotman** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:48 pm

It's good to hear all of this - I've never met Mark before but my car is booked in with him on Monday

. I was thinking of just dumping it on him and picking it up later but if he doesn't mind you hanging around.... it would be good to see him at work. There's not much I can't do on a car but this geo lark with springs, dampers, toe in, toe out and cambers etc is all new to me and seems a bit of a mystical art

dlogan · Post by **dlogan** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:16 am

Great news this, I like the idea of the refurb on the Sevens (exposed) suspension components.

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:11 am

I've been at mark to get someone on board and offer servicing. That would be great. Nothing wrong with Ricky but Inverurie is only 20mins away from me.

Mr Momo · Post by **Mr Momo** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:05 pm

Gareth - how did the guards turn out ?

rossybee · Post by **rossybee** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:56 pm

Mr Momo wrote:Gareth - how did the guards turn out ?

tut · Post by **tut** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 4:27 pm

He has not got his ramp set up yet, but it will not be long.

tut

Matelotman · Post by **Matelotman** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 4:31 pm

I can't wait for Monday to get mine done !!! I was fed up of scraping the ar*e of the car along like a dog with worms so I raised the back end and lowered the front today.... now the damn thing's trying to kill me - feels like the front wheels are on marbles

I've tried different damper settings but now I've lost the will so it'll have to do until Monday.

tut · Post by **tut** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:34 pm

Thanks to Marks setup, and having the front wheels re-balanced by John today, I should be able to hack the Glenshee bumps tomorrow without killing myself.

tut

Matelotman · Post by **Matelotman** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:50 pm

I'm going to pack a parachute

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:10 am

rossybee wrote:
Mr Momo wrote:Gareth - how did the guards turn out ?

Mega, pics to follow

rossybee · Post by **rossybee** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:33 pm

Matelotman · Post by **Matelotman** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:22 pm

I finally met Mark today and got my setup done, only minor tweaks were needed apart from the front toe which was miles out - the root of my evil understeer. Took it for a quick test this afternoon, understeer is fixed and I was introduced to a new friend.....damp road oversteer