M3boi
Well-known member
I've been a little quiet on the forum, and part of the reason is because I've started a little business called DriveStudio!
After spending the last 3 and a half years developing my E36's chassis setup and going down that deep rabbit hole and learning so much, I realised how important the combination of parts, the setup of those parts and properly optimised alignments really are. I also realised that the specs that alignment shops were quite far off what one would want from a handling and tyre life point of view, and no one was really offering something that focussed on that.
So I decided to create an offering that aligned (ha) what I was looking for when it comes to chassis setup and suspension geometry. I figured the E36's success in competitive events would also help cement the fact that I vaguely knew what I was doing 😂 I started off in my garage, working on friends' Porsches and realising how TERRIBLE the factory Porsche setups are. After completing the setups, the owners were amazed at how different their cars felt, and why they didn't feel like this straight out the box.
Word started to spread, and I got more and more enquiries asking if I was able to do geo and setups on other peoples cars. This lead to me getting quite busy, but also realising I needed a proper space that wasn't my home garage to do what I needed to do.
This lead to me realising I needed to get more serious about this offering, as interest was only continuing to grow. So I've acquired a small shop space in the Southern Suburbs, had a 4 post lift installed that includes a rolling jack, allowing me to jack the car up while on the lift to install suspension parts, make adjustments to those parts, then set it back down to perform optimised alignments.
I now offer everything from putting suspension packages together (recommending and putting together parts lists and ordering parts) based on your use case, installing suspension parts, full setup of components including 1, 2 and 3-way dampening adjustment setup, and then getting the suspension geometry dialled in based on your use case (fast road, road & track and full track) using our race-derived billet string alignment kit, which is accurate to 1/4mm and negates the chances of laser alignment heads having play in them and giving inaccurate alignment readings. Camber is also measured with a race-derived camber gauge for accurate readings.
I've also started working on suspension parts development for various cars, starting off with camber shims for Porsche GT models. Factory shims are extremely expensive, and importing them makes no sense either. So our GT camber shims are locally laser cut out of 304SS for strength and durability and are the exact shape of the OEM shims, and come in different sizes as per factory to allow for accurate adjustment of camber. These work for GT3's and GT4's from 996 - 991, and 981 to 718. Parts development will begin soon on various BMW's (E36 camber shims as an example) as well as other cars where suspension adjustment parts aren't readily available locally.
The goal for DriveStudio is to educate people on suspension geometry and chassis setup, and show the changes that the various adjustments make, whether you enjoy your spirited Sunday morning drives or enjoy using your car on trackdays. Setup is so underrated, and a lot of people don't realise how a properly optimised alignment can change how confident you feel in your car.
Within the next few months, our race scales will arrive and we will be able to perform accurate corner balancing of cars as well, provided you have adjustable coilovers and the full offering will then be complete.
Its been a fun journey these past few months, I've really been enjoying doing all the setups on various different cars, as well as putting suspension packages together including speccing out coilovers with custom spring rates and valving, to suspension arms and bushings and even tyre choices, and seeing how happy people have been after driving their cars once everything has come together, and doing setups on cars for competitive events and seeing clients get podiums with their cars. It really is super rewarding!
If its something you're interested in, give us a follow on Instagram to keep up with what we're doing. You can also pop me a message on the page if you're interested in getting your car's geometry dialled in.
www.instagram.com
Thanks for reading!
After spending the last 3 and a half years developing my E36's chassis setup and going down that deep rabbit hole and learning so much, I realised how important the combination of parts, the setup of those parts and properly optimised alignments really are. I also realised that the specs that alignment shops were quite far off what one would want from a handling and tyre life point of view, and no one was really offering something that focussed on that.
So I decided to create an offering that aligned (ha) what I was looking for when it comes to chassis setup and suspension geometry. I figured the E36's success in competitive events would also help cement the fact that I vaguely knew what I was doing 😂 I started off in my garage, working on friends' Porsches and realising how TERRIBLE the factory Porsche setups are. After completing the setups, the owners were amazed at how different their cars felt, and why they didn't feel like this straight out the box.
Word started to spread, and I got more and more enquiries asking if I was able to do geo and setups on other peoples cars. This lead to me getting quite busy, but also realising I needed a proper space that wasn't my home garage to do what I needed to do.
This lead to me realising I needed to get more serious about this offering, as interest was only continuing to grow. So I've acquired a small shop space in the Southern Suburbs, had a 4 post lift installed that includes a rolling jack, allowing me to jack the car up while on the lift to install suspension parts, make adjustments to those parts, then set it back down to perform optimised alignments.
I now offer everything from putting suspension packages together (recommending and putting together parts lists and ordering parts) based on your use case, installing suspension parts, full setup of components including 1, 2 and 3-way dampening adjustment setup, and then getting the suspension geometry dialled in based on your use case (fast road, road & track and full track) using our race-derived billet string alignment kit, which is accurate to 1/4mm and negates the chances of laser alignment heads having play in them and giving inaccurate alignment readings. Camber is also measured with a race-derived camber gauge for accurate readings.
I've also started working on suspension parts development for various cars, starting off with camber shims for Porsche GT models. Factory shims are extremely expensive, and importing them makes no sense either. So our GT camber shims are locally laser cut out of 304SS for strength and durability and are the exact shape of the OEM shims, and come in different sizes as per factory to allow for accurate adjustment of camber. These work for GT3's and GT4's from 996 - 991, and 981 to 718. Parts development will begin soon on various BMW's (E36 camber shims as an example) as well as other cars where suspension adjustment parts aren't readily available locally.
The goal for DriveStudio is to educate people on suspension geometry and chassis setup, and show the changes that the various adjustments make, whether you enjoy your spirited Sunday morning drives or enjoy using your car on trackdays. Setup is so underrated, and a lot of people don't realise how a properly optimised alignment can change how confident you feel in your car.
Within the next few months, our race scales will arrive and we will be able to perform accurate corner balancing of cars as well, provided you have adjustable coilovers and the full offering will then be complete.
Its been a fun journey these past few months, I've really been enjoying doing all the setups on various different cars, as well as putting suspension packages together including speccing out coilovers with custom spring rates and valving, to suspension arms and bushings and even tyre choices, and seeing how happy people have been after driving their cars once everything has come together, and doing setups on cars for competitive events and seeing clients get podiums with their cars. It really is super rewarding!
If its something you're interested in, give us a follow on Instagram to keep up with what we're doing. You can also pop me a message on the page if you're interested in getting your car's geometry dialled in.
drivestudio. (@drivestudio.za) • Instagram photos and videos
307 Followers, 132 Following, 16 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from drivestudio. (@drivestudio.za)
www.instagram.com
Thanks for reading!
