Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know my experience with this shop on Long Island.

It was reccomended to me by various people in the area as being alright, but it really didn't seem like anyone had had anything done there.

So I took my chances and went over. It was $100 for a corner weight and alignment. Now, when I got there I noticed they had no alignment rack. They ended up using hand tools (various truechoice stuff) to do the alignment manually. Now, I don't have a problem with that. Sure, it's not as accurate as a real computer laser alignment rack, but it should be ballpark, right?

Majorly F'n wrong.

I noticed that my front azenis were wearing kind of quickly. They also were exhibiting some serious feathering. I thought that maybe the alignment had gotten a little out of spec -- I drive pretty "spirited" on the street and I've off coursed a touch (dropped a wheel) on on/offramps here and there, maybe I just banged it up a bit. Original settings reported to me by High-Speed were -3 camber F, 0toe, -2 camber R, 0toe.

So I go to STS today in East Meadow. They've done alignments for me before and they have a big ol' laser rack. It gives readings to 2 decimals on camber and toe in 32nds, caster to two decimals.

They put it on the rack and the alignment guy goes "man can see you are pretty toed IN from here"... I think, that's funny... toe in? Why would it be toed in?

After he hooked the machine up, here's the initial numbers that came up:

Camber Front: -3.46 Left, -2.6 Right (crappy)
Camber Rear: -1.6 Left, -2.4 Right (crappy)

At least those are fairly ballpark for hand and manual tools. Sortof.

Toe Rear: -5/32 Left, -3/32 Right (not so terrible)
Toe Front: +7/8 Left, +27/32 Right

YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT. ALMOST ONE INCH OF TOE-IN ON BOTH FRONT TIRES.

No wonder my Azenis got burned out in less than 6000 miles!!! No wonder my car was an absolute nightmare to drive in the rain, having almost no control over where the car was going. No wonder it tramlined like it was on train tracks.

So after STS guys spent a lot of time banging around rusty bolts and moving my huge exhaust out of the way and fighting with the car, here's what I ended up with on their reccomendation:

Camber Front: ~-2 right and left
Caster Front: ~5.1 right and left
Toe Front: slightly toed in I believe
Camber Rear: ~-2 right and left
Toe Rear: around 1/32 of toe-in right and left

Now, I was *ACTUALLY* charged 59.95 plus tax, and he had me sit in the car, too. However the guy told me "if you go telling other people you got this alignment, tell them it was $120"

STS standard rate for F/R alignment is $59.95. But for a "racecar" where they're actually taking a lot of time to do it right and fighting with your car alot because you've got some sport suspension and your settings are all wacked out, $120 really isn't all that bad of a deal.

So, the moral of the story:

A) don't go to high-speed motorsports on long island. In fact, tell people NOT to go there. That place sucks. If my car was that bad, I can't imagine how retarded their real race cars are set up. When I was listening to them talk about their on-track experiences, they sounded like they knew nothing about racing cars. My experience with their shop only proves that they really know nothing about race cars.
B) DO go to STS in East Meadow, or maybe your local STS. They are friendly, their prices are good. They have quality equipment. I know these east meadow guys WILL do whatever settings you want, provided you can get it out of your car (I have problems getting my desired camber and toe in the rear because there's simply not enough OE adjustment -- that will soon be fixed). They WILL do quality work, and I was basically watching/supervising the whole time. They WILL sit you in the car if you want to get a better picture of your real alignment. They WON'T rip you off (even $120 for a full custom alignment with you weighting the car is a good deal, IMO).

So that's my story. Do any of you guys think I should try to get HMS to pay for the tires that they ruined, or should I just drop it? I don't really care... in my mind, I got a season out of the Azenis... and they still have a fair amount of tread left (down to the wear bars)

P.S. Dunlop Graspic DS-1 snow tires ROCK. I haven't had them in real snow yet but they are great in the rain (braking is iffy but overall traction is good) and they are pretty grippy in the dry.