Small Fixes on C36

Mar 31, 2006 Fri

Brought the C36 to KYB for wheel alignment. Front cambers were found to be almost equal on both sides at 1 degree. That's a good sign because they were not adjustable. It also told me that the geometry of the suspension and chassis was intact during the last 11 years. At least I hope so. It would be nice to have a bit over 2 degrees to dial out the natural understeering. Of course the front castor could not be adjustable, both at 4 degrees. Simon of KYB dialed in a bit of toe in for the rear wheels (factory spec). Front toe were set at 0 degree instead of slight toe-in as specified by the factory.

After the wheel alignment the car's handling was improved and cleaner but not as much as I expect. At least the car felt more nimble but still understeer in most cases, making me a bit worried about carrying speed into corners. I was just wondering if I were driving the car the right way. I understand that the car was front heavy and tended to oversteer when accelerating out of corners. However the turn-in was really not very good, until the front loading started to lighten up.

AD07 is showing more grip everyday. However the side wall is a bit soft for the loading on the outside wheel during cornering. I could feel the front tire bited very hard but the side wall failed to support this level of grip. I have to put 32psi to help the sidewall stiffness.

I guess it would be slow-in-fast-out for the time being. The failure to carry speed into corner was disappointing.

Saturday - April 1st Rugby 7 weekend

Met up with Charlton with his white C280 and both of us sent our W202s to Pak Lok Garage for some small fixes at 10am. Tiki and I then went to the Rugby 7 game at HK Stadium.

Small fixes on C36 included: (a) horn, (b) ambient temperature display, (c) head lamp adjustment, (d) lamp inside glove box, and (e) windshield wiper. The attention to details at Pak Lok in getting the C36 back to perfect working condition was amazing.

Ah Shing (owner of Pak Lok Garage) met us up at the Tin Hau MTR with the C36 around 7:30pm after the Rugby game. I was told that the ex-owner of my 1995 C36 bought himself a 1997 C36. Judging from the condition of my C36 and a lot of money spent on it previously, I wonder if I was getting lucky. As a matter of fact I missed the chance to see the 1997 C36 about six months ago and I just knew it was the ex-ower who bought the car before I had a chance to see it. I was wondering if the 1997 model had a 5-speed but was told it was only a 4-speed electronic gearbox. In UK and USA 5-speed was offered in 1997 models.