PARR Fast Road Geo

[V8KSN]

A friend of mine has been telling me to get the geo set up on my car for a while. His reason being the car is 7 years old now and it really should get checked before our run into Europe.

I did a little research on the net and he told me to to go CG but they couldn't fit me in so I took it to PARR instead.

Now I was not sure what to expect from a geo set-up and to be perfectly honest I just thought they would tweak a few things and basically point all 4 wheels the right way and improve the tyre wear......how wrong I was!

I went for the PARR fast road set up and the car now feels so secure and planted on the road. High speed stability has improved massively and it just feels so much more responsive and confidence inspiring. Now admittedly I did have 4 new Michelin Pilot Super Sports fitted the day before and some of the improvement could be attributed to them but all in all I would highly recommend PARR to anyone thinking about having their geo set-up.

They even put a nice PARR pen put in the glovebox for me

[keep it lit]

Glad to hear your car is sorted.. a positive geo makes a great drive! Parr have great race & track pedigree.. Mike at S&C is also up to speeed with the geos for all of us oop north.

[V8KSN]

keep it lit said:

Glad to hear your car is sorted.. a positive geo makes a great drive! Parr have great race & track pedigree.. Mike at S&C is also up to speeed with the geos for all of us oop north.

Cheers bud. I might have to make a trip back up north to check out some of the old roads again. I used to live in Derby and there are some brilliant roads round Ashbourne and Matlock way, one road (A5012) from Cromford to Buxton is legendary!

[Bennachie]

Derby is almost in France, come on get real; the guy said 'up north'!

[barchetta_boy]

Also the B5023 from Duffield to Wirksworth...

[markjo]

what was the cost @ PARR?

[V8KSN]

markjo said:

what was the cost @ PARR?

There was a couple of other things I had done at the same time so the invoice price I paid is misleading. From memory, I think it was around £300.

Best thing to do is give them a call if you want the right price. Sorry, i've not been much help.

[Ian_UK1]

V8KSN said:

A friend of mine has been telling me to get the geo set up on my car for a while. His reason being the car is 7 years old now and it really should get checked before our run into Europe.

I did a little research on the net and he told me to to go CG but they couldn't fit me in so I took it to PARR instead.

Now I was not sure what to expect from a geo set-up and to be perfectly honest I just thought they would tweak a few things and basically point all 4 wheels the right way and improve the tyre wear......how wrong I was!

I went for the PARR fast road set up and the car now feels so secure and planted on the road. High speed stability has improved massively and it just feels so much more responsive and confidence inspiring. Now admittedly I did have 4 new Michelin Pilot Super Sports fitted the day before and some of the improvement could be attributed to them but all in all I would highly recommend PARR to anyone thinking about having their geo set-up.

They even put a nice PARR pen put in the glovebox for me

I'd be interested to know what camber/toe settings they put on the car and what else they did as part of the whole setup. It would make an interesting comparison to what CG do. For example, does PARR go the whole hog with the before/after test drives, full inspection, lengthy discussion on your requirements, driving style etc. as Chris Franklin does?

No axe to grind, just interested in what's available and how the various suspension specialists operate and (especially) what they think makes for a good, fast-road setup.

[V8KSN]

Ian_UK1 said:

I'd be interested to know what camber/toe settings they put on the car and what else they did as part of the whole setup. It would make an interesting comparison to what CG do. For example, does PARR go the whole hog with the before/after test drives, full inspection, lengthy discussion on your requirements, driving style etc. as Chris Franklin does?

No axe to grind, just interested in what's available and how the various suspension specialists operate and (especially) what they think makes for a good, fast-road setup.

Hi Ian

I was interested to know too and I asked for a printout and they smiled and said it's not something they provide as it's their intellectual property. Fair enough I guess.

As for the requirements gathering, they asked me what I wanted and I simply said "The fast road set up please" They test drove the car before and after and checked the suspension and chassis before they started and then they did the work.

To be honest I went it with quite a cynical head on and I wasn't expecting much but the drive home was a revelation. I regret not asking him how far 'out' my geo was but all in all I am very happy with what they did and the service I received.

Some people swear by CG and Chris is highly recommended as the best in the geo business but I can't imagine he would be a million miles away from the settings PARR did for a simple fast road set up, but then again, I know nothing about camber settings and thrust angles etc

I guess if you know what you are after and do regular track days and/or have lots of issues you wish to address on your car like ride height and anti roll bar settings and spring rates etc then you could probably find many differences between what CG do and what PARR did for me.

[chris7676]

V8KSN said:

I was interested to know too and I asked for a printout and they smiled and said it's not something they provide as it's their intellectual property. Fair enough I guess.

It is NOT, it's the static geo settings on your car. And you could get these numbers by having a check done at any other specialist place.

[mrdemon]

I would want the settings 100%

You might hit a pot hole in a weeks time and knock out the toe on one wheel.
A 20min fix if you know what to set it back too.

With no settings, it more than useless imo.

[Glenn McMenamin]

You'll struggle to find a decent company that will readily hand out their set up info, they are very guarded about this. Especially a company such as Parr.

Can see their point, they need to invest time and money into getting a set up that works. If they hand that data out, any Tom dick or Harry could take it and call it their own. Call it copyright if you like.


G.

[Ekona]

Chris Franklin gives you a printout. So does every other place I've ever used, so I'd be a bit peeved if I didn't get one.

[nxi20]

Glenn McMenamin said:

You'll struggle to find a decent company that will readily hand out their set up info, they are very guarded about this. Especially a company such as Parr.

Can see their point, they need to invest time and money into getting a set up that works. If they hand that data out, any Tom dick or Harry could take it and call it their own. Call it copyright if you like.


G.

Except that being as it's so ridiculously easy to drive round the corner & put it on someone else's geo machine & read the settings off, it's not really the sort of thing that can be kept under wraps.

I've never understood their reluctance given the ease with which it can be read by anyone who wants to. Seems rather a churlish attitude.

[Glenn McMenamin]

nxi20 said:

Except that being as it's so ridiculously easy to drive round the corner & put it on someone else's geo machine & read the settings off, it's not really the sort of thing that can be kept under wraps.

I've never understood their reluctance given the ease with which it can be read by anyone who wants to. Seems rather a churlish attitude.

That's very true, and of course it can be done, but tuners will do their utmost to lessen the risk. It's a lot easier to copy from a simple data sheet.

[jack frost 993]

Juat had mine done on Saturday at CG. Ride height adjust and full geo £400. Chris also has a new toy that checks the performance of each shock - and he gives you plenty of print outs, pre and post.

Good thing about Chris is that he talks you through everything thats to be done and any issues that he sees - suspension related or not.

[Pugley]

Just out of interest:- Has anyone had a Parr setup for the duration of a complete set of tyres?

Not wishing to cast aspersions but, my personal experience is that the "fast road" setup shags the tyre shoulders far quicker than a standard geo. (and that is on a car with all worn arms and bushes renewed)

I found the factory standard geo is actually more relaxed and less "on steriods" to drive under normal road conditions.

[h_____]

Ekona said:

Chris Franklin gives you a printout. So does every other place I've ever used, so I'd be a bit peeved if I didn't get one.

This, first class service, same as RPM who I've also used.

[SonnyM]

Pugley said:

Just out of interest:- Has anyone had a Parr setup for the duration of a complete set of tyres?

Not wishing to cast aspersions but, my personal experience is that the "fast road" setup shags the tyre shoulders far quicker than a standard geo. (and that is on a car with all worn arms and bushes renewed)

I found the factory standard geo is actually more relaxed and less "on steriods" to drive under normal road conditions.

So a fast road Geo could have negative effects on tyres and normal driving, if you are a fast road driver? Very interested in this as I have a Geo booked in due course so would like to know the negatives. Thanks.

[Steve Rance]

The sharper the geo the more it relys on the driver placing lateral loads on the car to make it work. Fast road geos are tame in comparison to full race geos but still require more load on the car than a standard geo to work at optimum grip levels. This is obviously not practical or safe to achieve for much of the time on the road so there will more often than not be times when the car is under little load and will be running more on the inside of the tyre so tyre wear on the inner shoulder will be more of a problem. Everything is a trade off with tuning chasis no matter who does the geo.

Another thing to bear in mind is that half of the job of setting a car up is the ability to correctly translate a geo to the car's chasis. The other half is working out what the geo should be. There are a lot more tuners that have the ability to achieve the former than there are the latter.