Stock Vehicle
Elisabetta Buendia
You will be told before you sign any paperwork that your car is a stock order. This is because you will have to agree to the specification and the colour etc, so your vehicle broker or dealer will tell you that the car is in stock and ready to go.
As we said, if you want something more bespoke then you will have to look at a factory order. Your vehicle broker / dealer will go over these options with you, but you will know before you sign any documents that your car will be a stock car.
A factory order vehicle is one that is made to order by you. This means that you choose everything, from the colour to the trim to any additional extras that you may want to add. It is completely bespoke to you.
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I just replaced all of my suspension components (Shocks, Springs, Hangers, Shackles) on my Ford Excursion with that of an F350 + a few modifications to make the rake appear level. I also have slightly larger than stock (33"x11") tires on 18" rims.
My question: Why are shops telling me they can't align my vehicle "because factory specs no longer apply"? What does that even mean? Specs for what? My understanding is that for Toe and Camber, you simply want none / flat on the pavement. Are "factory specs" just for Caster? And I guess the question would be, ok who cares - so set it to factory then? I don't see how an extra 2" of suspension would change factory spec for toe/camber, maybe slightly for Caster? Furthermore, I was told (by a shop who refused) to seek out an old-school tape measure, string and marker style alignment shop. Why is that? Why can't someone use a computerized alignment machine? Pretty shocked / lost here. I've had non-stock trucks all my life and have never run into this previously, until attempting to get it done here in Ontario Canada.
If I have to go looking all over for a competent alignment shops, i'd like to be more educated on this so I can ask the right question. The non-stock = we can't policy seems like pure cop-out idiocy or blind corporate policy. Looking for some education. Thanks!
Factory specs assume factory parts. Each modification you have made changes the angles at which the suspension operates so those angles no longer apply. This is especially true on truck lifts where a large amount of the suspension is replaced.
As for the shop, it is not a matter of competency, just a matter of experience and liability. The shop in question could very well align the car to factory specs. If the car handles poorly or then exhibits undesirable behavior, then what? They can fix it, but how does the technician know what angles to set? They are not a trained engineer working under an engineering team who has worked all these things out in advance.
I have met plenty of extremely experienced technicians (30+ years of experience) who would take your truck and set the various adjustment points completely off from factory specs and let you go on your way. The truck would ride fine and the tires would wear reasonably well.
Toe out is always bad, it will make the steering feel loose and the car can "wander" while the steering wheel is straight. Neutral toe will cause uneven wear because of turning and the way the geometry of the suspension puts pressure on a certain section of the tire. Toe in helps prevent some of that but does not fully prevent the tire from wearing unevenly as it will now wear unevenly when driving straight. Factory specs on most cars keep toe in under a few degrees but you will often see racing vehicles with more aggressive toe settings because it helps with turn in.
Positive camber is only helpful on crowned roads, otherwise it produces weird unpredictable steering and handling on flat roads and while turning. Neutral camber is okay but will produce premature tire wear when turning and become more negative if a heavy load is put on the car. Negative camber can be desirable up until the point it reduces the tires contact patch. I think the typical sedan has something like a degree of negative camber.
Caster is largely set by the manufacturer and they design the other steering angles to compensate against any negative effects. It shouldn't be adjusted and the factory angle should be maintained as caster being significantly off indicates damage somewhere in the suspension.
How foolish I was. I'm basically stuck pretending to be doing something with the guns that I cannot hit anything with while everyone is throwing AAM left and right. I cannot pursuit anything because stock syndrome, I cannot kill anything because stock syndrome. I get 1k RP per match. And I have premium.
Disagree.
Just finished spading F-104j and currently stock grinding my F-4EJ.
Both of these planes are EASY to stock grind and I'm not kidding. I know what you feel towards Mig-21, my god stock grind on that plane is horrid since it sucks defensively(bad energy retention, and actually bad turn rate ). USA planes are so fking easy to stock grind (I stock grinded all 10.3 planes at this point) compared to every other planes because of the Vulcan cannon that could kill medium tanks and light pillboxes, on top of their amazing energy retention(so you are not always a sitting duck without energy after turning hard to evade missile).
USA aircrafts in general are easymode thoughout the entire tree. But for Germany, ever since I entered jets it has been insufferable and I had to spam Arado + g91 to make any decent progress, hoping that the oh so praised mig 19 and mig21 will finally be fun.
my experience with mig19s was no better. Too slow to pursue any opponent, no AAM, engaging in dogfights (if I find someone foolish enough to bother so) means quick death from some other opponent, out of ammo after 2-3 tries. 16 kills in 76 battles with no less than 10 of them being headons. Might as well go back to g91, at least I have enough ammo.
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately 0.25 to 2.66 miles (0.4 to 4.3 km). It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southern United States; its largest governing body is NASCAR. Its NASCAR Cup Series is the premier top-level series of professional stock car racing. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and the United Kingdom also have forms of stock car racing.[1] Top-level races typically range between 200 and 600 miles (322 and 966 km) in length.
When NASCAR was first formed by France in 1948 to regulate stock car racing in the U.S., there was a requirement that any car entered be made entirely of parts available to the general public through automobile dealers. Additionally, the cars had to be models that had sold more than 500 units to the public. This is referred to as "homologation." In NASCAR's early years, the cars were so "stock" that it was commonplace for the drivers to drive themselves to the competitions in the car that they were going to run in the race. While automobile engine technology had remained fairly stagnant in World War II, advanced aircraft piston engine development had provided a great deal of available data, and NASCAR was formed just as some of the improved technology was about to become available in production cars.[16] Until the advent of the Trans-Am Series in 1967, NASCAR homologation cars were the closest thing that the public could buy that was actually very similar to the cars that were winning national races.[17]
The 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket V-8 with a displacement of 303 cu in (5.0 L) is widely recognized as the first postwar modern overhead valve (OHV) engine to become available to the public.[18] The Oldsmobile was an immediate success in 1949 and 1950, and all the automobile manufacturers could not help noticing the higher sales of the Oldsmobile 88 to the buying public. The motto of the day became "win on Sunday, sell on Monday." However, in spite of the fact that several competing engines were more advanced, the aerodynamic and low-slung Hudson Hornet managed to win in 1951, 1952, and 1953 with a 308 cu in (5.0 L) inline six-cylinder that used an old-style flathead engine, proving there was more to winning than just a more powerful engine.[16]
At the time, it typically took three years for a new design of car body or engine to end up in production and be available for NASCAR racing.[19] Most cars sold to the public did not have a wide variety of engine choices, and the majority of the buying public at the time was not interested in the large displacement special edition engine options that would soon become popular. However, the end of the Korean War in 1953 started an economic boom, and then car buyers immediately began demanding more powerful engines.[20]
In 1957, several notable events happened. The Automobile Manufacturers Association banned manufacturers from using race wins in their advertising and giving direct support to race teams,[22] as they felt it led to reckless street racing. This forced manufacturers to become creative in producing race parts to help racers win. Race teams were often caught trying to use factory produced racing parts that were not really available to the public, though many parts passed muster by being labeled as heavy-duty "police" parts. Car manufacturers wanted to appear compliant with the ban, but they also wanted to win.[citation needed]