Hey fellas. I am thinking about purchasing some scales to corner balance my car. I was wondering if there would be any interest if I offered a service at local autocross and track day events. I know I would take advantage of it if I had the chance. I could print out the total weight of the car along with each individual corner weight and percentages. Whatcha think and how much do you think would be a reasonable charge.

 

i would appreciate someone at the track offering this. However, your location is likely not to be central North Carolina

just weighing the car wouldn't do much for me, however. I would rather be given an certain amount of time to be able to adjust and play with the suspension some. If I wanted to weigh my car I will just head over to the tech shed.

 

Yeah I thought about people with coilovers who would want to balance the car. I would definately let people do that.

 

It's quite a bit more than simply bringing a set of scales to the track. For setup you need:

-a flat patch (preferably paved) verified by using a Smart Camber gauge or the like.
-OR a scale platform to provide a perfectly flat surface to work from.
-rotating scale plates to prevent coil bind.
-tools to do the adjustments.

Most importantly, you'll need an extensive background on how to work on suspension. It'll also help to have specific setup data for the track you're racing at and for the type of vehicle you're working on.

Just offering the scales for use is not worth that much- offering a true suspension setup service can be worth quite a bit. But that takes a lot of time and energy away from your own track day.

 

+1 on what dkmura says. there are companies that offer such services, but they bring all the gear that dkmura mentions...and it's usually done in their trailer, or they have some sort of setup to ensure that there is a flat, even surface to work on. corner balancing at a normal facility is around $300, which obviously goes up if done at the track.

 

Thanks for the feed back. I wasnt thinking about getting that deep into it. Figured people might just be interested in knowing what their car weighs. Instead of weighing it at a truck stop or something and just getting an overall weight.

 

it would be great to know what the car weights, but only after some weight reduction modifications have been done. actually, if any mods that have been done where weight would have been a concern, than it would be a useful tool. but if it's mainly stock or just bolt on parts, then the sticker data on the door jam should be sufficient. if you ever do learn how to do suspension setups and gain a good reputation, there is some great money and experience to be had!

 

I thought about doing this as my part time gig this past season.

After some number crunching, it's just not worth it IMO. Nevermind the fact that the platform cost an arm and a leg, the fact that 80% of the HPDE demographics here at my location won't give a rat's *** about proper corner weight + setup of the cars.

Spent 4 months doing a market research before I decided to scrap the project.