Customer Testimonials

We are delighted to have received many satisfied customers bringing their vehicles to us at Blackboots and Wheels in Motion for new tyres and wheel alignment and geometry. Here are a selection of comments received.

Mike S :

Credit where it is due. I've just had new rubber in each corner fitted to my LS at WIM/blackboots and can only say what I thought was a luxury ride before is absolutely beautiful now. Decided that for that little extra I would take advantage of WIM service and get the geometry checked, it wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and given the relatively low mileage did surprise me.

So I can & will recommend WIM/BB to anyone who will listen. The ride is now a truly 'magic carpet' ride and I have nothing but praise for Tony, Jason and his team. Prices competitive and service absolutely first class. Even the sockets had plastic protectors to keep the alloys looking as new. A round trip of 160 miles but well worth the time and effort and will be returning as soon as this set of tyres or brakes need changing what ever is first. WIM / BB thank you!! You made spending money a pleasure (if that's possible).

Mr Innes, St Albans :

The tyres and geometry services provided were first class and quite simply the finest setup I've ever been to. I couldn't believe the equipment and levels of knowledge and expertise!
An absolute pleasure.

Ferrari Mondial.net :

My alignment and geometry worries were unfounded as the Blackboots and Wheels in Motion team checked my newly acquired Ferrari 348. A big thanks to all at Blackboots and WIM for all your help and hospitality.

The Ferrari Owners Club GB :

A word of thanks to Blackboots and Wheels in Motion after our visit to you and sampling your very impressive tyre machine labelled "The Boss" that enables tyres to be changed without touching (and potentially damaging) alloy wheels.
Excellent hospitality.

Satisfied Customer :

Well it's not for a TT, but four weeks ago I had four wheel alignment done in Slough (ProTyre) and afterwards, my car felt that it was all over the place on the motorway. I was recommended these guys by a friend, and Tony at Wheels in Motion knows exactly what he is doing. I was out of the door with my car going in a straight line, steering straight and most importantly, feeling solid on the road. Tony did not let the car go until he was completely happy that everything was "spot on" rather than "within spec".

Wheels in Motion specialise in alignment only and do lots of race setups. Tony said they have had many TTs in but mostly do Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, and Lexus cars. They also specialise in Mercedes pulling issues hence me going there.
They also have their sister company next door (BlackBoots.co.uk) offering tyres and balancing. I definitely will be using them for all my alignment needs going forward. If you do a search for them on google you will find many testimonials such as this one from many forums including mbclub.co.uk and Lexus forums.

For alignment, you have to book in, as Tony can get very busy, but for balancing and tyres, you can just show up.

Steve B :

Just to say thank you to Tony and the guys from Blackboots for sorting out my 407 Coupe today.
It had not felt right for ages - vibration through the seats but hardly any through the steering wheel. Got worse when new tyres were fitted. Re-balanced twice then swapped from front to rear - still not smooth. The car rides on 19" rims (Dealer fit) and 235/40 Pirelli P Zero Neros.
Spoke to Tony and went down there this morning - turned out that 3 wheels were still out of balance !! and one had a buckle in it. I had a spare wheel which the guys the swapped out.

All is now much smoother - and I have taken Tony`s advice and booked it in to check alignment as the car has covered 29,0000 miles over 18 months and never been checked.
Cheers!

Paul :

Tony,
just wanted to say a big thank you for sorting the Omegas geometry out last Saturday. It drives like a completely different car now. Very light, positive steering control and I can even feel the road through the steering again. The wheel balance sorted all of the vibration out and it now feels like a new car. Can't quite believe it made so much of a difference. Fantastic job.
I'll be back when the tyres are worn out.
Thanks again.

CJ Hubbard :

(Original review available at www.classicvintagecar.com)

Well, this is amusing/embarrassing...

Took the Mazda along to Blackboots / Wheels in Motion in Chesham on Friday to get a new pair of rear tyres and a full alignment set-up done.

A nice chap named Joe sorted the tyres and rebalanced the front wheels for me - getting rid of those pesky stamp-on weights, but not soon enough to prevent them ruining the alloys' vaguely refurbished finish. Getting the rims tidied up is a job for the new year; Dan's guinea-pigging a local place right now, following his minor gravel trap incident at Oulton.

I've deliberately gone for a mid-spec, affordably priced set of Kumhos rather than anything super magic. Partly because I'm broke, partly because I don't want to give the MX-5 too much grip - and besides which the KH17s I've chosen review very well as a balanced all-rounder choice. Just having matched tyres across the rear axle is going to make a big confidence difference.

Which brings me to the alignment. Ahem.

Wheels in Motion is widely recognised as the daddy of MX-5 chassis alignment in this region - and most probably the UK. It has its own MX-5 race car, and specced the GAZ suspension used in the Ma5da Race Series. Tony Bones runs this side of the business and has done, he reckons, thousands of MX-5 and Eunos "full geos". Using state of the art equipment - the Hunter Hawkeye 811 Pro Wheel Aligner, to be precise - he can give your MX-5 anything from the exact stock settings (not necessarily to be recommended) to WiM's own fast road alignment and beyond. Aftermarket suspension is no problem, and WiM regularly deals with far more exotic machinery - just check the website.

Asked if I thought there was anything in particular wrong with my car, I shrugged and said it seems ok. A statement I'm going to need to explain.

My main priority when purchasing the Mazda was to find an early one with as little structural rust as possible. As far as I was concerned, it seemed to be tracking in a relatively straight line. I've not been driving it very hard - those mis-matched rear tyres, for one thing - and it is nearly 20 years old. Clearly my sub-conscious has been making allowances.

Up on the Hawkeye lift, alignment doohickies attached to the wheels, and pretty much everything on the screen of the computer controlling it all lights up red. Red, as you can imagine, isn't a good sign. In fact, the chassis settings are so far out, Tony is initially concerned the car has been in some kind of smash.

I'm pretty confident this isn't the case, fortunately - Autolink having given the car a thorough going over. And as soon as Tony gets under the car the real cause begins to reveal itself: it doesn't look like the alignment has ever been adjusted. We're talking 19 years here.

Three out of four alignment bolts at the rear duly snap - to be expected, and hardly a problem since WiM keeps replacements in stock - but the really impressive part is that one of these has actually seized to the metal inner core of its rubber bushing. This elicits less in the way of swearing, more in the way of puzzled wonderment; thousands of MX-5s, remember, and Tony has never seen this before.

Fortunately, a touch of scientifically applied brute force frees the bolt after a few minutes. If it hadn't come out I'd have been looking at a serious headache - involving cutting torches and new wishbones, probably.

The rest of the re-alignment process proceeds without major incident, and pretty soon it's all green at the computer end. I've asked for as much of a fast road set up as possible on the stock suspension, but the remarkable thing at the end of all Tony's work is that the suspension is lined-up to within minutes of degrees, in spite of 110,000 miles of motoring. Testament to the Mazda's build quality, Tony says. I suspect he may be downplaying his own skill...

Current cost for a full MX-5 geometry alignment at Wheels in Motion is £95+VAT - and that includes the replacement bolts (second hand, but I like to recycle) and all the faffing about required with awkward machines like mine. Total cost for the morning including VAT and tyres: £225.

Has it made a difference?

In retrospect, heavens yes. The MX-5 feels far more of a piece now, far more together. The odd yawing sensation I'd experienced when changing direction, which I'd just put down to car's age - in a sense that turned out to be true - has disappeared completely; there's more stability but also more agility.

I can't wait to get properly acquainted with my rejuvenated 5 - hopefully over the weekend, if the weather sorts itself out. And assuming the Ford doesn't kill me first.

Satisfied Customer :

After years of frustration with sometimes poor handling and no real success with wheel alignment at a number of garages I took the plunge yesterday and drove the Cobra over to Amersham to take it to Wheels InMotion for them to look at.

I'd heard from a friend who is into MX5s that they are the premier place in the country for deriving custom geometry setups and really improving handling. I have to admit I was a little unsure that they would be able to help much and was worried that they'd find the chassis wasnt straight and couldnt be adjusted (it is a kit car after all).

I couldn't have been more wrong; they were clearly experts and talked me through all the adjustments, how they affected feel and drivability and how they were going to modify them. They pointed out that the back axle wasnt quite straight and how to make up some plates to make it adjustable so that they could correct that too. The castor was way out, the toe was way out and the camber was fine (which was lucky as that wasnt adjustable).

When they'd finished they warned me to be very careful when I drove away. What a complete transformation, no longer is it twitchy or hard to handle - it just rides across uneven surfaces without any fuss and boy oh boy does it grip better in corners. It is nothing short of a new car! I'll definitely be taking the Stag there when I've got it running again, and I can't recommend them more.

I think their advantage is that they not only have a very good machine but years of experience and will deviate from factory settings where the measurements indicate that this is the correct thing to do.

Off for (yet) another drive in it now!!