Alignment (camber/caster/toe/etc)

[GuidoThePenguin]

During our last event, I took a real hard look at my tires and how they're wearing. Despite airing up my tires to 50 psi, I notice I was still getting alot of wear on the very outside edge of the tire, even over to the sidewall. However, the insides of my tires were getting almost no wear at all. Even on the inside tire of most turns.

Conclusion: My car has some nasty positive camber.


This would explain why my car was so nervous going through some of the turns and why I was able to perform the drifting/sliding demonstrations that I did (enter a turn doing 70, come out doing 60 sideways). There's even a nice picture of me in almost full opposite lock going around some cones. Gotta get it from the guy who took it. :thumbsup:


But anyway, yeah I need to get a full alignment done on my car, most importantly the camber/toe of the car.

So the question is, whats everyone else running on their car for street/track use?

[sonza68]

My camber is -1.3* all around and I still get noticeably more wear on the outside of the tires but it doesn't extend to the sidewalls. I plan on dialing in more, but I don't have camber plates yet. I'm not sure what the toe settings were off hand, I'll have to check my alignment sheet later.

Edit: I checked the alignment sheet and I have 0 toe up front and 0.33* total toe in the rear (I'm not sure what that is in fractions of an inch).

[reptar]

What size tire are you using? I'm running a 205/55/16 (doh!... fortunately they're just about worn out) and I have the same problem. I've put it down to sidewall flex rather than an alignment problem. A 225/50/16 has only a marginally shorter sidewall, I bet it would have the same issue. I'm hoping this will improve when I go to a 17" wheel and tire.

The faster local STS guys run 1.5 to 1.75 degrees of negative camber. Mine is still at or around the stock settings... for now.

[GuidoThePenguin]

I figured if anything, I need about 1 degree negative camber, no front toe, and maybe a bit of rear toe. That should help with the tire wear problems some and help fix the car wanting to swap ends under braking.

[EricF]

Originally posted by: GuidoThePenguin
help fix the car wanting to swap ends under braking.

Ahh ha...
Don't brake mid turn, if you need too, it means your coming in too fast, "in slow out fast"
if you must brake mid turn, learn how to LFB(left foot brake)
As you brake the enertia carries forward to the front of the car, making the rear "lighter"
and if you are turning when this happens, it will cause the car to rotate.
Now learning to LFB will allow you to modulate(hehe) weight transfer, and you can use the
rotation to your advantage...

Now as for alignment, as negative camber as you can get in the front, zero toe
and toe out the rear...

[GuidoThePenguin]

Originally posted by: EricF

Ahh ha...
Don't brake mid turn, if you need too, it means your coming in too fast, "in slow out fast"
if you must brake mid turn, learn how to LFB(left foot brake)
As you brake the enertia carries forward to the front of the car, making the rear "lighter"
and if you are turning when this happens, it will cause the car to rotate.
Now learning to LFB will allow you to modulate(hehe) weight transfer, and you can use the
rotation to your advantage...

Now as for alignment, as negative camber as you can get in the front, zero toe
and toe out the rear...

Its not just under braking, any right->left or vice-versa manuveur also upsets the car. Basically the back end doesn't wanna follow the front.

[EricF]

hrmm, strange... I can tell you this, I haven't autox'd my car this year yet..
but something is also amiss with my alignment too.
I need new endlinks in the rear..thats for sure..
I also need new street tires.. I checked them today, they are out of round.... uggg.
but thats ok they are shot.

[reptar]

Here's a link (http://www.wormtech.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1571) to a thread on a local autocrossing message board discussing alignment. Pretty much everyone responding to the post is fast...