good alignment specs

[Dan (almaden)]

'84Carrera that will be used for street and AX and eventually timetrial...
will be starting on street tires for now but will eventually go to RA1a, 888s, NT01s or equivalent.
what kind of camber would be a good compromise for a daily driver that will also get AX and track duty?

thanks for constructive ideas.

[aston@ultrasw.c]

If you want to get serious you will need all the negative camber you can get.

In the front I was able to get 2.5 deg before I went to the track, after it had crept back to 1.5 neg. The rubber bushings can't take the lateral load, hence monoballs.

In the rear I could get almost 3 deg neg and it did not move around as much as the front.

[stlrj]

And after you dial in all that negative camber, be prepared to get serious about spending a lot more on bigger torsion bars and adjustable swaybars etc. to eliminate all the body roll that you just introduced with all that negative camber.

Keep in mind, there's no free lunch when doing suspension mods and that the sword cuts both ways.

So much for the warning...now lets go out and have $ome fun!



Cheers,

Joe
74 911 w/86 3.2 transplant

[rfn026]

I love big negative camber numbers for the track. The problem is they don't work real well on the street. Which are you will to give up? Street driving or track performance. You really can't have both. You will have to make a decision as to whether you want to win at autocross - or you just want to have fun.

You're starting the journey down a long expensive road. The tolls are high - especially if you want to win in autocross.

Richard Newton

Autocross Performance Handbook

Wheel and Tire Performance Handbook

[Gunter]

If you do 80% street driving, a very negative camber means that you're driving on the inside edge of the tires 80% of the time meaning they'll wear funny.
A compromise that many people use is 1 deg negative front and 1.5 deg rear to keep it sane.
As others have said, bushings, shocks, T-bars and swaybars enter the picture; there is no limit.

[aston@ultrasw.c]

Originally Posted by stlrj

.... to eliminate all the body roll that you just introduced with all that negative camber.

Ha ha, you must have seen me on the track!!

[10zz964]

I was wondering, other than tire wear funny does it affect the "street driving" handling?
thanks

Originally Posted by Gunter

If you do 80% street driving, a very negative camber means that you're driving on the inside edge of the tires 80% of the time meaning they'll wear funny.
A compromise that many people use is 1 deg negative front and 1.5 deg rear to keep it sane.
As others have said, bushings, shocks, T-bars and swaybars enter the picture; there is no limit.

[gunlover05]

realistically i drive 80% on the street, but starting to be competitive @ 10 or so AXs a year...this winter, i rebuilt my suspension with 22/29 tbars, bilstien sports all around, lowered, ect...

I settled for max camber I could get in front with stock components and no grinding - 1.5 degrees...i could get 2.0 degrees on one side, but not the other and evened out at 1.5.

going with the guideline @ 0.5 degrees more in the rear than front, i went with 2-2.25 degrees in the back.

while not ideal for either, it's a good compromise for me...i run r888s @ AX, and yes, they wear more on the outside edges, as they like lots of camber...I will just flip the tires half way through the year.

[stlrj]

Originally Posted by 10zz964

I was wondering, other than tire wear funny does it affect the "street driving" handling?
thanks

The first thing I noticed is my steering felt a lot heavier and my front end pushed more.

That's why I went back to stock settings. It feels more nimble and a lot more fun to drive where I have it now and I don't have to waste a lot of money trying to dial out all that nasty body roll that I introduced when I lowered and cambered it.