Alignment question

[Mikey83835]

According to my '82 SC owners manual, camber should be straight up for the rear wheels and very slightly positive for the front wheels, most of the P-cars out there seem to using negative camber, at least for the rear, is the factory info obsolete, or the optimum for long tire life, or....?

[johnsjmc]

My vote is optimum tire life. also tires have improved alot in 30 yrs. I have alwqys run a little neg camber up front and about 1/2 deg more neg at the rear.

[nesslar]

I'm not sure all drivers can tell the diff. on the street, the track is another story. Regardless, neg. camber at the rear will wear the tires; can't rotate, obviously, but if you drive only several thousand miles a year, you will have better handling, and new tires every five years+? Not too big a deal, I guess. I'm at -1 degree, and I see the wear...........but again, over 4 years plus, not a big thing. Once had a guy tell me that with "straight up" the car would feel, quoting here, "...squirrelly as Hell". I have to question that, for "normal" street driving.

[Tyson Schmidt]

That spec is for when the ride heights were raised in the U.S. to meet bumper height regulations. These cars also had a thick spacer between the upper strut mount, and the top of the strut dust cover.

For the normal ride height it was 0 degrees front, and -.5 rear.

Most cars are well below either of these ride heights, so it is usually impossible to achieve these settings at the usual ride heights. (In the front anyway. The rear has a greater range of adjustment.)

A more typical street setting is -.5 front, and -1.0 rear.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Tyson is spot-on.

You do NOT want positive camber on these cars otherwise you will become aquainted with your local bodyshop on a first-name basis.

[stlrj]

Originally Posted by Steve@Rennsport

Tyson is spot-on.

You do NOT want positive camber on these cars otherwise you will become aquainted with your local bodyshop on a first-name basis.

That's the first time I heard that factory settings were dangerous.

What other factory settings should we be concerned about?

[gelan]

My vote is optimum tire life. also tires have improved alot in 30 yrs.

[gtihop]

Just to add to this, how about caster setting for the front for street use? 6 deg sound right?

[hcoles]

Steve and Tyson are giving good advice.
I run an additional .2 to .4 neg camber front and rear for AX and track, no noticable odd wear for street driving.

[Mikey83835]

Thanks for all the input guys, I have been a fan of negative camber since 356 days, but now I am also noticing in our host's book, "101 Projects for Your Porsche 911", on page 153, he states that the 911 camber should be "0" with a slight positive emphasis, about 1/6th of a degree,

Curious....

[Flieger]

Really?

[johnsjmc]

The factory spec calling for a slight pos camber is probably chosen to reduce what is called "camber thrust". This minimizes wander and following of ruts in the road. It may improve road manners but won,t produce max cornering force. That will improve with neg camber, at the expense of road manners in a straight line and tire mileage.

[gtc]

With basically stock suspension I run settings that are close to what Tyson wrote. I generally get very even treadwear.

[stlrj]

Originally Posted by Steve@Rennsport

Tyson is spot-on.

You do NOT want positive camber on these cars otherwise you will become aquainted with your local bodyshop on a first-name basis.

I don't think that tire wear was the issue when you mentioned being aquainted with your bodyshop.