Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesset100
So, if he needed (wanted) to dial in more caster beyond the factory max how would it be accomplished?
Just asking
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Some aftermarket camber plates have a slightly smaller spherical bearing than the stock rubber donut. Or he could enlarge the hole. Or use an offset balljoint to move the lower pivot forward. Or use some custom A-arms to do the same. Or all of the above. Some are better ideas than others.
Caster is moving the pivot point forward in relation to the contact patch. Not unlike the wheels on your office chair of the same name, the difference in points creates a lever arm for forces to act on the wheel and make it want to "follow."
Another neat benefit is that since the axis is tilted back, you get kinematic camber gain with wheel angle. Think of a chopper motorcycle with extended forks - crazy caster. Turn the wheel, and it leans way over. The 911 has a super simple MacPherson strut front suspension, which has very little camber gain. A little bit of caster gives you camber when you need it. Cool, right?
This Mercedes has a lot of caster showing what I mean:
Also a bit of cool classic car trivia - the legendary E30 M3 was heavily revised in the front suspension to have a lot more caster than the rest of the E30 line.
On the flip side, too much caster increases steering effort as you have to "lift" the wheels, especially with wide tires. Also too much makes the steering feel vague, as the axis becomes too separated from the contact patch.
tl;dr the 911 doesn't have that big of an adjustment range. It shouldn't make that much of a difference where you set it.