Alignment can make a
big difference in how your car handles. I have played with mine quite a bit and now I have it right where I want it. The handling is
GREAT, so I want to share with you guys.
My driving is a mix of highway and aggressive street, with indulgences in curvy 2-lane roads whenever I have the chance, and frequent 1/4 mile passes. I am going to try autocrossing this car for the first time on Sunday and I am really looking forward to it.
With the alignment set as it is now, the car is
very stable in corners,
and the turn-in is more responsive. The cornering is quite close to neutral, but understeer biased. A little throttle will rotate the car more and neutralize the handling, and a little more will allow the tail to slip a few degrees, but without coming way far out. Straight-line launches are fantastic. I leave the line at WOT and zero wheelspin on my drag radials on the way to a 1.8 60'.
I was initially doing my own adjustments with a camber/caster gauge and homemade toe plates. I gave up on that because I could not get as repeatable measurements as with a real alignment machine.
FRONT
CAMBER
The factory range is -0.8 to -1.5.*
*According to the printout from the tire shop, not verified.*
Both fronts measured -1.3 degrees of camber. GREAT! Tires wearing perfectly. No need for camber bolts.
CASTER
The Caster is 5.0 deg. Super. No change.
TOE-IN
The factory toe-in range is 0.08 deg to 0.25 degrees.
I told him I wanted
just a hair of toe in. Just over zero. He got it at 0.02 left and 0.01 right, 0.03 degrees total front toe-in. Happy me.
CAMBER
I have MikeR's adjustable rear camber arms.
The factory range is -1.0 to -2.0 deg. Before the MikeR arms, my rear camber also measured -1.3 deg each side.
I told the alignment tech I wanted -0.5 deg. He got it at -0.7 deg left and -0.6 deg right, and I said "good enough".
TOE-IN
The factory range is 0.03 to 0.53 deg.
I wanted 0.10 degrees total toe-in and he got it at -0.04 left, and 0.05 right, 0.09 degrees toe-in total.
Running less toe-in than the factory setting in the front helps the car turn-in and feels more responsive. Front toe-out will eat front tires.
Less rear toe-in helps the rear end rotate, removes understeer, and is very noticeable. I took a test drive with rear toe-OUT and it was wild! The car would turn VERY responsively, but did not want to go straight. Not safe. At 0.0 degrees rear toe the car handled well, but the rear end would squirm around under WOT launches. It feels much more stable with just a little rear toe-in.
I think less camber in the rear also helps neutralize the cornering, but the primary reason I wanted it is for drag racing launches. My settings are a compromise between cornering and straightline launches. With this alignment and my current diff/wheels/tires combo, I have more traction than power. I leave the line at WOT with no wheelspin on a good track.
Note: my track setup is:
- Wavetrac differential
- 16" rims
- 255/50/16 Mickey Thompson ET Street Radials at 16 psi.
- custom rear alignment
I hope this information helps someone! Your results may vary, don't try this at home, not responsible for...anything, etc.
