Scootin159

Hopefully going to be getting an alignment done next week, and was looking for some insight into what values to use (the shop will take any numbers I give them). I know there's been dozens of threads on this, but I can't seem to find any of them via search.

First...What are the stock specs?

Second...What do you use?

Third...would you reccomend I use, and more importantly why? I understand what the values mean (in geometry), but not so much in how they make the car feel.

I'll be running R-Compounds (Toyo RA-1's) with 350#/30mm springs/bars, with koni yellows. The suspension is still going on the car, so I have no idea where I stand in respect to over/understeer.

Doing a mix of street (~8k miles/year), autox (~15 events/year), and DE (~2 events a year).

tyro

Done by a pro, hope this helps.

I wanted a good hybrid setup for autox, high speed and street..if there is such a thing.

GodSpeed

Why are you left and right sides not the same?

tyro

Beats me. I'm not an expert, just took the car to one

If anyone would like to chop this up, I'm all ears.

luckett

It looks like a reasonable setup for a street driven car. A touch more toe in on the front would help keep the from wandering on uneven pavement and under heavy braking.

Scootin159

Tyro, that is very helpful. It particularly answers #1 & 2 very well.

How do you like that setup?

tyro

The best part...<$100 for a "five-wheel" performance alignment.

We could have gone a bit more crazy, but I wanted a good compromise.

I wasn't too picky about the numbers being exact, and just let him do his thing.

Techno Duck

The numbers not being exact isnt a huge deal for a non competition car. It would take forever to get the numbers to match perfectly side to side.

My alignment is similar to tyro's. Minimal to no toe out, about 3 degrees caster, and around 1.5 - 1.75 degrees camber in the front and maybe a bit less in the rear depending on your setup. I think it was around 1.5 degrees. Camber isnt really what kills tires, its a combination of toe and camber that kills tires.

Oddjob

Getting the numbers to match out to two decimal places is very difficult and worthless for a car that has any rubber in the suspension - because it wont hold it. When you go full spherical bearings/solid bushings, it will hold alignment specs better, but I still dont think its that important to be dead nuts side to side, +/- 0.01 is fine.

For Toyos, you probably want to be around -2.0 to -2.5 neg camber front and -1.5 to -2.0 rear. Caster is usually always maxed out around 3.0 to 3.5. Zero toe in front or a little toe-in is fine (0.00 to 0.10 deg). I would always run some toe-in in the rear for stability (0.10 to 0.15 deg), especially under hard braking.

Jess, does Jeff have corner balance scales?

tyro

Yes he does. I can't imagine an alignment and corner balance would cost more than $250.

Jeff does great work, and he's a great fellow to work with.

Scootin159

All great info... thank you.

bloodraven

scootin, i was just thinking about you. How is my old engine? Any updates?


Sorry for the hijack...

Scootin159

It's in the garage, torn down to the bare block. The block has a significant scratch in one of the bores that needs to be repaired...thus the reason the project's been put on hold. Decided to do suspension this year, and then I'll move to the motor starting next year.

yellowline

From George Beuselinck (PCA 944 tech chair, owns 170 of these cars), referencing the factory specs:
I had a shop align to these specs, and it worked really well. The car tracks nicely, has minimal steering shake (impressive in a manual steering car), and just feels the way it should.

xsboost90

RA1's recommend at least 2 degrees front camber. I run 2 up front and 1.5 rear- even w/ my wiiide street tires it does pretty good and doesnt toast tires.