New Tires, Springs, Shocks, Alignment settings - report w/pics
06-14-2009, 01:50 AM
#1
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New Tires, Springs, Shocks, Alignment settings - report w/pics
so many of you know I bit the bullet and finally got replacement shocks and springs... and had a tire issue arise, so i took care of that and had it aligned.
Tires are the Sumi HTR ZIII's - report: good first impressions, good DD tire, great price. Today thru the cones I was a little disapointed... not the best traction but with some tweeking I could do better. They are still really new (~ 100 miles)
spring and shocks (from Ahmet THANKS!) easy on the road, not much in the way of added roughness or sound and while just playing in the cones during set up on the slolom I felt way better. This was confirmed when not 1 but 2 instructors told me on separate occation that the car looked really tight and flat while flying thru the turns (great news!) plus the alignment guy said said he thought it was a good set up (I was worried since it was pre-owned parts) and he said the shocks seemed well matched to the springs. I had a super faint "clunk" and it turns out we think the coil windings are contacting each other under heavy load... so no worries and I didnt notice it out at the track today. - car seemed very smooth, tires didnt want to hook up on heavy straight line breaking ? - played with air psi
alignment is a "performance street" (I can post the numbers if anyone is interested) on the 50 miles of interstate hyw I had no issues but when the pavement was very worn and had ruts I seemed to track the ruts a little more. The car turned in well was very stable and the ballance seemed good in the turns. I think its a good set up. For sure not the best but more agressive negative camber but not so much as to make DD a problem (I hope)
The car is slightly lower and I didnt wash it... but I took some pics...
lots of compliments on the car, even from P-car owners - most notice the seats right away, some notice how it handled in the turns and how flat the roof line was under heavy cornering - all good things, and I was proud of it when the lead instructor "clapped" at my last run of the day!!!!
(some noticed my having trouble with the tires as my line was good and they just didnt slow me down before the corner which then I carried too much speed into the turn and pushed the nose out....felt like a slobbering idiot!)
Anyhow,... lots of changes, hope it holds up now
Tires are the Sumi HTR ZIII's - report: good first impressions, good DD tire, great price. Today thru the cones I was a little disapointed... not the best traction but with some tweeking I could do better. They are still really new (~ 100 miles)
spring and shocks (from Ahmet THANKS!) easy on the road, not much in the way of added roughness or sound and while just playing in the cones during set up on the slolom I felt way better. This was confirmed when not 1 but 2 instructors told me on separate occation that the car looked really tight and flat while flying thru the turns (great news!) plus the alignment guy said said he thought it was a good set up (I was worried since it was pre-owned parts) and he said the shocks seemed well matched to the springs. I had a super faint "clunk" and it turns out we think the coil windings are contacting each other under heavy load... so no worries and I didnt notice it out at the track today. - car seemed very smooth, tires didnt want to hook up on heavy straight line breaking ? - played with air psi
alignment is a "performance street" (I can post the numbers if anyone is interested) on the 50 miles of interstate hyw I had no issues but when the pavement was very worn and had ruts I seemed to track the ruts a little more. The car turned in well was very stable and the ballance seemed good in the turns. I think its a good set up. For sure not the best but more agressive negative camber but not so much as to make DD a problem (I hope)
The car is slightly lower and I didnt wash it... but I took some pics...
lots of compliments on the car, even from P-car owners - most notice the seats right away, some notice how it handled in the turns and how flat the roof line was under heavy cornering - all good things, and I was proud of it when the lead instructor "clapped" at my last run of the day!!!!
(some noticed my having trouble with the tires as my line was good and they just didnt slow me down before the corner which then I carried too much speed into the turn and pushed the nose out....felt like a slobbering idiot!)
Anyhow,... lots of changes, hope it holds up now
06-14-2009, 02:12 AM
#3
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front camber -0.55 /side
front caster 7.60 /side
front toe 3.6 mm total (1.8/side)
steer ahead 0.0
rear camber -1.66 /side
rear toe 4.0 total (2.0/side)
trust 0.0
front caster 7.60 /side
front toe 3.6 mm total (1.8/side)
steer ahead 0.0
rear camber -1.66 /side
rear toe 4.0 total (2.0/side)
trust 0.0
hah!
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06-14-2009, 02:05 PM
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06-14-2009, 02:19 PM
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I checked these against my previous setting and they are not very differant.... I thought the numbers would be changed greater than that... how sensative are the numbers?
Thx too !
Thx too !
06-14-2009, 11:35 PM
#12
I'm trying to decide what alignment specs to use myself. What does "performance street" mean? For that matter what does "track" or "autocross" alignment mean? Is there any consensus to a particular number of degrees of camber or toe deviation from factory for any of these definitions? If I'm reading it right, your specs are close to factory X74.
06-15-2009, 08:53 AM
#14
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For those interested, the factory specs are:
C2/C4 (USA spec) = Front: 5' (degree minutes) toe; 0 degrees camber; 8 degrees caster (this is not adjustable); Rear: 10' toe; -1 degree 10' camber
C2/C4 (RoW) = Front: 5' (degree minutes) toe; -15' degrees camber; 8 degrees caster (this is not adjustable); Rear: 10' toe; -1 degree 10' camber
C2/C4 (RoW sport) = Front: 5' (degree minutes) toe; -15' degrees camber; 8 degrees caster (this is not adjustable); Rear: 10' toe; -1 degree 10' camber
GT3 = Front: 5' (degree minutes) toe; -1 degrees camber; 8 degrees caster (this is not adjustable); Rear: 10' toe; -1 degree 50' camber
So, really the only difference is the front camber and the rear camber (toe and caster is the same for all variations - per the factory manual).
Here are the ride height specs:
Front (measured from the ground to the bottom surface of the bolt head for the bolt that connects the secondary control arm (the brace one) to the body):
C2/C4 (USA) = 158mm
C2/C4 (RoW) = 148
C2/C4 (RoW Sport) = 138
GT3 = 112
Rear (measured from the ground to the surface of the machined hole in the rear subframe / suspension mount - location is about halfway between the toe and camber eccentric adjusters):
C2/C4 (USA) = 163mm
C2/C4 (RoW) = 163
C2/C4 (RoW Sport) = 153
GT3 = 125