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Old 04-15-2013, 03:11 PM
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eurotom
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Default Alignment Setting

Since I swapped out my steering wheel notice the alignment was slightly off finally getting around to taking it in this week and while I'm at it looking for suggestions on changing or keeping my current set up. I rarely drive the car on the streets, and will see a few DE events throught the year.

Camber
Front -.1
Rear -2.3

Toe
Front .04
Rear .18

Thanks

Tom
Old 04-17-2013, 09:24 AM
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mdrums
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Way too much rear camber with the amount of front camber you have listed. That type of rear camber is only needed for race slicks like Pirelli or Hoosier.

Alignment really depends on the tire, track and driver skills. However RULE OF THUMB is not to have front or rear more than .5 degree camber difference. For example I run -2.5 front and -2 rear with zero toe front and -2mm toe in per side rear. Your toes setting semm to be listed in degree's? If so they look fine for a per side setting....not total toe ok? My settings are leaning a lot more towards a track set up with race compound street tires than a street set up with strictly street tires.

You have to be careful with the negitive camber in front due to AWD and the front axles on a Turbo. PM DocGTO on this forum. He tracks his Turbo and has some good base line settings and then you can adjust alignment from there after a few track days.
Old 04-17-2013, 09:49 AM
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speed21
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^ Agree 2.3 on the rear is big. Who did that and then gave only -1 on fronts? I wouldn't be taking the car back there again. Lucky only the steering wheel is crooked lol.
Old 04-17-2013, 11:14 AM
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eurotom
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Originally Posted by mdrums
Way too much rear camber with the amount of front camber you have listed. That type of rear camber is only needed for race slicks like Pirelli or Hoosier.

Alignment really depends on the tire, track and driver skills. However RULE OF THUMB is not to have front or rear more than .5 degree camber difference. For example I run -2.5 front and -2 rear with zero toe front and -2mm toe in per side rear. Your toes setting semm to be listed in degree's? If so they look fine for a per side setting....not total toe ok? My settings are leaning a lot more towards a track set up with race compound street tires than a street set up with strictly street tires.

You have to be careful with the negitive camber in front due to AWD and the front axles on a Turbo. PM DocGTO on this forum. He tracks his Turbo and has some good base line settings and then you can adjust alignment from there after a few track days.
Mike I agree it far too much in the rear realtive to the front. Yes toe is listed in degree's and is per corner. My intent is to add a bit more neg camber to the front (-1.2) and bring out the rears to -1.7 to -1.8.

Yeah waiting for the Doc to chime in. Thanks for the input

Originally Posted by speed21
^ Agree 2.3 on the rear is big. Who did that and then gave only -1 on fronts? I wouldn't be taking the car back there again. Lucky only the steering wheel is crooked lol.
Paul I agree, this info was given to me by the previous owner of the car, still need to validate/adjust the settings with my shop this Friday.
Old 04-17-2013, 11:24 AM
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Nick Wong
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I honestly do not know how you guys can drive these cars with such little front camber. I find my car pushing even with 2.5 degrees and a lot of caster, and with under 2 degrees of camber in the rear (caveat- on track, not on street). And that is with 265 width front tires. With AWD it must push like a dump truck. My AWD car (old Skyline GT-R) needs 3 degrees of camber (albeit with less caster) up front to get good turn in (the old Group A GT-Rs ran up to 5 degrees of front camber)- and that is only AWD under certain conditions- mostly RWD.

When you do a track day, do you get a lot of outer tread block wear on the front?
Old 04-17-2013, 11:52 AM
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eurotom
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Nick, with stock camber plates I don't think the turbo can go any further than -1.2 up front.
Old 04-17-2013, 12:47 PM
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Nick Wong
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That I do understand, which is why I swapped out the control arms to get to the alignment I wanted. However, if you don't, I also understand... There's no way to get more camber with OE arms? 1.2 seems so negligible.
Old 04-17-2013, 01:23 PM
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I've used gt3 lower control arms with shims to about -2.5, but I think that's pushing it from the bottom on a turbo. If you want that much camber, prolly looking at camber plates/pillows on top. the most I could get with stock arms was about 1-1.2 w/o and w lowering springs resp.
The setup that worked best for me on a street driven/ street tire car was -1.5 fr, -2.0 rear with gt3 arms, gt3 toe links rear.
Old 04-17-2013, 05:35 PM
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Doc GTO
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Originally Posted by eurotom
Nick, with stock camber plates I don't think the turbo can go any further than -1.2 up front.
you are correct. Usually you can only get -.8 to -1.0.

If you track it more then street then you will want to get the Tarett offset camber mounts. This gives you an extra 1.1 degrees of negative camber in the front without screwing with the front axles. Remember, you cannot push the bottom of the tires out, you have to bring the top in.

The camber plates will allow you to get about -2.0-2.1 which is the absolute minimum for track use. I would also ge the GT3 lower control arms with the 5mm spacers (max safe for axles). This way you can get the -2.5 front that you need and then dial in -2.0 in the rear.

This is a good track/occasional street setup for the car:


Front:
-2.5 camber
0.0 toe

Rear:
-2.0 camber
.10 toe in each side.

Caster is fixed so no worries on that.

The Turbo could use stiffer sway bars or at least a slightly stiffer rear as it is setup to understeer more from the factory. The stiffer rear will neutral the car more. The RSS poly motor mounts also reduce the front to rear motion ont he car as well.

I do have a rear Eibach swaybar for the turbo in my garage for sale and I have a set of Hawk DTC-60 track pads NIB for the rear of the turbo and a fire ext mount that gos on the seat rails. Just a few track items.
Old 04-17-2013, 06:35 PM
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^^ Good info Doc looks like the front will be limiting factor on my car w/o further mechanical mods.

PM Sent
Old 04-17-2013, 08:24 PM
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Thanks Doc!...guys this is great info that DocGTO posted.

As always start with the tired and true settings and adjust from there to your tires, track and driving style.
Old 04-17-2013, 08:26 PM
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Also my GTS is not AWD like your Turbo's but it is a wide body. I street drive my car too and with -2.5/-2 camber I'm not having any issues on the street. Inside front tires are wearing slightly more but nothing really alarming. I'd rather have a more track orientated set up anyway.
Old 04-17-2013, 08:54 PM
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Originally Posted by mdrums
Way too much rear camber with the amount of front camber you have listed. That type of rear camber is only needed for race slicks like Pirelli or Hoosier.

Alignment really depends on the tire, track and driver skills. However RULE OF THUMB is not to have front or rear more than .5 degree camber difference. For example I run -2.5 front and -2 rear with zero toe front and -2mm toe in per side rear. Your toes setting semm to be listed in degree's? If so they look fine for a per side setting....not total toe ok? My settings are leaning a lot more towards a track set up with race compound street tires than a street set up with strictly street tires.

You have to be careful with the negitive camber in front due to AWD and the front axles on a Turbo. PM DocGTO on this forum. He tracks his Turbo and has some good base line settings and then you can adjust alignment from there after a few track days.

what happens with the fronts? i was planning to go -1 after lowering...
Old 04-17-2013, 08:57 PM
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rijowysock
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Originally Posted by Doc GTO
you are correct. Usually you can only get -.8 to -1.0.

If you track it more then street then you will want to get the Tarett offset camber mounts. This gives you an extra 1.1 degrees of negative camber in the front without screwing with the front axles. Remember, you cannot push the bottom of the tires out, you have to bring the top in.

The camber plates will allow you to get about -2.0-2.1 which is the absolute minimum for track use. I would also ge the GT3 lower control arms with the 5mm spacers (max safe for axles). This way you can get the -2.5 front that you need and then dial in -2.0 in the rear.

This is a good track/occasional street setup for the car:


Front:
-2.5 camber
0.0 toe

Rear:
-2.0 camber
.10 toe in each side.

Caster is fixed so no worries on that.

The Turbo could use stiffer sway bars or at least a slightly stiffer rear as it is setup to understeer more from the factory. The stiffer rear will neutral the car more. The RSS poly motor mounts also reduce the front to rear motion ont he car as well.

I do have a rear Eibach swaybar for the turbo in my garage for sale and I have a set of Hawk DTC-60 track pads NIB for the rear of the turbo and a fire ext mount that gos on the seat rails. Just a few track items.
thoughts on eibach anti roll bars versus H&R?

i saw you can buy front and rear eibach for same price as one H&R

eibach: 25mm front, 22mm rear

h&r: 26mm front, 24mm rear.
Old 04-17-2013, 09:54 PM
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Doc GTO
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Originally Posted by rijowysock
thoughts on eibach anti roll bars versus H&R?

i saw you can buy front and rear eibach for same price as one H&R

eibach: 25mm front, 22mm rear

h&r: 26mm front, 24mm rear.
I like the Eibach and GMG WC sways are Eibachs made to their specs. More bang for the buck.


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