So I have a '19 718 Cayman S that serves both as my daily driver and track car. For what it's worth, it's completely stock, no PASM or any of the fancier suspension options. I'm an INT-2 driver, 4 years of experience and do about 5-10 track days a year. I've done 5 days in the cayman since I picked it up 4 months ago and after my last aggressive session at Lime Rock I noticed my drivers front tire was chunked pretty badly on the outside. I've ordered a set of RE-71Rs to replace my Eagle F1s, but I was thinking of adding a little negative camber. Can anyone recommend whether this makes sense for a daily driver? will 1-2 degrees make a difference on the track? front only or both front and rear? will it hurt my daily usage?

thanks in advance!
Mike

 

If you're going to be driving on the track regularly, I would go to the max you're able to get at the front with the stock LCA eccentric and then stay within 0.5 degrees at the rear. I don't feel inside wear from street driving is a major concern within reasonable limits. As you've noticed, inside wear concerns become a moot point when you quickly tear up the outside of the tire due to insufficient negative camber with track usage. Excessive toe settings are what really wear out tires on the street.

I have a Cayman R with the stock suspension, basically maxed out front (-1.5) and with the rear at -2.0, zero toe on the front and about 0.10 deg toe in at the rear and I run the RE-71Rs on it now. I take care not to overdrive it on the track due to the relatively modest camber settings, but I think the wear on the street and track has been very acceptable with that setup, not to mention I'm happy with the overall handling and balance.

 

In general adding camber does not change highway behaviour as much as either increasing front tire size or a more aggressive front alignment. I run my BMW at -3.5 degrees and the tires that I run on the street have very little camber wear, my track tires are even at best or might still be worn more on the outside. Camber is a good thing for performance and adding another degree or two will really improve the car at the track with a reasonably small trade off for the street in my opinion.

-Mark

 

Camber of -2 or beyond in front will begin significantly wearing the inside edge of street tires, since you're not putting significant lateral g loads into it and, especially on the highway, you're mostly running on the inside edge.

That said, how are your tires wearing at the track? If you're not really beating up the outside edges (and assuming you're managing tire pressures properly), you may not be to the point of needing much more camber.

For my daily driver and 10-day/year track 981 S, I'm going though track tires, wearing out the outside edges, much faster then I'm going though street tires. So for my next set of track tires, I'm going to go a little over -2 and see if I can lower the overall cost of track and street tires.

Bern