I'll be getting some Tociko Illumina struts for the front soon and figured that I would get a better alignment for the car. What would be good specs for an AutoX car that is daily driven? The car is a 89 Camaro V6 with new Moog springs, 36/23 swaybars, wonderbar, and Bilsteins in the rear.

Factory specs

not too far from stock, if you had just a little toe out you might get better turn in, but your sacraficing stability so, daily driving might get a little interesting.

I drive with .5 negitive camber, can't remember the caster, and some toe out. You have to make sure you pay attention to keep from wondering out of your lane, but it's fine other than that. Cornering was improved and I haven't noticed increased tire wear.

The stock alignment specs aren't good for ANY application-poor handling and poor tire wear.

.5 degree negative camber, 3/32" toe in, and +4L, +4.5R caster is a good compromise for your application. Some cars don't want to go that far on the caster or the camber-just get it as close as you can if that's the case.

I run the following for cruising:

-0.5* camber
+4 caster both sides
0 toe

When I go tracking or autox, I use the following:

-1.5* camber
+4 caster
toe out (this automatically happens when I drop the camber)

If you're asking how I do both, I have a Sharpie outline of my strut bearing at the "cruising" alignment, and when I get to the track/autox, I loosen the strut bolts to bring down my camber. I have a special little tool...well, I piece of wood and 2 ft level that's setup to give me about -1.5* camber when the level at 0.

I have a stock 92 and I run max caster on the stock mounts and about a -1 camber and zero toe. It has been setup this way for about 3yrs now and don't have any increased tire wear. The car handles very well, even with worn components and such. I also have the stock 16's with 225/60's on the front.

Max the camber
Max the caster

set toe to zero.

Hang on the wheel.

for camber i've heard -.5 to be more than enough on a lot of cars. too much more could give you less traction. as for caster, it can help a lot, but too much could slow your steering inputs. usually i hear about autoxers running just a little toe out.

Old thread. I'm going to get my car aligned this friday and will the -.5 camber, +4 caster, and 0 toe out cause to much extra wear on the tires? Also will this setup cause the car to wander on bad roads because Pa roads are horrible. I am looking for a decent street alignment that will keep the car from wandering and keep the tires good but will allow me to handle better through the twisties.

I've read that because our roads are made a certain way (i think the term is "crown"?) that you have to compensate for this by having your right caster 0.5 higher then the left... So if your left is 4.0*, then your right should be 4.5*. Camber has to be equal...
-0.5* camber is what i'm going to be set at next summer. As for TOE, i'd rather be stable on the street (by setting at slightly negative) than to be wandering (tired of this) so I'm going to be setting my toe to slightly negative, but equal on both sides. There's a tech article on TGO you can view that has recommended specs... Plus tons of other alignment info (more recent posts are in the suspension forum on SAI and IA but I don't know if you want to even go there cuz it starts to hurt your head lol..)

Later

I would never run less than -3/32 toe in for freeway use. Going to zero or above will make the car darty and you will be constantly sawing at the steering wheel.

tire choice- width and brand, and bushing choice will have alot to do with just how much closer you can get towards zero from toe in specs. Road force causes setback of the front suspension as the wheels drag with friction. The weaker the bushings, the more toe in you will get the higher the speed you drive. As the tire is forced back from A-arm bushing deflection, The tierod is angled back shortening the lateral distance thus creating a toe in effect. An older bushing car can generally get away with slightly more towards zero toe.

The reason why you go zero to positive on a autox or road race car is they are hardly ever driven straight like you do on a freeway. Even when you come out of a corner and blast down a long straight, watch any racecar kindof arch tiowards the inside of the straight and then back out for setup to the next corner. That little zigzag is keeping the car stable with turning arch down a longer straight.

The lower the speeds, generally (but not always) the more positive the toe all for Ackerman assist in degrees.

basically, a car with about 70" track width when placed on turnplates and both wheels pointed straight towards 0*... are then turned so an outside wheel is at 10*, the inside wheel turnplate should read 12.5*.

Alot of people do not know that the inside front wheel is what turns the car. ackerman angles keep the wheels from scrubing againts eachother in arching path, and the outside wheel is badsically more about lateral grip. Increasing te toe makes the senerio above at 12.5* go more towards 13* or 13+ to promote a better turn in, but will also caause the wheels to drag and fight eachother at higher speed steady state cornering and promote heat & srcub thus sooner loss of traction.

Slower speeds will cause more wheel turn or more angle. An autox car can see ackerman on outside wheels go as high as 35* if the car where to be thought of on turn plates. The car losses ackerman gain as the wheel angle increases, so starting a little higher in tow out aids in keeping better low speed high angle grip when thinking of terms of ackerman and the front wheels tracking without fighting eachother.

How many of you get that weird lifting of the front suspension and skipping of the front wheels in a low speed u-turn in a parking lot?........Answer- the wider the tires, the more you notice this. Wider tires is generally more grip, thus it emphysies this effect of ackerman loss at full steering lock.

Dean

any tech that does alignments will tell you that for rwd cars should be set to 1/16" toed in on each side so 1/8" total toe in, only fwd cars are supposed to be 0