can anyone tell me how my car would handle differently if i went with 0 degrees of Toe instead of a slight Toe-in? I'm looking for better straight line performance and stability at higher speeds (my car is only mildly modified, no suspension mods)...can i go with 0 degrees Toe or should i stick with 3/32 or 1/32?...thanks

 

it would not handle any different if you mess with the toe on your car you will wear out your tires. all i do is alignments all day long, including custom set ups. the only way you will see any different. is if your suspenson has been full built to handle and then you have to research different set up and adjust caster/camber and toe you cant just adjust one and expect it to work.

 

0* or a slight toe out will help it with ackerman, you will see a lot of autocrossers run some toe out for that reason. It may wear the tires faster though.

As the other guy stated, you need to look at how the tires are wearing now, and how the car feels now, and adjust accordingly. I doubt you have a pyrometer to check temps, or are that concerned to get 'that' much out of it. The tires and air pressure you are running, will also effect what alignment specs are 'best'.

 

would this be good?
Toe 0
Camber -1/2
Caster +5

my tires/wheels are pretty much stock and they don't really wear....i have heavy duty LCA, panhard rod, and subframe connectors but no other suspension mods...I'm looking for the best alignment setup for straight line performance and higher speeds so the car doesn't shake (80-120 MPH)....is my aforementioned alignment setting ok?...is there anything that i should do different? (suspension mods are out of the quesiton, no money) thanks

 

Huh? Toe should have little or no effect on ackerman. Some toe out will make the wheels more willing to turn which will make the car faster in situations like a tight slalom.

 

with some toe out, when turning, the arc with inside wheel takes takes is tighter than it is if you are running toe in.

I probably phrased it wrong in my first post. Running toe-out compensates for some ackerman.

 

The road force against the tires will produce a tire setback (not to be confused with actually alignment setback under stagnant conditions). The bushings will absorb and compress and the toe is actually forced outward from driving high speed. IF you were to set your toe initially at 0 and the drive fast it would gain to aprox +1/16 to + 1/8 based on bushing age and quality. this would make the car unstable at high speeds and want to steer to the left or right very twictchy or easily.

Autocrossing does set toe to 0 or even out for increased turn-in on a corner. It is lower speeds and the car is never at a straight tracking state- it is always in corners.

John (Dewey) is also correct about the toe out helping the Ackerman angles when the car is commonly turned to a 45* angle at the slower speed racing turns used in AutoX. Often there arte very tight 5-10mph hairpins that the ackerman angles will slip the inside and outside wheel tracks. By increasing toe out helps this in tighter cornering grip helping maintain better traction on both inside and outside front wheels.

 

Actually, you have it right, I just never thought of it that way.

I’ve always thought of akerman as the geometry of the suspension resulting in the inside tire turning in more then the outside, where this is a static deal… its not a dynamic gain, that the tire is turning more, but that whatever side you’re steering in will always have the amount of the toe out more steering then the outside…

 

thanks for the extra info, but what do you think i should set the Toe as?...0 or slightly inwards?...and is a caster of +5 too much, or should i go with a +4?...