I have made my camber -1. But when I fully lock my wheel. THe inside wheel (the tire with all hte force being put onto it) It goes positive!! WHen I turn it strait its negative. And pretty noticably negative. Turn the wheel and its positive. Is this normal? is there anything i can do to stop this from happening. Cause Drifting with positive camber is no good.

------------------
Chris
91 RS 305 TBI
Eternal Rev

 

Positive camber on the inside wheel at full lock is normal. Here's why.

Caster and steering axis inclination become camber according to some function of steering angle. More specifically, positive caster adds negative camber on the outer wheel as it is turned and adds positive camber on the inner wheel. Steering axis inclination adds positive camber to both wheels as they are turned. For the inner wheel the static camber setting (your -1 degree @ straight ahead) is reduced by both of these effects and actually starts to go + with the wheels only turned between 12 and 15 degrees from straight ahead.

BTW, it's the outside front wheel that's carrying more than 50% of the front end weight and doing most of the work (not the inside one). And a little positive camber on the inside wheel is actually a good thing - it's leaning in the same way relative to the direction that the car is turning as the outside tire.

Norm

------------------
1979 Malibu w/some cornering tweaks and a few other interesting things

 

whoa!

What's your big fascination with "drifting"?

It might look cool and feel neat, but it's NOT FAST! You gotta put the power down man!

carry on

Clem

------------------
Clem
SCCA TransAm Series Race Mechanic/CrewChief
-------------
1983 Z28 with LG4, 5 speed, and (unfortunately) T-tops
1983 Z28, NO T-tops, (unfortunately) Auto Transmission (hopefully not for long)

 

Haha...yea I Know its not the fastest way around a turn. But its the most fun! haha...Im goign to stop legally drifting. Cause on teh streets I drift good. ANd never crash. But for soem reason I crash at the legal "safe" drift events. I just went drifting last night. Was doing some nice ones. But when I was coming down teh mountain after drifting. 5-7 cops was coming up!! Lucky I stopped and wanted to go home.

 

Hey Norm I understand waht your trying to get at. And yea for grip style of driving. That would be good. But I"m talking aobut drifting. Its alittle different. Heres a picture.


As you can see the tire which goes positive is the one that gets all the force. Making hte tire roll over and causing less control.

So for grip style that would be good. but for drift Its damn bad. So I'm wondering. Is there anythign I can do to help it not get so positive? Other than making my camber more negative. Which I am going to do later on. But for now. Is there any cheap ways to help stop this? Thanks.

 

The solution is simple: STOP GOING SIDEWAYS!
Start driving.

------------------
Karl Hunter
Hunter Motorsports
Vancouver, B.C. CANADA

 

Nah screw that I aint goign to stop it. I find it way more fun that drag racing or grip style racing. Track racing is okay...but compared to drifting its no fun to me. I'm slowly tuning my car for drifting. ANd hell alot of mods that will help me drift better. Will help me do better at drag racing. So its win win...

 

A few other things affect camber, things that are associated with the tire/wheel "giving" a little in response to the lateral load. In no particular order. . .
Control arm bushing compliance (install aftermarket poly bushings in the control arms).
Strut bushing compliance (not sure what's available there).
Lateral play in the ball joints (replace).
The car's chassis will also deflect (STB, SFC's).

Specifically for this somewhat unusual (to this East Coast mainlander, anyway) application, you could try reducing the caster setting to cut back on its contribution to camber gain (you'll give up some straight line stability and steering "feel" though). And front vs rear tire sizes, compounds, inflation pressures, rim widths, etc. have their effect on the overall behavior.

Norm


[This message has been edited by Norm Peterson (edited October 18, 2001).]

 

K thanks. Soon I will be getting a camber kit and poly bushings kit. Thanks for the help.