hey guys, im not happy with my alignment. the car feels planted but i know i can get a lot more out of her, i am 2 in drop on hotchkis springs, 18x10 wheels at all four with continental conti sports 275 35 zr 18 tires. i am building tie rods with heims and racerunner and i are designing a custom front struts with internal resi's and in making my own strut mounts with 3/4 inch shaft..... any help on setting for my alignment would be fantastic. the car is street driven but run at button and big willow on once in a while, and i drive a very long curvy canyon about 2 times a week.... please direct me in a path to get my alignment dialed....

 

Are you using a Koni race cartridge? I had a drawing I did years back where I was thiniing about buying them and modifying spindles to weld right to the housing of the cartridge- alot like the 911 Porsche strut. WOuld make for a great roll center fix as well as an SAI fix in the process of setup. I never persued the subject because I did not know how to weld that well back in the day (15+ years ago when I bought the Koni Yellows instead, I come from a Vw and Porsche background, and am actualy probably getting back into Porsche racing next year so I will be modifying some 911 struts real soon)

How much more offset is your wheel centerline than factory and what width fronts are you rinning?

Also, what are your current specs and have you done any shoepolish mark testing on the tire edges for pressure and camber readings? I have a pyro if you ever dome south a little to Adams or Calif Speedway- Im in Orange County area
My trans guy and good friend JimmyG is in Simi valley area- Jimmy owns Racetrans.com- used to be Darryl Youngs Racing Transmissions. Gman bought the business from Darryl after working for him over 20 years.

 

i have not done the shoe pollish yet, idk why but i totaly forgot lol.
i havent used koni yellow in this car, we use them in our alfa romeo race cars and they seam to do well, racerunner is a company much like fox racing or king, who also buid off road racing shocks that are fully adjustable, a buddy of mine is the manager and i dont want to spend 2000 per shock from moton or pensky, so him and i have been designing a front strut setup for our cars, they arent finished yet, but we are getting there, the wheels are 18x10 c5 z06 wheels at the moment because they were cheep and i needed a larger wheel, i ultimately plan to run forge line center bolt wheels with there hub conversion, ''EVENTUALLY'' lol i have actualy looked at the race cartridge not too long ago. i recently crashed the car, and i rebuilt it, chassis and all, from nothing, replaced core support, weheel wells ect... perfectly square and strait now . at the time i had 97 camaro 5 spoke 16x8 on it with 255 50 16... i got a deal on the z06 wheels so i figured what the hell, and bought those due to there wider foot print and they weigh less, so after the rebuild and before the new wheels i had it aligned so i could drive it and did not give them any specs , i just wanted to drive it lol. but not i have a good set of rubber and a wider wheel, i want to have it do again, just dont know where to start

 

If its racing rubber starting like with semi race ToyoR1's you need to get alot more camber than with a street tire. On that size tire aspect and 18" I would look to of course max the caster and set the cmaber at about at least -1.5 for track use. Run 3 laps on streets of willows or 2 on the big track and see what the readings yeild, You'll have to go from there. Well see if I have some free time maybe I can run up the day you take it to big wilow and bring my equipment and pit for you. Its a long drive and my scedulae in life is usually pretty tight so I am not promising anything, If you come down here more local I could help when we do the next Adams MP day. I have to check to see if the local guys are doing anything soon. I know they have been talking about doing another event- some of them keep me posted.
I would love if you keep me posted (even privately if possible) as to what outcome you guys deelop with the struts. maybe I can give some imput.

Keep toe at about 1/8" out for short tight track use, and at about 0-1/16"in depending on your top seed on the faster stuff. If the car is wandering too much, then cut it down and go toe in.

 

ok will do, i dont know if it will be going to the track soon or not, i have some bills that came up and im doing some headers , timing chain, and valve work on it, for the record, its a 3.1L lol with a wc t5 , i just rebuilt the trans. its a car that is more street driven , then track driven, so on a track day i can set it up for the track, but what would you suggest about the local canyon stuff and surface street stuff. i will let you know how the struts come out, i have machined the bodies and shafts, i need to figure out what i want to do as far *** mounting to the spindle. i was thinking i would just copy a stock struts mounting tabs and cut them on the plasma cam and tig weld them to the strut body with some gusset plates, the bodies are threaded so if and when i design a coil over system for it i can toss the coils on without a hassle . any ideas on the upper strut mounting plates? the strut shaft is going to be 3/4 cromolly shaft.

 

we are currently designing a 10 or 12 point cage for it also and doing dimple die gusset plates down the a-pillars and sail panels. going to run a tube over the front wheel tubs and make a plate that ties into the front strut mounts also, maybe even a plate for the steering box to strengthen the frame there also? any other thoughts?

 

The top plates really need to remain like spohns fabricated design. They need to pivot with a soild spherical bearing. The strut I actaully even tossed around just using a passive link with a fulcrum pivot and an STB with inboard shocks- but it got complicated in 3d action and adjustment of rod lengths- plus I don't think the fulcrum could take the load and abuse.

Then there is the more simple tactic like the 911 Porsches do:

 

oh ok i see, iyea i was going to leave it like the spohn mount is, im going to cut a plate on the plasma cam that matches the mointing holes in the wheel tub and stitch weld that to the tub, and weld it to the cage so i stiffens up the strut mount and run a removable cross brace that tie driver and passenger side together so it will actualy keep the factory mounting point and it does not interfear with the spohn mount at all...... looking back at our previous replies, im thinking we might be confusing eachother hahaha, i am currently speaking of the upper mount that would mate with the spherical bearing, in a previous post i was refuring to the lower mount where the strut mounts to the spindle with those to tabs and two bolts , correct me if im wrong, it just seamed like we are refuring to two different sections lol

 

it will be a spohn upper mount but with a larger bearing due to the shaft size being 3/4 in... and the lower will be able to bolt directly to a oem spindle... thats the basic idea ... shortest way to put it, and the tubes that run over the wheel tubs will have welded plates that tie into the chassis where the spohn mount sits, stiffening up that section and will also have a cross brace to connect the driver and passenger side wheel cage sections together, that would be removable for engine work.

 

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