So I just started autocrossing my car. I've gotten larger wheels and tires (R15s), my suspension is new (stock, but 1LE "spec"), etc.

I finally broke and got Founder's Caster Camber plates. I want to get a nice alignment that cuts right down the middle for street driving and autox. I am aware I'll be chewing up front tires, but I just want to know from people who've done it with these cars what's the best setting that compromises between the two? Currently I'm right at -3/8 camber and that's the most any shop can get out of it... which is why I got the plates.


Suggestions?

 

Search is your friend!

From another poster here on the boards. It should be stickied!

 

^ that's the post I used, much better than stock, and I have no irregular wear on my new tires after about 8k or so. Points I found most interesting:

Caster. Have it maxed on both sides, seems to have helped with wandering on the highway.

Camber. I believe I went .75 on both sides. I don't drive aggressively often, but I can definitely feel it when I do.

Toe. I can't give much of a first hand experience with that one, since mine was so far out before I got it aligned (like a full 2+ out of range very scary driving in rain there) but after using these settings everything just felt much tighter and more responsive. I also hear the stock setting actually cause slight inner tread wear due to people complaining about low speed turns when the cars were new so they tweaked the camber settings and ended up having it wear the insides on wider tires than 215's or so.

As always, do what you think is best, but that write up helped me greatly and you should save it and maybe bring a printout of the suggested specs to your shop so you can talk with your mechanic if you aren't comfortable picking them yourself.

 

The stock +0.3 camber setting guarantees outer tire wear on normal driving and even worse tire wear in performance driving. Getting the car to -0.3 camber should balance things out. -0.5 will have zero trouble with tire wear with good performance. -0.7 gives good performance driving.........Now if you go for -1.0 camber, you'll start to get inner tire wear if you do a lot of highway driving.

The caster settings are a trade off. Higher numbers give better high speed driving. Lower numbers give better parking lot manors. The half a degree difference between left and right means the car won't pull to the right due to road drainage towards the sidewalk.

Keep the toe at the recommended 3/32 (or 0.09).....The reason being that once you set the toe, the car will automatically try to center the front wheels due to the force of the car pushing forwards. If you set the toe at 0, you'll get a straight running car. But it will want to dart sideways on you with the smallest road imperfection. In other words, you'll be driving on edge all the time and using two hands on the wheel. Running the toe outwards instead of inwards is great for autocross and ONLY great for autocross. Yes, the car will turn very quickly when you turn the steering wheel. But it will wear out your tires in very short order.



Look at the picture above. What happens when you're driving is that the car wants to go forwards, but the tires don't want to go. The tires have friction and drag on the road. The car has none. So if you have toe in, the car will go forwards and drag your tires more towards a straight line (imagine the tires are crazy glued to the road, but you're moving the front axle forwards, the tires will straighten out)......But if you have toe out (autocross setting only), the car will still go forwards, but it will want to drag the tires to even more toe out.

 

Ahhh, the SEARCH feature. I knew I'd find the alignment specs I needed.

I just bought an '88 T/A with WS6, all stock, 53k miles. It has what appear to be brand new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires all around. The car does not pull, but the wheel is off center a good amount. If I'm lucky, a few turns of the tie rods will straighten this up. But I want the alignment checked, just to be sure. Those tires are $800+ a set, and I don't want to tear them up.

I spoke with the alignment shop I intend to use, told them I'd be bringing these specs...no problem. I want to add a wonder bar for sure, and maybe a strut tower brace, and would like to do these before the alignment. He agreed this would be smart.

Looking under the hood of my T/A today, I noticed that the stock strut mount is about 100% at the end of their travel (max - camber) on the driver side, and about 95% on the passenger side (there may be a little more slot than can be seen hiding under the shoulder of those nuts). Without knowing the current alignment numbers, should I contemplate replacing the strut mounts (with aftermarket parts that offer mor adjustment) to make sure I can reach the specs in the table above (street use), or will that likely NOT be necessary?

 

I used Reid's spec chart. Its really spot on. I strongly recommend not going toe out on the street. It was kind of a pain to drive. Do the 3/32 toe in, it will drive much better. the hard street use setting is an excellent street/track set up to start with. I now adjust between two alignments for track and street.

 

plum92,

Were you able to get those numbers using stock strut mounts?

 

I have caster camber plates. But you should get close with oem strut mounts. IIRC being lowered will give you a few more degrees of adjustment.