When I go to get my alignment done after I install my steeda sports and koni STR.T's should I have them put it back to spec?

I want something a bit more aggressive and I am not really knowledgable about this subject. As I understand, positive camber means the top of the wheel is further out than the bottom and negative camber is the opposite. With a bit of negative camber you can actually get better grip since when the car rolls the tires even out right? Am I understanding this right or am I way off?

 

You are correct...Negative camber will get more grip. Too much either way will wear on the tires. Let your alignment man know what you are looking to do and if he is good he will give you what you are looking for and be good to your tires

 

the toe in is whats gonna eat your tires more so than the camber.

 

G, unless you have Steeda HD upper mounts or a camber kit you won't be able to adjust it. When I put my STR.T's on from Sam, I went ahead and ordered the HD kit and got the alignment guy to set the camber up at -1.2*.

 

Right... No HD mounts or camber bolts and you can't adjust the camber at all. The mounts also fix the weak stock mount issue too--bolts cannot.

I'd recommend around -1.2 like jodadejss06gt has for street driving... that's less than say a Shelby GT came with stock (being lowered and having no adjustment). The more aggressively you attack corners, the more negative camber you'll likely want. I run over -2 in the autocross cars and deal with street tire wear because in those cars it's about the speed in competition.

 

I made sure to get the HD mounts with the springs and dampers. -1.2 eh? Sounds good to me. Just how easy is it to adjust the camber? Would it be practical to adjust the camber for track days (once a month)? Meaning, would I be able to adjust the camber myself with a decent set of tools (nothing specialized) and a lift rack? I have a dedicated set of track wheels and it's not a very long drive to the track so I just throw my track wheels on and drive there.

 

To do an alignment correctly will require very special tools along iwth sandbags or a friend to sit in the driver seat while you make the adjustments. Having weight in the car can affect your camber as much as 0.2 degrees and can throw off your toe as well.

You can find decent camber gauges online (both bubble level and digital) if you are intersted but don't foget every time you adjust your camber, it can effect other suspension settings so be prepared to spend an hour stringing up the car each time you want to go to the track.

Like Same said, I run my car at my track settings as well (-2.3*) but I guess it helps to have a tire sponsor!

 

Can of worms... But: It is possible to be able to adjust for street vs. track. I do it on my GT now. But you have to be careful, and have the right stuff to do it.

If you adjust camber with camber bolts, the toe is altered a ton with various degrees of camber. If you adjust with something like HD mounts, I find the toe setting changes very little on a lowered car. In fact the last time I aligned my car, I set it -2.2 and set the toe. Then just to see, I pulled it back to -1.4 and rechecked toe (on a rack after a caster sweep), and it changed about 1/16" total. Soooo, I marked both camber settings and I can change it now at the tower with the HD mounts on the fly if I choose to.

This isn't something I'd recommend to everyone. If you never track the car, forget it. And you want to check and make sure you car acts the same way (should, but just in case). Again, this does NOT work with camber bolts, only works on top of the tower camber adjustment (ask me how I know....).

And I wholeheartedly agree on aligning the car with your inside if at all possible, or somehow mimic the weight in the car as you drive it. I've never see a car drive itself and I don't care what the numbers are sitting still. Matters when you are at the wheel, rolling down the road.

 

I'd add to what Sam has said concerning the aggressiveness with which you attack corners - that you consider some rough "overall average" of your cornering "enthusiasm" rather than some near-absolute maximum effort that you do only on rare occasions.


Norm

 

I think I may try -1.5. I do drive pretty aggresively when out on the track (there aren't many walls, mostly the track is surrounded by a muddy field) but I think anything more than -1.5 would be too much wear on my tires. I would like to eventually get to a point where I can keep it in spec for street driving and change it on the fly like Sam does but I think I need to invest in the tools needed before even thinking about it.

Just so I make sure I understand... Toe is the alignment of the wheels as how they roll... Like / \ is toe in \ / is toe out if those were tires being viewed from above, correct (severe toe in and out at that but it's just to demonstrate what I am thinking). Also, what should those be adjusted to? I would assume you would want the tires facing as straight as possible with slight toe in being better than slight toe out if any at all, right? And will lowering it affect that as well as the camber?