I have a 1.5" drop on Bilstein Coilovers and will be installing a set of anti-roll bars soon. I have all the required camber and toe adjustment items installed also. >

What is a good balance b/w handling for autox and daily driving so I don't have to readjust before events?

Thanks guys.
Curtis

 

What size tires are you running? Staggered or not?

It's really up to the individual driver, but a good starting point would be:

Front

-1.5* camber

0 toe

Rear

-1.5* camber

.03 toe in

Play with it from there. Too bad alignments cost so much money!

 

I agree on the cost. (This will be 3rd alignment)
I was previously running -1.8 on front and -2.5 in the back. Figure I need more negative up front.

Yokohama Advan RS wheels; Front-18x9, 29mm offset, Rear-18x10, 25mm offset
255/45-18
285/40-18

 

I personally don't like -2.5 over drive wheels...but for track/daily multi use I would probably go with somewhere around Fr -1.8 RR -2.2

street only I'd drop it down a little less aggressive to like -1.5 / -2.0 respectively.

I generally don't like greater than .5 deg. difference front to rear. but I do want some difference...not a fan of square setups...but this is purely a personal preference.

keeping toe near Zero will prevent premature tire death.

Why do you figure you need more up front? tire heat across the tread? handling characteristics? any data behind this?

 

i would also like more peoples inputs on this matter, once i get my coilovers on im gunna be messing with camber/toe quite a bit

 

Running rear toe IN can make the car more stable in high speed turns, under hard braking, and when you are tipping into the gas on corner exit though. I always run a little toe IN in the rear. 0 toe in the front.

 

My rule of thumb is -2 to 2.5 front and -1 to 1.5 for a dual purpose setup. Zero toe up front and minimal toe rear as suggested above. Depends how aggressive you want to be and how much tire wear you are willing to sacrifice for handling.

 

Would you run that alignment with a staggered setup or a square setup? How is the handling at low speed vs. high speed? I.E. does it handle fairly neutral at all speeds or is it nimble at low speeds and twitchy at high speeds, or understeering at low speeds and neutral at high speeds?

I've been theorizing for awhile and would like to hear real world input.

 

what camber should you run if you just want it for ur daily driver on springs, who wants their tires to last as long as possible? staggered rims (19's), 1.2 drop...????

 

I guess I assumed more negative camber up front was necessary to improve turn in and since the front of the Z is a little heavier. Thanks for the input though, I'm liking what you've said. (I'm leaning -2 front/-2.2 back)

edit> The main reason I'm leaning towards -2 up front is that I'll be tucking 275's in the near future and I feel that it's not too agressive.

 

After looking into this the past week, I might could give you some insight.
As long as your offsets aren't so agressive that your trying to tuck your wheels and tires into your fender lip, I would say -1.5 front and rear.

Hey guys ... someone else with more nowledge chime in on this, for all I know -1 might be a better choice in his case. My front tires (which have been -1.8 up till this point) have actually been wearing nicely.

 

What caster specifications should our suspension be run at? Should it be different for street/racing?

 

Caster isn't adjustable unless you get the SPL A-arms. For now that is the only way to adjust it as far as I know. We have a pretty good amount of caster built in already from what the guy said who did my alignment. He was pretty impressed.

 

I could probably get the SPL caster adjustment shims seperately is the reason I asked. But, I just don't know much about caster. Last time I had my car's alignment and camber adjusted the machine said caster was 8.5 front left and 9.3 front right. That's with -1.9 camber left and -1.8 camber right. Once again, my car has like a 1.5" drop.

Did he not turn the wheel all the way when he checked for caster? (do you even turn the wheel to check?)

Thanks for the input Beau.

 

Will alignment tell you if your suspension is screw up or not?

 

+1 on this.

Mine was 1" dropped, 225 18 front and 255 18 rear. I had the same question before. What i did was I kept all my alignment as close to 0 as possible then went to attend a track evening on a brand spanking new set of rubbers. I pushed the car very hard on corners. The Z understeers like hell, and it makes you go like "WTF!?!"!

I suspect the Z understeers bcoz it has narrower tyres at the front. The -2 camber up front should help take care of this. Otherwise, increase the front tyre pressure / soften front suspension / lower front height / use wider tyres up front etc. etc. More options are available if u really don't want to kill your tyres quickly.

So anyways. after the 1 hour event, i inspected the tyres. The wear on the them showed i needed just about the same setting as sfarrah mentioned there.
So yea. Just thought my case could help you decide, bighungrydewees.

good luck dude

 

Only if it can't be put back in alignment. Then you have something bent or a bushing that needs replaced most likely. If your handling is acting funny lately, but your alignment is fine, then you need to do some research or start another thread.

 

Sorry I missed this one until now.

When you do an alignment the machine gives you step by step instructions for calibrating the heads. The caster calibration is done by turning the wheels left and right when the machine tells the operator to do so. IF the tech does it right and the machine itself is in calibration, then it should be perfect or so close that it doesn't matter. It's easy to be lazy and screw up an alignment. Could be way off, could be minor. You get what you pay for with alignments.

 

Thanks again guys.

I couldn't agree more with Beau on the techs being lazy and probably not caring. I do have good news though. My next alignment will be done at a shop that our company helped build, so they should be pretty open to me working with the tech. I'll try not to get on his nerves, but I am gonna double check everything.

Oh ya, I think I'll stop stressing about my caster being different left to right since guy probably did something wrong anywho.

 

This is a good thread and i'm going for another alignment so thought i'd bring it to the top to see if anyone else had anything to add.