Optimal negative camber

[rastta]

Originally Posted by thstone

Currently I have -3.7 front and -3.2 rear. Zero toe front, 1/16" toe in at rear.

Drove LA to Vegas last month on my Toyo RR tires (UTQG = 40) and had no handling issues on the 4 hour drive (each way) to/from the race track.

Just curious why so much camber up front? What is it based upon? Just curious because I'll be able to go more camber up front when I install my new adjustable control arms. My tire temps are nice and even and I've pretty much nailed hot pressure. So not sure why I'd go more.

[thstone]

Originally Posted by rastta

Just curious why so much camber up front? What is it based upon? Just curious because I'll be able to go more camber up front when I install my new adjustable control arms. My tire temps are nice and even and I've pretty much nailed hot pressure. So not sure why I'd go more.

Alignment isn't static. In my driving career, I have often changed the alignment as I have become faster and to work better with my particular driving technique/style.

My front camber settings are based on tire wear and temps. I drove with -3.3 in the front for quite awhile, but as I gained speed I found that the outside of the tires were once again wearing substantially faster and the tire temps were uneven. So I had the car aligned with a little bit more camber and now (at -3.7) the tire wear/temps are fairly even. This happened over about a two year period.

I want to emphasize that individual driving technique starts to play a role as a driver learns to drive better. That is why there is no single "best" or "optimum" setting that will work for everyone. Each of us turns in at a slightly different rate, adds throttle differently, etc. Also, some drivers like a loose car (tending to oversteer) while others like me, like a very neutral car. And some drivers want a little bit of understeer to give them confidence. Thus, the alignment settings that works well for you may not work well for me at all.

For example, one thing technique that I often use is to push the car into a corner at too fast of a speed and then let the car scrub speed mid-corner rather than lifting or tapping the brakes before corner entry. This takes confidence in your car handling skills because the car can feel pretty sketchy (loose) as its scrubbing speed. This technique really loads the front tires and puts then under a more severe loading as compared to another driver who slows to the proper corner speed before corner entry. There are a myriad of cornering techniques that you may or may not use as compared to other drivers and thus, the "best" alignment will vary depending on the driver and the techniques used.

With that being said, I am not saying that the technique that I use is the best or the fastest. If fact, the results suggest the opposite - if it was the best or fastest, I'd be winning a lot of races! I am just saying what works best for me right now. Later this year, I might realize that this technique is actually slower than something else and then I'll change it whatever is faster. I am continually trying new techniques to see which is fastest and over time that might mean making alignment changes to get the suspension to work best with whatever driving style I am using.

With that being said, I know some of the fastest drivers in Boxster Spec are around -4. I don't know if I'll ever need to go that high but I continually review the alignment settings to determine if a change is needed. The key is to make sure that the alignment settings maintain good tire wear/temps and provides confidence in the handling so I can push harder.

[husker boxster]

I have GT3 LCAs and a race alignment on my CSS. Settings are:

Frt: -2.5 camber, -.05 toe
Rear: -2.1 camber, .2 toe

My initial thought was to use this alignment during race season, then go back to a std alignment in the fall since I use my CSS as my winter beater. That plan changed 2 yrs ago when I lost my job, so I've left the race alignment on full time. I don't drive as many miles in the winter as I used to, but my snows have not shown any excessive wear on the inside edges. I've also driven from OMA to COTA and Indy for DEs and my summer tires have not shown extra wear either. For me, the race alignment hasn't been detrimental to normal driving.

[rastta]

Originally Posted by thstone

Alignment isn't static. In my driving career, I have often changed the alignment as I have become faster and to work better with my particular driving technique/style.

My front camber settings are based on tire wear and temps. I drove with -3.3 in the front for quite awhile, but as I gained speed I found that the outside of the tires were once again wearing substantially faster and the tire temps were uneven. So I had the car aligned with a little bit more camber and now (at -3.7) the tire wear/temps are fairly even. This happened over about a two year period.

I want to emphasize that individual driving technique starts to play a role as a driver learns to drive better. That is why there is no single "best" or "optimum" setting that will work for everyone. Each of us turns in at a slightly different rate, adds throttle differently, etc. Also, some drivers like a loose car (tending to oversteer) while others like me, like a very neutral car. And some drivers want a little bit of understeer to give them confidence. Thus, the alignment settings that works well for you may not work well for me at all.

For example, one thing technique that I often use is to push the car into a corner at too fast of a speed and then let the car scrub speed mid-corner rather than lifting or tapping the brakes before corner entry. This takes confidence in your car handling skills because the car can feel pretty sketchy (loose) as its scrubbing speed. This technique really loads the front tires and puts then under a more severe loading as compared to another driver who slows to the proper corner speed before corner entry. There are a myriad of cornering techniques that you may or may not use as compared to other drivers and thus, the "best" alignment will vary depending on the driver and the techniques used.

With that being said, I am not saying that the technique that I use is the best or the fastest. If fact, the results suggest the opposite - if it was the best or fastest, I'd be winning a lot of races! I am just saying what works best for me right now. Later this year, I might realize that this technique is actually slower than something else and then I'll change it whatever is faster. I am continually trying new techniques to see which is fastest and over time that might mean making alignment changes to get the suspension to work best with whatever driving style I am using.

With that being said, I know some of the fastest drivers in Boxster Spec are around -4. I don't know if I'll ever need to go that high but I continually review the alignment settings to determine if a change is needed. The key is to make sure that the alignment settings maintain good tire wear/temps and provides confidence in the handling so I can push harder.

Thanks for the insight. Just like hearing from people on what they are using and how they arrived there. Now I guess I just need to drive a bit harder :-)