Camber for Street and occasional Track/AutoX

[Topless]

My dual-sport (street/track) 987 has lowering springs and GT3 arms to get -2.5F -2.0R. I run street tires and this seems to work pretty well with even tire wear, good turn-in and balance.

If I were running a softer compound tire I would want more neg. camber.

[LAP1DOUG]

Originally Posted by Topless

My dual-sport (street/track) 987 has lowering springs and GT3 arms to get -2.5F -2.0R. I run street tires and this seems to work pretty well with even tire wear, good turn-in and balance.

If I were running a softer compound tire I would want more neg. camber.

I have also hit upon very similar camber settings to Topless as ideal for my car on high performance street tires. Your results may vary - a few things to remember:

1- These are McPherson / Chapman strut cars, which by nature of the geometry, will always have about the same degree of camber gain as the amount of body roll. So, if your car rolls 3 degrees in a turn, the camber on the outside tire will roll about 3 degrees positive (don't worry about the inside - it doesn't have much load on it). So, if you have soft stock springs or a soft stock sway bar, your car will roll alot, and you may need more static negative camber to keep the outside laden tire from going positive in a hard corner, and that's what the camber setting is really all about.

2- With factory settings, these cars naturally understeer like pigs. That is intentional as it is far safer to have an understeering car than an oversteering car. So, when you start to play with camber and toe and front to rear balance, the car can become very unstable. Proceed slowly in making changes understanding what the general effects will be, and do your experimentation on a skid pad or autocross - not on a race track.

3- The primary negative effect of using a lot of negative camber is a reduction of braking capacity. Basically, the tire being tilted over while traveling in a straight line means that there is less contact patch when you brake in a straight line. This is exacerbated on the front tires by the suspension compression during braking, which causes even more negative camber than in a static condition. So, just realize that you are giving up a bit of braking capacity as you dial in more negative camber, so some compromise is in order.

Proceed carefully...