The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Alignment specs
OK, obviously this will depend on the car, but was just wondering how much camber/caster you guys are running, and whether you'd make any changes for your next race. Please post what you're driving in your response, too!
--Bob
of course each car will be different....FWD vs RWD and suspension design determines how much you can run.....but as a general guideline....max out caster, set toe to slightly in (front & rear) and as much camber as you can run....
Then you can tune the handling to suit the track and your driving style...
On the 928 we run neutral toe all around....max camber (2.5' all around) with max caster (don't know #)
I would be curious to see what guys do on fwd's. In a rwd, we ran about 4.5 neg. camber on both sides and 2.5 positve caster. Car worked good.
On the 928 we run neutral toe all around....max camber (2.5' all around) with max caster (don't know #)
Depending on how we weld the front end back together, caster could be wherever we want it... was kinda curious to hear opinions on how much is "too much". On my drag car, for example, I'm running about 15 degrees, but obviously that wouldn't work well on our Marlin. A friend's Lemons car (Chevy pickup) has about 1 degree of caster, which strikes me as too little, but he says it handles well.
Our car is big but (relatively) light, Camaro front suspension, Jag rear, BBC powered.
What I'm trying to do is set up the front end within a desirable range of adjustability. I don't want to have to torch the whole front suspension apart again because I screwed the pooch the first time. I'm thinking that a range of 2-8 degrees (EDIT: of caster) would be good but opinions from those with more experience than I would be appreciated.
When I drove a camaro clip car at Sebring we ran what I posted above. We had more caster at first but the car felt like it wanted to "float" the front down the long straights.
I think the basic advice listed is good, but toe is a bit different for FWD. Max out positive caster, a touch of toe in unless your car is a total pig, then go zero (RWD) or toe out in the front if a FWD pig (FWD usually needs a bit of toe out in the front anyway). Anything over 2.5 degrees negative camber will give quite a bit of wear on a decent chassis, but if you have no roll control anyway, then more doesn't hurt I guess. -2 is the most I run on reasonably good handling cars (5 events history, two car team). Get the weight off the nose, throw on some ebay coilovers and corner weight it... no, wait, don't... This ain't sports car racin! - besides, then you'll catch up to me in the corners 
At Nelson's we ran as much negative camber as we could get into the car, set the toe at 0 all the way around, and had a great car that didn't wear tires, and handled great. I don't remember exact figures, but I hink it was about 2.5 deg negative
We run -2 deg. of Camber and 5 deg of caster in our Camaro with the toe set at 0
Aligning our RX7 this week, but the consensus is:
Front:
-2* Camber
1/16 toe OUT
as much caster as possible.
Rear:
-.8 to -1* Camber
0 Toe
If anyone has any input we're all ears! The toe out is very minimal so it shouldn't eat tires too much, but turn-in should quick!
Aligning our RX7 this week, but the consensus is:
Front:
-2* Camber
1/16 toe OUT
as much caster as possible.Rear:
-.8 to -1* Camber
0 ToeIf anyone has any input we're all ears! The toe out is very minimal so it shouldn't eat tires too much, but turn-in should quick!
That should be a good baseline...
Rear toe should always be slightly in. You will get kinematic compliance resulting in more toe out while cornering, so you need to start with some toe in. 1/16" per side should do. Toe out in the rear mid-corner in a bad thing. The car becomes unstable and send you spinning into the weeds.
Rear toe should always be slightly in. You will get kinematic compliance resulting in more toe out while cornering, so you need to start with some toe in. 1/16" per side should do. Toe out in the rear mid-corner in a bad thing. The car becomes unstable and send you spinning into the weeds.
Good point. These cars had the DTSS bushings that would toe in the rear wheels at X amount of lateral force, to reduce oversteer.
Now that they're gone I may just go straight up zero toe in the rear as a baseline. All depends what we can get from it, period, as it was wrecked before becoming a Lemons racer!
Rear toe should always be slightly in. You will get kinematic compliance resulting in more toe out while cornering, so you need to start with some toe in. 1/16" per side should do. Toe out in the rear mid-corner in a bad thing. The car becomes unstable and send you spinning into the weeds.
And anyone who races a car with semi-trailing arm rear suspension is an Expert at what turns a sports car into a fork lift truck at speed!
You know, I've never even looked to see if the Jag rear is adjustable for toe/camber... I'm an old-school muscle car guy, so it never crossed my mind! Better check that out one of these days.
Jag rear camber is adjustable but not easy. Look at where the rear axle meets the rotor at the diff and you will see some shims in between. Add or remove the shims to give negative or positive camber. On a good day you may find 1 to 1.2 deg negative available. Remember your rear setup is very dependent on weather the rear axle U-joints are loose or not.
A easy rule of thumb on almost any car is
Front 2.5 to 3.5 negative camber
ALL the caster you can find
1/8th total toe out
Rear
1 to 1.5 negative camber
toe in 1/16th total.
Start here and work your way in. Use a tire temp probe if you can.
Always remember loose is fast and comfortable drivers are slow.
Peace
Pen Mighty Dejo
Always remember loose is fast
We like our cars like our women!
Yeahhhh Brother!!!!
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Alignment specs