Alignment Setting Question...

[Danny M]

I own a '91 Civic Si which I am currently using for autocrossing. The way the car sits now its running -4.0 degrees camber up front, -2.7 in the rear. The front toe is at 1/4 out and the rear is 1/8 in. These settings seam to be working great for autocross but the car is twitchy as hell on the highway. What settings are commonly used for the track to keep the car stable, yet still handle well? I've never taken this car to a road course event and wanted to tweak the alignment before the event.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

[ITSRX7]

Full-bore solo alignments typically include front toe settings like yours. Bring that back to zero and your highway twitchy-ness will virtually disappear.

If your camber settings have been verified using a pyrometer, you may be in the ballpark for the track. The only way to truely tell is with some testing as you know.

I would set the front toe at zero, the rear a little toe'd in for stability and try and keep your camber in the same general area it is now. Should keep you out of trouble for a while... YMMV.

AB

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Andy Bettencourt
06 ITS RX-7
FlatOut Motorsports
New England Region #188967

[four27]

Try 1/8 out in front and 0 in rear.

[joeg]

Check that the Caster is at stock spec.

Caster can also affect stability.

Regards.

[Danny M]

At first I thought that I would have too much camber, I didn't touch it, its simply what I got from lowering the car. I did check the temps fully expecting to be burning up the inside of the tire and I was getting about 115 inside, 122 center and 118 outside after a 75+ second autocross run on concrete. I removed about 2 psi to try and even it out and it further reduced understeer and increased turn in but i haven't been able to get new readings yet...should have them this weekend. Sooo, it seems like the camber is fine, pyrometer wise at least.

I'd have to check caster settings from the alingment report to see where its at. is there an optimal setting??? How would caster be adjusted????

Guess I'll have to start toying with the toe to see where it feels best.

Thanks!

Any more info would be appreciated!

[This message has been edited by Danny M (edited March 11, 2004).]

[Danny M]

Originally posted by joeg:
Check that the Caster is at stock spec.

Caster can also affect stability.

Regards.

Now that I actually looked at the report (rather than asking the tech) my setting are the following....

Front:
Caster L 4.4
R 3.9
Camber L-2.2
R-2.4
Toe L-0.25
R-0.25

Rear:
Camber L-2.3
R-1.1
Toe L 0.15
R 0.15

Seems like I'll be doing some tweaking to the alignment settings. Camber kits will be ordered to get the camber evened up on both sides of the car. The car is going to go a bit lower, so the combination of that and the camber kits should yield me the -3.0 I want up front and the -2.5 I was looking for in the rear. Caster I'm clueless about what would be better, so any help would be great. As for toe settings, I'm just going to play with those until I see what works/feels better.

[racer-025]

You are running 1/2" of total toe in the front?????

and 5/16" of total toe in the rear????

This is not good! Maybe for a go-kart track.

[Danny M]

That is in degrees. It is actually 1/4" toe out up front and 1/8" toe in in the rear. The car is used for autocrossing right now and I was looking for a guideline of what changes should be made for road racing.

[uscrew96]

1/8 toe out front 0 toe in rear.

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Mike Machi crew chief USGUYS RACING