Alignment Specs, Suggestions...? Options

[Nor.Cal.914]

I'm going to get my 914 aligned today and was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for specs to set it at? I don't drive it on a regular basis, but I want to be able to drive it on the streets without any excessive tire wear. I have a quick list of the suspension modifications I have done if that may help in some suggestions:

Heavy duty Bilstein front struts
Weltmeister camber plates in front
Bilstein rear coilovers
Rear chassis stiffening kit
No sway bars

Overall the car is very stiff and very well planted so basically I'm just looking for a nice setup that will make the car feel like a tight canyon carver as I enjoy driving on Highway 9, Highway 35 and Highway 84 pretty often since those are the nicest roads in my area! And I understand that one setup may feel great for one person and then not for another person, but I would like to see what people think! If you have any suggestions, please let me know! Thanks!
-Chris

[brant]

stock-ish...

more negative camber over stock will improve handling but at the expense of tire wear..
so like everything its a bit of a compromise related to what you want to achieve.

I'd go stock-ish on a street car with no sway bars

[Nor.Cal.914]

stock-ish...

more negative camber over stock will improve handling but at the expense of tire wear..
so like everything its a bit of a compromise related to what you want to achieve.

I'd go stock-ish on a street car with no sway bars

I did the front end alignment myself at school a couple years ago and if I remember correctly I set the camber to around -1.5 or -2 degrees. And based on contact patch/wear pattern I would say it's probably right around there. Also, from what I've learned, toe is going to be the most apparent wear on a tire, well above camber, so I'm thinking if toe is set correctly and camber is around -1.5 it shouldn't be too bad? I know it's a whole different car but I have a 1991 Volkswagen Jetta that was pretty well setup that I ran -1.5 degrees of camber in the front and had very little to no tire wear from that. The most tire wear I saw on that car was from the LSD which ate through tires when doing some "spirited driving!"

Would you want to set the rear camber to the same spec as the front or would you want it to be slightly more negative or slightly more positive? I'm not good with how the rear setup affects the way the car handles. I guess I'm looking for very responsive turn-in without inducing snap-oversteer. Please let me know what you guys think! Thanks!
-Chris

[jcd914]

-1.5/-2.0 is a lot of negative camber for the front of a street driven 914, most won't go that far negative unless it modified, bent or slammed to the ground.

For a performance street set up I would shoot for about -.5 or -1.0 in the front and I have found an additional 0.5 more in the rear is a good balance. (so something in the range of -1.0 to -1.5). Like you said if you keep your toe setting mild and you will keep your tire wear reasonable.

For Auto-x cars I would start by forcing both fronts as far negative as they would go and then back off the most negative to match the other side, then set the rear a half degree higher. This was always done after I had the ride heights and wheel weights set.


Jim