Track car alignment, new content Options

[Jetsetsurfshop]

Hey Paddock people,
With a dedicated track car, whats your alignment setting? My dad and I set ours up with what we thought is right. After about 10 track days I removed the RA1's and noticed the wear pattern isn't even. I can't remember if the front or the rears were more uneven. I flipped them around on the rims to get them to last longer.
Any help, as always, is much appreciated.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Shane

[naro914]

Front toe in makes the car squirrelly at high speed...

[jmitro]

My car is behaving differently through Bishop Bend since the accident we had last year. Ill work on posted the video here in a few. The old alignment number are in this post. From those numbers I also added decambered ball joints. Suppose to add 3/4 more negative camber. I never got it on the alignment rack to prove that, but they certainly looked like they did.
We now have 2.3 negative camber in the front. (Rears are same as before) I have adjuster plates maxed out. Was awesome at Homestead at that setting.
Check out the steering wheel angle in the comparison video. First part is from before the crash, second part is after.
Guess I'm looking for any ideas here. Might have nothing to do with my camber?
I also changed my front bumper from a 916 to a stock looking set-up. I can't imagine that has anything to do with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGLmx5AEvwg

Hope you don't mind me entering your thread; I've never raced a 914 but raced 3 series BMWs for several years.
I'm confused by your comments above. You said you never got the car on the rack to check camber, but yet you quote -2.3 F camber. Are you using a portable camber gauge?
Also, how is it behaving differently? Understeering? oversteering? Feel sluggish or loose? I think the tire temps are useful only for setting camber, nothing else. The temps should be within 10 degrees of each other across the inner, middle, and outer tread.
RE correct toe and caster settings, that's probably based on how the car feels. IE is it understeering on corner entry or oversteering? Understeering on corner exit or oversteering? I tend to see the front end as contributing to corner entry and the rear end as corner exit, so if you want the car to behave a certain way on entry or exit, you set up the front or rear appropriately.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the track in question, but my comment about the change in steering wheel angle is this may indicate the car is either pushing or oversteering more than before. If you now lift off the gas where you used to be flat out, maybe the increased negative front camber is causing more front grip, making the rear end seem a bit looser? Just a wild guess based on knowing very little about the track or your driving style.

Front toe in makes the car squirrelly at high speed...

Do you know something I don't? I've always heard the opposite. Front toe in makes the car more stable at high speed due to drag pulling the tires backwards. BUT racecars usually run slight front toe out to help with initial turn in

[Jetsetsurfshop]

My car is behaving differently through Bishop Bend since the accident we had last year. Ill work on posted the video here in a few. The old alignment number are in this post. From those numbers I also added decambered ball joints. Suppose to add 3/4 more negative camber. I never got it on the alignment rack to prove that, but they certainly looked like they did.
We now have 2.3 negative camber in the front. (Rears are same as before) I have adjuster plates maxed out. Was awesome at Homestead at that setting.
Check out the steering wheel angle in the comparison video. First part is from before the crash, second part is after.
Guess I'm looking for any ideas here. Might have nothing to do with my camber?
I also changed my front bumper from a 916 to a stock looking set-up. I can't imagine that has anything to do with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGLmx5AEvwg

Hope you don't mind me entering your thread; I've never raced a 914 but raced 3 series BMWs for several years.
I'm confused by your comments above. You said you never got the car on the rack to check camber, but yet you quote -2.3 F camber. Are you using a portable camber gauge?
Also, how is it behaving differently? Understeering? oversteering? Feel sluggish or loose? I think the tire temps are useful only for setting camber, nothing else. The temps should be within 10 degrees of each other across the inner, middle, and outer tread.
RE correct toe and caster settings, that's probably based on how the car feels. IE is it understeering on corner entry or oversteering? Understeering on corner exit or oversteering? I tend to see the front end as contributing to corner entry and the rear end as corner exit, so if you want the car to behave a certain way on entry or exit, you set up the front or rear appropriately.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the track in question, but my comment about the change in steering wheel angle is this may indicate the car is either pushing or oversteering more than before. If you now lift off the gas where you used to be flat out, maybe the increased negative front camber is causing more front grip, making the rear end seem a bit looser? Just a wild guess based on knowing very little about the track or your driving style.

Front toe in makes the car squirrelly at high speed...

Do you know something I don't? I've always heard the opposite. Front toe in makes the car more stable at high speed due to drag pulling the tires backwards. BUT racecars usually run slight front toe out to help with initial turn in

Let me try and clear up what you asked me about.
I didn't put the car back on the alignment rack after added the de-cambered ball joints. Elephant Racing says the add 3/4 more negative camber. It was measured prior to adding them. I tracked it after the addition and like how it handled. I never measured what was accomplished with the new ball joints.
It looks like you comments are on point. I agree the car was pushing slightly. It was just to different. I fixed it now.