Camber, toe-in, etc., etc., Suspension settings Options

[Randal]

I run my 914 in two seperate venues, i.e., autox and time trials. Recently I have bolted on (a book could be written about this adventure) 23 X 9 X 15 racing tires and now need to reset the camber and toe in to compensate for the wider footprint, i.e., I don't think I want to be running close to 3 degrees of camber as before.

My car was set up by Bontempi at High Performance House with Koni racing shocks in the front and Bilsteins in the back. The car was lowered about as far as you can go without changing sheet metal. When I was running 205 Hoosiers and as long as I had good tires and a reasonable surface it handled like a dream.

I would say that the suspension was extremely stiff, so in some Nor Cal venues like Golden Gate Fields, where the surface was better suited, maybe only, to soft suspensions, I would back off all the stiffness on the Koni's. Actually to be honest the car never did work well at Golden Gate Fields, as compared to the cars set up with less stiffness and I think more toe in. The competitions cars would turn, mine never did, regardless of air pressure or shock settings.

My question is whether of not there are any general rules that I can read about setting up the car with racing tires, without having to secure a PHD in suspension.

Also is anyone out there running racing tires in autox or time trial venues, and if so do you change the campber/toe-in setting before attempting to run other venue?

Maybe I need to bite the bullet and change settings each time to match the venue?

[john rogers]

I use the Goodyear slicks in the size you mentioned. With the Goodyears we use 0 camber 0 toe in the front and -.25 degree camber, 0.25 inch toe in rear and 25 PSI hot pressure. This is for most any event. If you use the Hooser or other brand then the settings are different. Good luck

[Dave_Darling]

Since Big Track events are generally at higher speeds than autocrosses (at least, now that we can't use Hamilton Air Base!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ), cars will generally understeer more at autocrosses and oversteer more at time trials. So you try to set up the car a bit more tail-happy for autoXing and a bit less tail-happy for Big Tracks.

After that, I'm out of ideas. I have precisely zero experience with setup for slicks.

--DD

[Brad Roberts]

Randal..

I'll be at the August 23rd AutoX for at least one day. If you plan to attend... I will help you out.

John Rogers nailed the setup for your slicks. They require close to NO camber (depends on how hard you drive the car)... last time I checked.. you where not pushing your 205 Hoosiers to their maximum potential...

RichB has always set cars up extremely stiff... I have backed off this thought and gone with softer setups with larger sway bars. Rich can drive the wheels off of anything.... so setup and stiffness doesnt effect his driving.... he bounces the stiff cars from one bump to the next.

B