Hi, progressing with my car. GT Jager Tribute. 6 Cyl, GT bracing, Bilstein shocks all around, rears are adjustable, from PO notes the rear springs are sport, either 180 or 200 lbs, 21 or 22mm front torsion bars, rubber bushings, 22 mm front sway bar, no rear. Wheels are 15*8 rear and 15*7 front Fuchs, Toyo R888.

I had it on track for the first since putting it back together. Some issues but a good shake down weekend.

My biggest issues were soft pedal which we worked on with bleeding and more bleeding. Brakes are 19mm MC, Carrera rotors and calipers, race pads.

I was also getting darting under braking which caused me to be too long on the pedal and I think I either warped a rotor and/or screwed up a wheel bearing. I was getting a bad shudder at the wheel under braking at the end.

It wasn't aligned properly before the weekend. I ran out of time. It goes in for that next Wednesday.

Given my approximate setup, what base alignment should I give the tech who's going to work on the car. It will be used for vintage race and DE's.

Thanks for any feedback.

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Start with negative 1.5 to 1.8 degrees camber front and rear. Extreme negative camber might be right for autocross but not track use in my opinion. Toe set about 1/8 inch toe in both front and rear because under hard braking it'll tend to make the wheels splay apart resulting in toe out and darty behavior...
Then measure tire temps across the tread hot at the track and adjust your alignment to get them as even as you can...enjoy!

Nice car, like the Jagers, guy in our road race club (SWMS) has the Jager nomex race suit...could you add recommendations for camber and ride height with stock suspension locations (strut spindles not raised like RSR) and I too have a GT tribute, 10" 16s in rear, 8" 15s front, please advise and thanx in advance...

I did mine a month ago, same camber as yours and a little less toe in on the rear (1/16th each side). Had to elongate the holes on rear mounting consul to get the toe in. String alignment worked really well. Best, MarkClick to view attachment

For auto-cross, make two turns of your tie rod to give you little over 1/8 inch toe out. Great for turn-ins, when done (two turns back to normal toe in). Have fun. Mark

I recommend against front end toe out. The front end of a 914 can be made to work well enough in cornering without applying tricks that have a negative effect at other times. Toe out will make the car darty in a straight line, and add drag on the straights.

Since you had to alter your outer console brackets to get toe in, that leads to the question - do your trailing arms have the boxed reinforcements? In my experience, that's one of the leading causes of toe out at the rear.

It won't see much auto x use, maybe some in the future. Most of the time will be vintage road racing and DE's. Darting under braking was a big issue last weekend.

Thanks Chris, this car has several of your bits in it! Fuel line, shift linkage setup, brake MC reinforcement, firewall spherical bushing.

Hi Chris, I also have many of your products (6 shift rod, linkage kit, bushings et.) all work great. I did box my control arms years ago, but this is the first time the cars back on the road in 30 years. I did not have to elongate much...seemed that the rear was neutral, just could not get toe in. All good now. And yes, toe out does make the car darty, most auto-cross I ran did not have much of a straight and over steer was better than under for me. I still need to purchase your shift adjuster product, gates are off just a little, like between the two splines. Best, Mark

So for the rear trailing arms are you saying if not boxed overtime they get deformed and you cannot get toe in anymore, is that correct?

One thing I have noticed when it comes to shops (even race) is that they have no idea how 914's operate in anger. They generally set the car up by the book - which does not translate well once the car has been modified (with either suspension or increased power). As Chris has been saying, there are other factors that can contribute to the handling of a 914 on track - making it difficult to advise with varying set-ups. My experience is based upon a more powerful 914 on track - it works. I have an open cockpit car - we run an aggressive set-up - positive (out) toe up front - hard to drive in a straight line - this is NOT how you want to set up a Teener.

One constant: The trailing arms are going to splay outward (positive toe) no matter what you do - you need to set your car up to minimize this affect; and anticipate the counter-action to not exceed zero conditions.

Front:
All the caster you can get (Back);
Zero Toe;
Max negative camber possible (match to the other side - equal) - typically between -1.5 to -2.0

Rear:
Toe-IN (negative) 1/8 to 1/4 (I adjust to max but equal on both sides).

Chris sells everything you need for the trailing arms; supports, reinforcements, adjusters, etc. - get with him if you are serious about tracking because you will need to do quite a bit of work back there...

Your spongy (soft) brake could also be addressed by increasing the MC bore.

Cracker

No, that's not what I was suggesting. I meant that boxing the trailing arms warps them in a manner that decreases their built in toe. That is undesirable so I recommend against reinforcing them by that method.

Beautiful car.

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FWIW - most of the vintage groups like SVRA and others mandate 15" wheels so make sure you are putting the right equipment on before setting everything up.