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Old 2010-06-04, 09:28 AM   #20
sperry
The Doink
 
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Real Name: Scott
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 20,335
 
Car: '09 OBXT, '02 WRX, '96 Miata
Class: PDX/TT-6
 
The way out is through
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1. The "proper" way to sort out camber is with a tire pyrometer. Right after coming off track, take the Inner Middle and Outer temps across the width of the tire. When the camber and tire pressure is "ideal" for the course you're on, you'll have the same temp all the way across the tire. If the inner temps are too high, you have too much negative camber. If the outer temps are too high, you have too little negative camber. If the middle temps are too high, you have too much air pressure. If the middle temps are too low, you have too little air pressure.

But that's an ideal. You might be able to set the car up on a skip pad to get even temps. In reality, you should shoot for a linear change across the tire... like I/M/O: 165/170/175. On a fast track with heavy braking, you'll end up heating the inner edge of the tire disproportionately on a car that perhaps has the correct camber for best grip. But at autocross, you'll usually see the outer temps the highest and a 10-20 degree difference between the highest and lowest temp IIRC (maybe Dean can chime in here... it's been ages since I've setup my car for autocross).

Caster can be adjustable if you have aftermarket top mounts. Some are slotted for both camber and caster adjustment, some can just be installed at an angle so the camber adjustment also adds caster. Either way, you generally want as much caster as you can get, since more caster = more dynamic negative camber when cornering = less static camber needed = better braking w/o giving up on cornering.

I like to set toe to zero all the way around the car. Toe out will definitely make the car more darty. A little toe out in the rear is really nice at autocross, and toe out up front can make the car turn better as well, but also makes it wander under braking. But for the race track, I like the better stability and predictability of zero toe... plus, any significant toe on the car at track speeds will magnify tire wear. I used to run toe out on my car for autocross, and took that same alignment to the track and killed a brand new set of RA1's in a day. Scrubbed the shoulders right off... after that, I started running zero toe, and a ton more negative camber at the track.

2. I dunno, I haven't bought camber bolts in like 8 years.

3. Like Cody said, it adds about half a degree of static caster to the front end. But that's not really the point of the ALK, since +.5deg caster isn't going to do all that much in terms of dynamic camber. The ALK changes the suspension geometry to help prevent the car from lifting the front-end under acceleration (hence the name "Anti Lift Kit").

The additional static caster is just a bonus, but it does mean realigning everything else on the front end, since it will push both camber and toe out of whack.
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