Alignment recommendations
 

I have my car set to get an alignment Monday morning, and I'm just looking to get a little advice on what settings I should ask the shop to go with.

I have the car lowered on RCE Yellow Springs, but I have SPC camber bolts installed (with moving the lower bolt to the upper position and then using the SPC camber bolts in the lower hole), and I should be getting some SPC lower control arms added this weekend. So hopefully I'll be all set to have the shop be able to set the car up properly.

While the car is my only car, I work from home and my wife and I usually take her car whenever we go out anyplace together, so in reality this is more of just a fun, weekend toy that does need to have the ability to drive it year round as needed.

While I'm hoping to get some track time at some point, it will most likely be only a couple of times a year. However, I love finding some twisty back roads and driving those in anger (withing reason ;)).

So, any suggestions on what I how I should have the car set up?

Also going to tack a sub-question on as I'm in the beginning stages of thinking about the same setup for pretty much the same use.

Are LCAs necessary to get the suggested settings?

I have RCE Yellows installed with front Camber bolts.


I'm 1.5 Front and 2 Rear. So far, it seems fine and have had it at the track twice. I don't think anything else needs to be done.

Tires make the biggest difference IMHO. I run the stock tires, 225/50 R16 Firehawk 500's and recently 205/55 R16 Hankook RS-3's.

The 205's RS-3's with RCE Yellows are amazing on the street! The ride is much more composed than stock and the extra sidewall makes daily driving much more comfortable. I'll be on track with them in a couple of weeks.

-3°/-2.3° f/r. Or as close to -3° as your wheel/tire setup allows. Zero toe.

No less than -2.5°/-2°.

With a mild drop LCAs may not be necessary. The rear camber on our cars vary greatly from the factory. So you may be in the -2 range or -1.5 range after your drop. Best to get an alignment check prior and see where to go from there.

Personally as a daily I like to run -1.5 rear and -2 to -2.5 front camber. With 0 toe all around.

My car is a DD with a splash of autox.


-2 F and -1.5 R.

-1.7F and -1.3R

as long as the front has more negative camber, the car will be more responsive

The other camber suggestions seem pretty good. There's a limited amount of camber you can get in the front with bolts so that's your limiting factor. Try to max out front camber with the bolts you have, and have rear camber be about -0.5 below it. So if you can get -2.0 do the rears at -1.5. That seems pretty common and it feels good on track to me.

As for toe, 0 toe all around is a common recommendation. My shop recommended the slightest toe-in rear. Apparently as the car squats during acceleration it will slightly toe-out under the load so having a little toe-in will make the car more stable under acceleration.

Maximize front camber with bolts, zero toe all around, done.

I disagree with the idea that front camber *must* be greater than rear. It probably won't be with camber bolts and lowered ~1", but that's fine. No need for LCAs...

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I was thinking something like -2.0 front camber / -1,5 rear camber, with 0 toe up front and 1/16th in the back.

Would that be a good setting? I'm not interested in the stance look, and instead looking to get good performance while also retaining the ability to drive it on normal, non-spirited runs as necessary.

Sounds good and rather commonly chosen performance alignment for those that mostly daily drive. You should be ok.

I wouldn't fixate on trying to hit specific camber numbers as long as it's left/right symmetrical within reason (~0.25°). Just max the front with bolts and run whatever natural camber you get in back from lowering. Zero to 1/16" (0.14°) *total* rear toe should be fine.

How about mine?
-0.4 front -2.2 rear
Running stock suspension with trd springs
Daily drive only

-1.5 rear and -2 front. it will fell nice for daily and stuff.