Recommended Camber for tracking
 

Hi team

I'm wondering what a good set-up would be for track days, specifically front camber.

I'm installing some coilovers with adjustable camber camber plates and the idea is to adjust this for track days.

The intention is to keep the geometry stock (apart from a 15-20mm drop), and adjust the front camber just for track days to try and combat mid->late corner understeer.

I know that a tyre thermometer is the best way to figure this out, but I'm hoping for some advice on where to start.

I'm think -2.5 degrees but I plucked that number out of my butt.

FYI it will have some semi-slick tyres and 6kg springs if that is useful information.

One last question. Will changing the camber on the track days effect toe? I think 0 toe for daily running but I'm wondering do I need to tweak toe if I add a few degrees of camber for a track day?

With plates and a mild drop, the answer is probably "as much as possible." The toe will change (unfavorably) when you add that camber. If you just adjust it at the track you will have a bit of toe-in, and that will make it harder to turn.

It is really easy to adjust the toe (car on the ground even), so make sure you know how many tie rod turns it takes to put it where you want.

-2.5 is a good start. Take a look at the shoulders of the front tires to understand if you need more or less. You may need more depending on the overall roll stiffness of the car. If anyone can take photos of the car at max lat g head on to see if you have 0 camber or positive camber.

Since this sounds like a street car, expend the amount of effort that you have time to do.

It all depends on driving style. Our car has -3.0 up front which most people love. For me though, the car pushes a lot. Different driving styles. Slow in fast out requires less camber than fast in fast out. ;)

We run -3 front -2.4 rear.

It'll depend on setup and driving style.

How are you adjusting your rear camber?

Ride height...

Isn't proper corner balance dependent on ride height? If you corner balance the car and then adjust ride height to get your camber (instead of using another means adjustable LCA or adjustable bushing), are you throwing away the corner balance? I am a noob and do not know how much you would have to adjust ride height to change camber and how much, if any, that would throw off the corner balancing.

I believe after corner balancing, the ride height the car was at yielded their camber settings...if the car has been corner balanced. I can't remember off the top of my head if it has been or not.

We run nearly the same alignment because it was what the ride height we chose yielded (no corner balancing).

Why don't you run your track settings on the street? Just set the toe to zero and the tire wear should be good.

Your alignment will depend on a lot of things, some already mentioned:

- driving style
- suspension height
- spring (and effective wheel) rate
- tire type/stickiness
- track
- misc items such as aerodynamic downforce (as opposed to, say, mechanical downforce)

I do not claim to know enough for every car, but a good place to start is with the stock setup. You can add slightly stickier tires and lower the car, but don't go overboard with semi-slicks as running R-compound only serves to mask the biggest unknown: you.

For guys that go to the track, I can't emphasize enough: you, as the driver, ultimately determine if your vehicle's setup works or not. Good/great drivers get 110% out of a potential lap time of a setup, and bad drivers get 80-90% out of the potential lap time of a setup.

I think the biggest (public) spotlight on this was with Ferrari in 1999, when Michael Schumaker broke his leg in the British GP. Eddie Irvine (his teammate) went on to be the lead driver, but it was apparent that Ferrari was hurting the rest of the season from Schumaker's expertise as both a race driver and a test driver.

Your best bet is to find a good alignment shop with tons of track setup and experience, and ask them. Cars aren't that different (our cars vs another comparable RWD car), and the setup is all the same. The biggest favor you can do yourself is not go overboard with mods.

Me? I just had my car set up with an alignment shop in Los Angeles (West End Alignment), tell Darrin what track I'm going on and my ideal setup (I prefer neutral w/ slight understeer), tires I'm looking to run, and he does the rest.

-alex

You can adjust from the front to get the proper crossweights. The front is camber adjustable via camber plates.

In our case, the rear is slightly adjustable via tolerances... (Darin and Chris@ West End Alignment) but be prepared to pay more for these services.

Is it bad I know exactly how he would set up your car based on your description? :D

Correct, our chosen ride height coincidentally yielded the alignment we wanted in the rear.




We've never cornerbalanced our car... although we should. We just haven't since we're always playing with parts and settings

No... but again, alignment settings is based on what you want out of the car, and not about the car itself.

The alignment specs would be similar for many RWD cars with similar suspension setup and weight distribution. I imagine the FRS/BRZ having a similar alignment setup and goal as a S13/14 240SX...

But in all honesty, there's too detailed of a discussion here. Mods are nice, but if you want to get the most out of your track day(s), work on the driver more and the car less.

My old S13 was consistently faster at many tracks than cars with 100+WHP more than me, mostly because I learned to not drive beyond what I was capable of, whereas other drivers focused on modding the car to be as fast as possible, but didn't focus on themselves.

-alex

If you can give me a better idea of your experience, setup, and preferences, I can probably give you an alignment suggestion :thumbsup: