Quote:

You seem quite knowledgeable in this department. Can you suggest some alignment settings for a 500-600 hp street car? (my signature car)

Thanks,
Jim



If you have manual steering, the higher caster numbers are going to increase steering effort. Depending on your upper body strength and your personal tastes, you might choose to decrease my recommended caster setting somewhat (although leave it positive and balanced side-to-side regardless). Ignore all that babble if you have power steering.

I am also going to assume you are going with adjustable strut rods and can therefore pull a bit more caster without sending camber crazy.

There is a small [but vocal] minority of road course fanatics here that look for negative camber. I don't share that opinion.

Camber - 0 to 1/4 degree positive, with a 1/4 degree difference (LS higher) for crown-climbing. Say 0 RS, 1/4 positive LS.

Caster - 3 to perhaps as much as 5 degrees positive, balanced side-to-side. Perhaps less if you are a wimp and have manual steering. Did I mention to make sure that both sides are equal?

Toe - about 1/8 inch TOTAL toe in. Some lay-people question this ("shouldn't the tires be utterly straight to get the best tire wear?"). Sure, when the car is moving. Setting it a bit IN statically is done in hopes of having it be ZERO when the car gets moving, and the tires try to toe OUT as the linkage components compress.

If you want, you can check out this War & peace thread on the subject. Be forewarned that it is populated by some off-topic posts, a bit of mis-information by some, and a fair amount of pollution by the negative camber autoxer crowd.

Also, later in this other thread you can find a reasoned and polite dialog on the negative camber issue, held between yours truly and one of the more visible negative camber fans.