Alignment Specs

[NJSHO]

After doing some research (shotimes and shoforum) these are the alignment specs that I found that are recommended for the SHO:

0 Toe all around
-.5 camber up front
as much positive caster up front as possible
0 to -.25 camber in rear

Are these correct/good starting point for a street driven SHO with light autox/track duty? Any additional info I am missing?

 

[Shoaz]

I'd suggest some toe-in in the rear and more negative camber everywhere. Also, make sure everything is balanced, e.g., if you can get +3 caster on one side and +2.75 on the other, make both sides +2.75.

If you're running 16" rims more negative camber shouldn't hurt anything and will improve handling.

 

[SHOoff.]

I run -1.3 camber all the way around, and never had a tire wear issue.

 

[92sho16]

so those who have experience in auto x and road coarses what are you running for camber, caster n such? i drive my car only in the summer and will be starting to do road coarses more often what do you suggest for some one in my position?

 

[Shoaz]

Total setup depends on your driving style and what else is going on with the car such as rim size, tire, etc. I can tell you what I'm doing, but it's only a data point relative to my car so take it FWIW.

I'm using BFG g-Force tires and 16x8 rims, and run -2 camber in front, +3 caster, and zero toe. In the rear I run slight toe-in (probably 1/16" or so at the tire centerline) and -1.75 camber.

My SHO does regular road course events in the winter and a lot of daily driver duty, and with those settings I've gone through an entire set of BFG g-Force KDW tires with very even wear across the tread on all four corners. It was so even that it was barely detectable that there was very, very slightly more wear on the inside than the outside.

There are people who use more aggressive camber settings for track use. I keep it backed off a little bit just because the car does see a lot of street use as well. It could use more camber in the back for handling as it's a little bit loose on high-speed sweepers.

 

[FAST4DR]

My alignment is set at -1.2 front -1.0 rear and zero toe all around. Can't tell you about wear, since I don't put many miles on the car and when I do it's usually squealing the whole time.

According to what most people say about my 20.6 and 26mm rear sway bars, the car should be tail happy, but it is not. It is very neutral with my setup. I can be going 70-80 mph and **** the wheel and stab the brakes and the rear will barely step out. You have to get real agressive to get it to step out. I know that is not classic oversteer(it's lift throttle, braking, weight transfer oversteer) but, it was always a good indication to me of how it is going to behave in a turn. If I push it hard into a high speed off ramp, I get a four wheel slide.

Next time I get it aligned, I am going to specify -2 front -1.5 rear and zero toe.

Will

 

[FAST4DR]

Here is a scan of my alignment. Notice that my caster is not perfect. That's because I didn't get the subframe exactly back where it was when I had it off. I am going to move it a little next time I take it in for alignment.

The alignment guy said he added a little on the one side to compensate for my weight in the car, but I don't really understand, because the more negative camber is on the left. Wouldn't the neg. camber increase with my weight on that side?

 

[92sho16]

what else is going on with the car such as rim size, tire, etc. .

I plan on buying a set of 18 pro race 2 from Josh, prolly kumho ecsta MX tires size 235/40/18, i have tokicos ,intrax, sfcs, etc. Does the size of rim make that much of a difference? I know my car wasnt really the same on each side when they gave me the print out which didnt make much sense.

 

[Shoaz]

I plan on buying a set of 18 pro race 2 from Josh, prolly kumho ecsta MX tires size 235/40/18, i have tokicos ,intrax, sfcs, etc. Does the size of rim make that much of a difference? I know my car wasnt really the same on each side when they gave me the print out which didnt make much sense.

I suspect that with larger diameter rims the tires will be more susceptible to uneven wear when using negative camber. It probably depends on the type of tire as well, etc., but the shorter sidewall will be less compliant.

 

[92sho16]

i can agree with that. i dont know if differnt cars are different when it comes to wear and neg camber but my dad runs about -4.5 degrees on 275/40/17s and has been through a couple sets of tires with even wear.