LEAVINU

Hey guys,

I never paid much attention to this in the past but just recently had my car aligned by a very good shop locally and have noticed my, camber specifically, specs look pretty far off from the norm of other poster's here.

Here is what he set my car too:
Front
Camber= -1.1
Caster= 8.0deg
Toe= 0.03in

Rear
Camber= -1.4
Toe= 0.06in


The guy aligning my car told me he wanted to put more camber in the rear to keep the power planted on exit. I'm pretty sure he is a BMW guy, nothing wrong with that of course, but what I've noticed is that it seems the BMW guys do run more camber in the rear if not close to the same as the front. This does not seem to be the case in the vette world from what I've seen in this forum as of late.

If this was your car and you were a street driver doing a handful of DE's a year what changes would you make to get closest to confident track feel with reasonable tire wear?

Thanks guys!

gmccreary

Send sperkins a pm. He just aligned my 01 C5Z. Here are my specs:

Front
Camber = -3.0
Caster = 7.3 deg
Toe = -.031

Rear
Camber = -1.8
Toe = -.094

0Paul Ruggeri

Those numbers seem reasonable, though usually the front has more camber than the rear. You can check VBandP's website for suggestions.

Bill Dearborn

Actually the stock C6 Z06 alignment settings call for more rear camber. Here are the specs from the SM. FE4 is for the Z06 while FE5 is for the ZR1.


Bill

John Shiels

I doubt you want much more than that or you won't get the power down.

LEAVINU

Exactly my response of concern when he asked me. Assured me it should not negatively effect my straight line performance. We'll see come warmer weather.

LEAVINU

3.0 up front, wow. I'd think that would blow out my tire budget QUICK.

drivinhard

me and scott pulled the rear camber out more and more this year (maxed on the rear cradle slots now) and the cars kept going faster and faster. at some point I'm sure there is a corner exit grip level limit, but we haven't reached it yet. I'm at about -1.9 and I think scott is -2.

-3 up front is fast, with the low pressures we run, but it'll eat tires, especially if you run a lot of toe out at the high speed tracks with long straights (VIR/RA).

biggest thing for a dual street/track car, is just don't go nuts with the toe. toe eats the tires

sperkins

I have -3.2* front camber and I ran more than half a TT season on the same tires, never had them flipped and they were fast until the end. It can be done, but you have to be very cognizant of them.

LEAVINU

Thanks for the feedback guys. Sounds like I am good with my current settings.

gkmccready

Do you think that has anything to do with the 275 rears and running super-low air pressure? Just curious if somebody that runs the more typical 305/315/335 has seen the same kind of gains from that much rear camber.

LEAVINU

Two more specific questions:

1) Will the rear camber being more on the neg side than the front create a feeling of push?

2) Do my front and rear toe in's look suitable for solid track driving yet reasonable wear with street driving?

gkmccready

1) Probably. I've never tried it that way, only car I know that runs well with more rear than front camber is a Miata due to its camber curves.

2) Look fine (1/32" front, 1/16" rear).

Bill Dearborn

I think they will work. The front toe in will help keep the car from wandering when you encounter ruts and pavement seams on the streets/highways. The rear toe looks like it is right where it should be. I had about a half inch of total toe on my C6 Z for the first few track sessions and it seemed to really help when putting the power down on corner exit but even though I had -1.5 deg of camber that much toe ate up my rear street tires and I only got about 3500 miles before I corded them on the outside edge. Last year I had about 1/16 total toe in the rear and the tire wear was a lot better but on the track I had to be careful when rolling onto the throttle or the back end would come out too quickly on corner exit. Reducing the rear toe also improved the car's response when going over bumps. Bumps would cause the backend to skitter all over the place but with the reduced toe the car bumps up and down but goes straight.

Bill

John Shiels

on the street yes. How much street driving do you do? What is acceptable life for your street tires? What are you running for track tires?

LEAVINU

Guess I'll leave it be and see how it works out at the first track day. Thanks for the input.

Only been on the street with the car so far and it does feel pretty good over bumps and ruts. There was less toe in the rear previously and def less camber and it always felt on edge with power mid-turn. I learned to drive the car that way by being smoother and more mindful of the throttle so I think that helped me be a more patient driver(in a good way).

Definitely don't want to play that I am like the three red C5Z guys above (drivinhard, sperkins, gmccreary) and hit every track event by any means. The car definitely sees more street time than it will track time. I've driven the car to Miami, TN, Augusta, work, dates, etc so it sees a bit of everything. Not looking to be the fastest guy on any track but definitely want to be well prepared, safe, knowledgeable and get faster over time like everyone else.

Sorry for the long winded response, just wanted to make sure everyone knew where I sit in the track guy tree.

As far as street tire life I'd like to get 12-15k out of street tires. I have a set of Z wheels I'll be running on the track but looking to have the same alignment for both sets of wheels that is as close as possible to a happy median.

0Vector Vette

For a car that is mostly driven on the street and runs an occasional HPDE, those numbers are fine. I would have gone for -1.2 camber on the front, but that is nit-picking. You don't want to run -3 camber on the street unless you like to experiment with different tires. In short, looks like a pretty good setup for what you are doing.
Robert Finlayson
Performance AFX Motorsports

OZ51

My set up is a compromise for street, autoX and HPDE. I run the same tires for all events and street and don't change settings. FRONT: 1.9-2* neg camber, 0 toe and as much caster that you can dial in with these settings (~6.8-7.0 on my stock C-6 Z51 suspension). REAR: 1.2 neg camber, 1/16-1/8" toe in. I run oversize RE11s on stock rims (265/35F. 305/30 R). The car has excellent track manners, turns in crisply and pivots controllably at autox, and tracks straight on the street with excellent tire wear (about 12K miles from a set of tires with 8-10 autox's and 6-10 track days/year & 10K street miles/year). YMMV.

avizandum

I run numbers real close to these on my DD / weekend warrior - a bit more camber in the front at 0 toe with no wear problems. Key is getting as close to no toe up front.