I just installed a complete VBP suspension kit tubular upper lower control arms composite front spring QA1 shocks to compliment the rear 360lb composite rear spring QA1 rear shocks front and rear matched sway bars all new poly bushings new offset control arms spindles complete braking system etc....
I had the front end aligned this morning and this car is scary as all hell right now very darty and kind of unpredictable on deceleration
here are the specs
lf rf
1.3 camber .3 camber
2.2 caster 1.7 caster
.20 toe .20 toe
.39 total toe
.00 steer ahead
lr rr
-.6 camber -1.0 camber
.04 toe .06 toe
.10 total toe
-.01 thrust angle
back roads it seems ok but on the highway wow not great
Hopefully some one can see the specs and know what needs to be changed to tame this hot rod down

John

 

I'd add more toe-in to the rear and crank up the front caster. 4 degrees is good. Try to get more even camber left to right.

 

I gave the shop the specs from vbp site and this is what they came back with not sure how to read there chart which is in degrees whereas vbp had fractional numbers. Any alignment techs here that could shed some wisdom ??

 

vbp says to run 4.75 dgr caster w/ their a-arms (which it sounds you got), but you only have 2 dgr.

1/8" toe = 0.27 dgr. You only have 0.1 rear. I'd bump that up a little more, to about 0.4.

My recommendation for street:

Front:
-0.5 dgr camber
0.1 dgr toe-in
4+ dgr caster

Rear:
-0.75 dgr camber
0.4 dgr toe.

You need extra toe-in in the rear as it will toe out at compression. Toe out: loss of stability (no bueno).

 

thanks for the replies. I do have the Performance Plus kit from VBP I did I give them the specs that I had from VBP I am not sure what went wrong with what I gave them. This is what I thought they did has anyone used this on the street and how would it handle?

front
toe 0
camber 1/4* negative
caster 4.75* positive

rear
1/8" in
camber 1/2* negative

this was the advanced street setup I had wanted to try but surely does not seem what it got adjusted to.

 

The specs call for 0 degrees camber, 2-1/2 degrees caster, and about 1/4" toe in.

 

true but I have the offset a arms so 4 3/4 is the spec I was trying for

 

First, I don't believe in EVER putting an asymmetric alignment on a sportscar. But, before jumping all over the shop/tech I'd check your upper CA shim stacks to see how they compare, which could indicate that a tweaked frame and/or CA mounting point problem factored into results.
In any event, before heading back to the shop for a do-over you definitely should determine a suitable alignment baseline and impress on the tech how important to minimize deviations while informing you of ANY issues that might compromise doing so. If you already did that, it's time to find another shop. My $.02

 

they have the same amount of shims located on the front mount location for both the left and right sides of the car. The shims look to be about .05 each and three each in the front mount location and nothing in the rear
Tire wear was good with minimum shims before I installed the new components.
I gave them the VBP catalog so they could see that they are recommended specs. From near as I can see they used the number for a regular set of control arms and not the offset ones so they shimmed to remove the preset offset from the upper arms.

 

That's exactly what they did. Looks for a better shop as this one seems majorly daft.

 

[okay so I am a newbie at a performance suspension what meant by an asymmetrical alignment

 

There is no bad question, BTW. Asymmetric alignment simply means setting up with different specs from one side to the other. Some shops still believe in the outdated practice (IMCO) of performing asymmetric alignments for road crown compensation. However, if that were the case here I would actually expect more, not less, caster and camber on the right than the left. That, plus your having found equal shimming installed strictly to dial out the extra caster of your a-arms without apparent concern for resulting discrepancies is a pretty good indication that they just do poor work. I'd seek a referral for a better shop from a knowledgeable C2/C3 owner in your local area.

FYI, assuming the figures you've been given are accurate, it might be impractical to achieve 4+ pos caster while maintaining zero cross-caster and cross-camber without an excess of shims at your upper right rear CA bolt. A good shop will talk with you about this should it actually present a problem. I'm also assuming you do have power steering, no? If not, I wouldn't worry about cranking in all that much extra caster in the first place, but that's another topic altogether... Anyway, find a good shop and they'll help you find your sweet spot, wherever that might be. HTH, and keep us posted.

 

Yes I do have power steering

 

So I did go back to town fiat tire and showed them the specs again that I originally gave them and how far off the VBP they are. They said I could leave it then the manager said they don't work on older cars any more because they don't want to play with the shims. Sounded like bs to me but they refunded the cost I found a local shop that is willing to do a custom setup and they are scaling the car too

 

Good for you.

 

what were the specs before? I bet they did what we call a "toe and go", where the set the front toe and nothing else.

 

no they set everything I installed the original shims back on the upper control arms where they came from. they removed them and added new shims. on the rear I replaced the original shims with new stainless ones when I replaced the rear trailing arms. I measured the old shims and set the new ones in the same location. They did a pre-check and then a corrected check at Town Fair Tire in Newington NH.

I found a custom shop that did the alignment to the VB&P specs. Their pre-check was not close to how Town Fair left it. They also found that some shims had been removed from the drivers side trailing which resulted in a .125 gap between the arm and chassis. This explains why the car was feeling loose.
The new shop gave me close to what I wanted but advised to a little toe in the front about 1/32. The only other thing that they messed up on was the positive caster.
The tech never added the extra for the offset arms so they said drive it see how everything seems and bring it back and they will dial it in with any other changes that may deem needed.
It wasn't cheap it cost 200.00 to have them do it but so far it seems much better.Its definitely more predictable, it no longer has a jittery or nervous feel. The car is settling in and out of corners much better.
the front spring is set on the third stiffest setting VB&P states this is about 500lbs spring rate which seems to work well the 340LBS rear spring. Front sway bar is 1.125 and the rear is .750. all the poly mounts seem ok not too harsh for me. It definitely does firm things up. The QA1 shocks seem to work well with the composite spring.
Now that the suspension, steering and brake system have been modified and totally rebuilt its time to install the new engine.
Stay tuned we will see how this Hot Rod is getting transformed to run a little better than stock.