I'm going to do an autocross this weekend, so I took the vette in for an alignment. I gave him the following specs - front - 0 toe, .25 neg cam, 6-7 caster, rear - 3/32 toe, .3-4 neg cam - which I got off of vette brakes spec page for street use. Anyway, when I got the car back and checked out the settings everything looked great except for the rear toe. Instead of towing it in a little, he toed it out. Not by much mind you, it was set to -.07 degrees and it's withing factory specs. I was just wondering what that will do to the handling or stability. It's appears to be minor, so I was wondering if it was worth taking it back and making them fix it. The car is mostly street driven, I only go to the drag strip or autocross a couple times a year.

Opinions?

 

Dumb question.. but....
If you have the equipment to check it that close why don't you just align it up yourself?

The reason for the question is because I have a caster/camber gauge and I can set the front caster,camber,toe and center steering.
I can set the TOE on the rear.
The REAR THRUST VECTOR is something I haven't figured out how to set with a caster/camber gauge and a tape measure.

How did you check it?

 

Not a dumb question......When I picked up the car the shop gave me a printout with before, after and factory spec ranges. I wish I did have a something to measure all that with, I absolutely despise having someone else work on my car. How much did that guage cost and were did you get it?


[Modified by 95Aqua, 8:34 AM 4/24/2003]

 

JMHO, but you can run much better alignment for autocross (& overall improved handling/cornering) with virtually no noticeably bad tire wear on the street. Rear can easily handle 3/16" total (i.e., e/32 each side) TOE IN for better hookup on acceleration - I run 1/4" toe in total. Camber at the rear set around minus 1 degree won't wear the tires adversely at all - I run -2 degrees street & track. Front, pull all the shims out :) You will probably achieve about minus one degree or so (if it's not lowered) and, again, that won't hurt your street tire wear. Set the front toe to zero for street. Paint a mark on the top of the tie rods after it's aligned so you can move the rods and then return them to zero for street. At the autocross track, turn each front tie rod out one-half turn. This will give you approximately 1/4 inch total toe out on the front for much better turn-in capability. After the event, return the front tie rods to zero. For caster, whatever is left after getting as much negative camber in front is fine. Also, when you pull all the front shims, you will not be equal on camber left & right - don't worry about it because unless you're fully corner weighted, your car won't turn equally anyway. These are just a few things you can do to make it work better for you. Also, remember to lube it well before each event. Good luck, Paul