I'd like to start Auto Xing my C8 this year. I'll probably do 4 - 8 events a year.
99.9% of the driving the car will do will be on the street.
I'm just going to be doing it for fun, will not be in any danger of getting top time of the day or winning my class.

Are people who Auto X getting the track alignment?
If you get the track alignment, are you finding your tires are wearing out a lot faster
If you haven't gotten the track alignment, are you finding the understeer frustrating while on the Auto X course.

Are there are inexpenseive alternatives to getting the track alignment that might preserve the tire life.

I used to Auto X my C6 and had a lot of fun doing that.

Appreciate any and all input

 

Track alignment will kill your tires on the street and its expensive to do back and forth. Regarding understeer, adjust your driving style. Most people blame the car, any car will understeer regardless of the alignment if you try to enter a corner too fast.

 

You can also go with an alignment that is mid-way between the two. It'll help with improving the balance without much penalty to tire wear.

 

This is the way. You can do mid-level camber changes and keep the toe near zeroed out and you won't have any issue with inside tire wear but will do better for autocross.

 

I think it depends on how competitive you want to be at Auto X. If you just want to bang around the X track, then do nothing to the alignment... Just have fun. The Spring Mountain C8 Driving School has you do an Auto X runs and all of those Z51's have the full track alignment, and let me tell you they will still understeer on entry or on exit if you don't know how to drive a X track... I have 0 time on the X track going into the driving school, but had a blast banging around and not worrying about being competitive.

 

@AgCorvette We decided to Autocross our C8 with the "as delivered" alignment and Michelin PS4S tires, mainly because good/competitive Tread Wear 200 Autocross Tires have not been available in factory C8 Wheel Sizes. The grip and tread wear on the PS4S tires was very good, but overall performance was still below that of many local National Level Autocrossers with fully set-up cars.

We used 34 psi Front / 36 psi Rear tire pressures (reset every run) and lived with more noticeable wear on the outside edges/heel of the tires (more tire pressure didn't really help) which we attributed to minimal negative camber wheel alignment from the factory. As mentioned earlier in the thread, understeer in the C8 is manageable as long as you executed your corner entries appropriately to avoid over-driving the front tires.

At about 100 (total) Autocross runs (each about 1-minute long, asphalt surface, high speed sections, some tight elements/corners), we noticed a "fall-off" in the grip of the PS4S tires and we felt they might have "heat-cycled out" since our C8 is a dual driver (R & K) with limited cool-down time between runs. At just over 140 (total) Autocross runs, the front PS4S tires "corded" (wore though to tire carcass fibers) along the out-side edges while the rest of the tread was evenly worn to about half-depth, the rear PS4S tires were not edge corded, but were very close.

So from our experience Autocrossing our C8 with the factory alignment on factory PS4S tires, you can have a great deal of fun Autocrossing your C8 "as-is" from the factory as long as you don't expect to be fully competitive or have especially long tire life.

We are planning to use a "mid-level" wheel alignment for our C8 (driven to events, not trailered) and a set of Tread Wear 200 Autocross Tires for the 2023 Autocross Season.

I hope the above is helpful to you. Happy C8 motoring!

-Rick (R & K C8)

 

When you run an auto x specific tire all this change. If you ever look at a hoosier auto x tire, the side wall and tire edge are super stiff and flat. Would make a lot of the issues disappear And then you would need the suspension set up for max contact patch. But dedicated auto x or track tires are very diff then street tires.

ps that is also an amazing amount of runs in a day of auto x in So. Florida circles too many cars show up and runs are limited. I don t auto x any more , tracking and then racing bug got me.

 

How would one go about asking for a "mid-level" track alignment? Let us say you go to a dealer and ask....what would you ask for exactly?

 

I would say it depends on how much street driving you do. Auto cross or track work with a street alignment will wear the outside edges pretty quickly. There is very little wear on a tire driving down the road so if you drive say 3- 5k miles or less per year, you will likely wear tires out much faster doing 8 track/auto-X events with a street alignment than driving on the street with a track alignment. Plus those events will be so much better with a track alignment.
Ideally, you would change alignment each time, but as a compromise I go with the track alignment and drive it everywhere if I am doing track events. To me it is wearing out tires one way or the other and I can more easily monitor track alignment wear street driving where I have corded tires before I realized it driving on track with a street alignment. ( BTW good idea to have the extra trans fluid in too if you decide to go have fun at a last minute).

 

@LS3FORME - thanks for your comments which indicates I need to clarify my earlier post.

The 140 runs (total) I provided earlier was from -all- the Autocross Events/Practices we attended in 2021 and 2022... 7 to 8 Autocross Events/Practices per year with 8 to 10 runs at each Event/Practice (dual drivers). So based on our Autocross experience with the “as-delivered” alignment and PS4S tires on our C8, the OP (@AgCorvette) should be able to attend 7-8 Autocrosses for a year or two without a “Track” Alignment or dedicated tires as long as the OP is focused on having fun/learning the car and doesn’t mind more rapid tire wear.

Agreed, on your comments about purpose-built Autocross/Track Tires which really need an appropriate wheel alignment for optimum performance and tire longevity.

Happy C8 motoring!

-Rick (R & K C8)

 

@stvdman - Most Dealer Service Shops would not be a good source for a custom performance wheel alignment... they don't have the experience with performance alignments and some just will not do a non-spec alignment due to warranty concerns.

I suggest you search locally for a Track/Performance Shop that does wheel alignments and bring along a copy of the Chevrolet C8 Track Alignment Specs (search on this forum) to discuss a "less than" full Track Alignment. I did that at my local Track Shop and we decided to start with the Chevrolet C8 Track Alignment Specs but using -less- camber at -2.0 degrees Front and -1.5 degrees Rear.

We have driven only one Autocross event (last October) with this "mid-level" alignment so far, but initial results were mixed because our rear tires were "heat-cycled out" (no grip) with grippy newer front tires which made the car very "tail happy" and after 8-runs the front tire wear / "roll-over" did look better than the "as delivered" alignment, but it is too early to tell if more alignment adjustments are needed.

Good luck with your alignment shop search and happy C8 motoring.

-Rick (R & K C8)

 

Hi Everyone, I'm the original poster. I really appreciate all the input that's been provided.