Real Alignment

After last week's adventure with a spooky car I knew it was time to get serious with a proper alignment.  The DIY approach with toe plates can give good results but there is no way for me to check thrust.  Also, the addition of more rear camber seriously affected toe so I scheduled an appointment at Lutz Tire for an alignment.

The front camber and caster are both maxed out already so nothing to do there until new caster plates or custom strut mounts are available.  I was expecting more camber and less caster, but overall I am pleasantly surprised with the front settings at this time.  Ultimate plan is to have much more caster than camber to keep the tire upright and help put power down and a lower ride height can keep body roll to a minimum resulting in less camber loss.  I asked for and prefer zero front toe.

The rear alignment is what caused the spooky handling last week.  The alignment printout does not show the true rear initial settings because we were playing with dynamic toe and forgot to save the 'before' settings.  Total toe was out at least .20 and thrust was way off to the left.  Dynamic toe was difficult to measure because the computer display was delayed and the stiff springs made it hard to steadily move the car much.  We could bounce the car but never got any firm reliable data.

Based on the initial toe settings I can be fairly certain that adding rear negative camber reduces toe (adds toe out).  I purposely set this rear camber after seeing pictures showing body lean and tire roll.  I believe some camber gain is lost with the lower ride height so the -3.4* may sound excessive but it keeps the tire square in the corner and under load.  My preference is to keep the tire happy and car predictable so I also added a little rear toe in.  Rear suspension bushings may have some dynamic deflection that change toe and these bushings are on my 'to do' list.

Is the car better or less spooky?  Yes.

San Diego SCCA hosts an autox at Qualcomm January 25th and with my fresh alignment I show up early and prep the car.  Only other change is to soften the rear swaybar from 3/3 to 2/3.  STF is first run group again with sunny skies but cool air and cold slick asphalt. Cold RS3 tires do not work very well and it takes me a couple runs to build up my confidence.  Tire pressure 44F, 26R Handling is fantastic after the tires build heat and throttle rotation is smooth and easily modulated.  Wheelspin is a constant issue but easy enough to drive through.  Transitions are a little lazy.





The only problem is again the rear swaybar.  Some lateral movement has the bar shifted to the right and now hits the outer portion of the lower control arm.  Some clamping collars should keep the bar centered and avoid contact.  I also ordered some longer endlinks that will rotate the arms up and allow more clearance to the LCA.  The exhaust pipe is still resting on the swaybar and will get modified after final swaybar position is finalized.

And the banging noise from last event is coming from the exhaust midpipe knocking on the floor.  To go along with the other three Mugen motor mounts, I have a new Vibratechnics rear motor mount on order which should reduce or nearly eliminate engine rocking.