JonMc

iTrader: (51)

About to get my wheel alignment done and the company I'm going to will either set the factory settings or dial in whatever I ask. Having looked around there appears to be no definative answer to what are the best settings. Basically I'm looking for a set up that is more likely to oversteer than understeer and whilst being stable enough for the road will be easy enought to migrate onto the track for some random fun days.

I was going to get the following settings dialed in:

Front:

1° negative camber
Max equal castor
1° toe in.

Rear

Factory camber (which I believe should be about 1.5°)
1° toe in

Current set-up is:

KYB AGX shocks all round
Whiteline Flat-out springs
Eibach ARBs
Hardrace ALK
Hardrace rear drop links
Whiteline front drop links
Whiteline adjustable front top mounts.

A couple of questions I have are:

Is this still going to be useable on the road? The car is only a toy so is not used for a daily commute, I have a bike and 2 feet for that.

As I have the front top adjustable top mounts, is it worth moving the camber bolts to rear, or even buying some additional camber bolts, and changing anything there?

Can anyone suggest any other settings that would be better?

Thanks in advance, Jon

SKS

Have used the Prodrive fast road settings to great effect on my bug and my blob - found them particularly good with the ALK (which I see you have ) fitted.

Settings are:

Front camber -1°15’ (-1.25°)
Front toe total 0°00’(0.00°)

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

Stewart

Cheers for that, do you know what the caster adjustment is on your car. It should be possible to set this higher with the ALK.

How do those settings affect your tyre wear?

I would have expected some front toe in to counter splaying of the wheels as a result of drive and braking effects.

SKS

I'm running an ALK too and static caster (on the day and hour of alignment set up) is now 3.3° (3°20'). Pre fitting figure was 2.6° and the Whiteline kit is supposed to add at least half a degree of positive caster so it did the job.

These settings have don't really have an effect on my tyre wear in isollation. However, that's really because these settings suit my driving style on the roads I'm fortunate enough to do the majority of my mileage on combined with the fact that I rotate my tyres front -> rear every 2500 miles.
(Anorak, eh? I'll get my coat..... )
The increased static camber and effective increased dynamic camber from the additional positive castor of the ALK will have a marked effect on tyre wear if you do a lot of M-way or dual carriageway cruising. But, get the car moving arround and changing direction a lot on some nice back roads or tracks, you're getting more even contact with the road and so better, more even tyre wear (although not necessarily better tyre life as the extra friction does shave off the rubber a bit ).

I believe traditional wisdom is that front toe in gives better stability at cruise at the expense of some steering response and turn in ability. Obviously a sensible trade off for the average driver doing average miles in an average way. But, when you're looking to improve grip, response and turn in ability you need to re-evaluate the trade off balance.
Imprezas naturally toe in under power and (like most cars) toe out under braking. Given that you would drive a given road or track rather than brake your way around, the trade off is to improve steering and grip while driving but retain predictable handling under braking hence the neutral toe.

However, all that said, suspension geometry is quite a personal thing. Do a search and you'll see that lots of people run some quite interesting set ups.
Also, there's no such thing as a free lunch - grip and response can be improved but the costs increase and don't expect your tyres to last

The Prodrive set up works for me (along with an ALK and some other bits and pieces), car is almost neutral, grip and steering response vastly improved over what came out the showroom and no wear issues for me. factor increased massively!
Downside is that the steering is a little more nervous when cruising and has a tendancy to pick up irregularities in the road surface but it doesn't upset the balance of the car nor does it stop the car tracking properly.

Would reccomend it as a good place to start but experiment away - the sky's the limit!

Cheers,

Stewart.

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

Cheers for the comprehensive answer. I think I understand where you are coming from which is not bad seeings as I've been at a bar-b-q since 4 this afternoon (despite the pissing rain).

Th car is just toy so A-road and M-way is only a rare necssity and not the norm. I remember a guy who did the alignment on my old cavalier mentioned that the tyres would feather without toe-in.

I'm not worried too much about wear, but just un-even wear; I'd hate to throw part worn tyres. Like you I rotate my tyres but more often calender based than mileage based.

Reading in redline mag the Roger Clark car runs about -2.5° camber at the front and 3° at the rear, but thats a road legal race car so probably a bit exterme. I didn't quote any other figures.

I'll give it ago and if it doesn't suit tweek it until I'm happy