Suggest some settings please?

[Wh33lhop]

Why factory caster? Additional caster adds steering feedback/stability, and adds low speed camber under steering lock. I'm not really familiar with the downside of caster and I can't really see any when you're talking performance driving.

Also, you mention you have camber plates. Zero toe is good on the street, and so is -2 degrees of camber. If you want some extra bite and turn-in on the track, crank the camber plates to however much you can without getting any cross camber, and with BMW's nice forward-rack design that will add toe-out which helps turn in (but gives you a less responsive steering feel)

[Bishop]

I was told factory caster would be a good starting point. I appreciate all the input guys, but it's all sailing right over my head really. I'm just looking for a starting point, something to tell the shop when I drop off my car for the alignment.

[!kid]

You need to think about front and rear settings individually.

If you are going to run -2deg camber in front and neutral in the rear then you're going to end up with a tail happy car. OEM settings are biased towards understeer. That is why you see neg camber in the rear but fairly neutral in front.

It sounds like you are talking about neg camber in front and neutral in the rear, and that's a mistake. A normal set up has rear camber a bit less then front camber. This is because our cars are front heavy and also because too much neg rear camber will create wheel slip when accelerating out of a turn.


Maybe you haven't paid attention to rear camber. My guess is that when you put in your front coilovers you put in some kind of spring in the rear that lowered your car. When the rear was lowered you created neg camber. There are a couple products that will adjust rear camber.

The important thing to think about is front to rear camber "balance". Worry about rear camber as mush as you worry about front.

[Bishop]

I already mentioned that I'm not going to run neutral in the rear....

[Bishop]

Discuss?

[jlevie]

Looks fairly good to me for a street car.

[Bishop]

Thanks Jim. How's the rebuild coming?

[Hellabad]

Actually that alignment needs more work. I will write nicely, so you can print this and bring it back to the shop.

Caster

Right now you have 8.91 left caster, 8.32 right.

If you have adjustable caster, which you imply, it should not be like that. It should never be higher on the left on a street car. The target should be max caster on the right, and roughly 0.3 degrees less on the left to allow for the crown of the road.

I can guarantee that your car drifts to the right pretty good when you let go of the wheel.

Toe:

That is not enough front toe, even for an aggressive street car with an aggressive owner (but its not bad) I would prefer to see 0.2 unless you have all brand spanking new control arms and bushings, in which case 0.15 would be OK. But 0.02 will always be moving to toe out while driving. Cool for a race, not for a street car.

Camber:
The front and rear numbers look good, I wouldn't mind 0.25 more neg in the front. But I DO hope those numbers are with weight in the drivers seat.

Rear camber and rear toe:

They are both not adjustable.
The numbers you have now look pretty good, so don't worry about buying adjuster kits or anything.

The thrust angle calculation seems off a bit (in the computer printout), but not worth spending any money to fix.

Jay from Ground Control

this may be useful to you:

http://www.ground-control.com/toe-out.htm

[Bishop]

Going to PM you in a few Jay.

EDIT: Is this fine though for a DD / entry level autox / track school / lapping days car?

[Hellabad]

You are going to leave the Drivers side alone, this picture is of the passenger side.

Both sides need 3 allen bolts holding the slider, so put one back in on each side. Then slide the whole assembly back after loosening the three nuts that hold it in the car. You will need to jack up the car to take the pressure off of the camber plate.

This will only change the CASTER on the passenger to make it higher than the drivers side.

Dont touch the allen bolts in the middle, they are for CAMBER, and you don't want to change that.

[Bishop]

Thanks Jay. Emailed you back, but prolly won't hear back from you till Monday. I'll probably just call then.