Alignment recommendations?

[yobless]

darin is a BOSS! only guy to align my old car. hopefully the e30 will be seeing him soon.

Super nice, down to earth, knowledgeable and humble guy. Skip an appointment or be late, you may never get him to see you. never saw that youtube clip

Very true about the skipping an appointment lol

This guy is awesome...a ton of my Evo friends rave about him and his work.

[E30_(1st Musk)_]

no problem.. this helped me a lot. I didnt even understand the true concept or purpose of coilovers until i saw this video.

[Fusion]

Wow that was great! Answered very many things I wanted to know, seems like a nice and professional guy.
Thanks for that vid!

[E30_(1st Musk)_]

darin is a BOSS! only guy to align my old car. hopefully the e30 will be seeing him soon.

Super nice, down to earth, knowledgeable and humble guy. Skip an appointment or be late, you may never get him to see you. never saw that youtube clip

yeah i just came up on it. someone i know got a full spec alignment and corner to corner weight for his e36. someone told me that when Darin was done that they could literally push his car and it would roll smooth as if there was no drag what so ever.. and i think he even said that his time around the same track improved by 4 sec.'s

[d_elson0]

darin is a BOSS! only guy to align my old car. hopefully the e30 will be seeing him soon.

Super nice, down to earth, knowledgeable and humble guy. Skip an appointment or be late, you may never get him to see you. never saw that youtube clip

[E30_(1st Musk)_]

here is a basic of what you want to know.

[Fusion]

Left rear was blown, feels great now, should've done it sooner.

[JJ1]

Different tires have different optimal pressures. Im assuming your running something with a tall sidewall which might need higher pressures. Try 30 PSI cold (sorry, Im used to PSI over here). Check your pressures after each session. Dont let them get above 40. Thats probably very conservative, you could probably go lower. Make sure your not getting tire wear past the wear marker on the side of the tire or else you let out too much pressure out. I would run -3.5 fr camber and at least -2.5 rear to start with. 0 front toe and 1/8 inch (sorry again) toe in rear. Max out front caster.

JJ

[Fusion]

Yea, I didn't have one with me :) What would be an appropriate tire pressure for street tires, fairly hot day? I think I have around 2.3b atm. Same pressure all around?
I don't necessarily want to decrease rear camber, but I think the new shocks slightly will...
I try to change settings only before track days, so this week it'll only be the rear shocks and pressure, then go from there.
And I will be working on my line. I'm watching others' videos with the turn that was most difficult.

I appreciate your input!

[JJ1]

1)Check your tire pressure with a gauge, not your finger.
2)Unless you want a slower but more "balanced" feeling car dont decrease rear camber, increase your front camber.
3)Dont change your tires, shocks, alignment, tire pressure, sway settings at the same time. Change one thing at a time and see how it effects your ride.
4)Your going to fast into the turn or not taking the proper line. Thats why your understeering.

[Fusion]

Already have the battery in the trunk.
I also have a fiberglass front hood and will be putting FG fenders on soon. Not because of the weight, but the metal ones are messed up and FG wasn't much more expensive.

[bmwguy325is]

Good thing with E30s is great rear shocks with lots of travel.
One other thing is corner balance the car. I know most guys see the huge battery in the trunk as weight. But it will help you to get the cross weights better. A good corner balance will keep the contact patches more even and also help keep the car more neutral so it wont under stear one way and so on.

[Fusion]

Thanks! Koni rears are on the way.
In other words, I want to slightly lose the rear camber, right? (which I think is caused by the weak shocks). I checked the alignment data sheet and the rears are also about 2.7° camber, which makes it the same at all wheels right now.

[jlevie]

Your Koni shocks are only adjustable for rebound damping, which is how fast the shock extends after being compressed. You need enough damping to prevent oscillation of the springs, but more damping isn't going to help and will probably make the car squirrelly on rough surfaces.

Stiffening the rear sway or adding thickness to the rear spring pads will help cure the understeer, as will more front camber. Replacing the worn out rear shock will also help.

[Fusion]

Had a great track day today. Unfortunately the damn phone somehow screwed up and I only have the first 28s were recorded. FML

I want to ask you guys about understeer. The car feels great now with the Konis and IE sway, poly cabs, new joints and the above alignment. BUT I guess I'm a bit faster than with the old setup and encountering understeer, especially in one left-hand, slightly downhill turn.
What I noticed is the street Conti tires are screaming through all turns, and through the entire length of the turns, which wasn't the case on the old setup. Even with the screaming, I was very confident, and there were only two moments when I wasn't 100% in control.
What I noticed was that I can slightly cure the understeer with a tap on the brakes.
So now I'm weighing options:
- start looking for rcomps, but there's a TD next week, so not an option right now
- I ran Konis in the softest setting, I can put them on the hardest
- I can set the camber to most negative
- I can harden the sway setting
- play around with tire pressure

I think I just need to find the setup that feels best, and move on to rcomps when I'm confident with this setup on streets. The rear shocks aren't in the best shape, I'll be changing those to the same Konis soon, maybe the soft rear is causing this? I pressed the sidewall of the 205/50s and it's pretty soft, they are pretty old with good tread, but I don't like that softness.

Any advice?