Alignment settings

[Jean]

I am taking my car in this coming up friday to get the alignment done and wanted to get an idea what you guys are running.

I am going to start with about -2 degrees of camber upfront. Should I ask for 0 toe and as much caster as possible ?

Car has offset e36m3 control arm bushings and ground control camber plates with bilstein sport inserts and gc coilver kit / springs. Tires for now will be Azenis rt615s.

[PiercedE30]

I would say, if you do any tracking or Autox'ing, then ask for (MOST) 1/16th inch toe-in, then when you go on the track you can push the camber to the max and your toe-in will be around zero then. That is if you adjust your settings for tracking. Otherwise you should be good.
I ran -2.9* (according to the alignment machine) on the street with 0.05in toe-in on the street and didn't have any kind of bad tire wear.
Jon

[Jean]

Car is not a daily driver, and basically is for autox use. What about caster ?

[nando]

max out your camber up front, since it's not a daily driver. -2 is a somewhat agressive street setup, but it's nothing for autox.

[Jean]

max out your camber up front, since it's not a daily driver. -2 is a somewhat agressive street setup, but it's nothing for autox.

Camber plates allow for more but I might need to grind or cut the openings on the shock towers to get more than -3. I will do that once I get an e36 rack in there but for now just wanted to get an idea on what a good starting point would be.

What's the stock caster angle on e30 ? If I understand it correctly, more caster helps with self centering and straight line stability, but too much will make steering heavy or less responsive ?

Is there a rule of thumb on how much caster to use depending on how low the car is, or how much camber it's got or tire sizes ?

[dinanm3atl]

Let me get the specs off my buddies e30.

The local alignment expert just set up his e30 and I think Ken loved the end result.

[Jean]

Thank you!

[Keith M]

FWIW
-3.2 f camber
-2 r camber
0º toe
8º caster

Mines set up for 90% track use.

K

[PiercedE30]

for autox'ing you want the lest caster you can get so that you will have a better turn in.

[Jean]

Ok taking the car in tomorrow morning.

How much caster is too much (is 8 degrees) a little or a lot on e30 ?

[SimonH]

FWIW
-3.2 f camber
-2 r camber
0º toe
8º caster

Mines set up for 90% track use.

K

I'll add
0 toe in the rear, but you might try 1/16 toe out in the front for better turn in.

[nando]

actually, it's toe out for better turn in. ;)

[Jean]

Got the alignment done today, and installed rt615s...car feels like new...now I need more power. I wish shop would give me a print out but they didn't :( I did ask for -2 to -2.5 degrees of negative and adjust toe for better turn in. I might take it to another shop just to get a print out.

[blueapplesoda]

My shops guys are pita...theyll charge me 40$ just for puttin my car on the machine to read the specs. But theyre fast and they do things just as i ask when i ask, so i guess thats all that matters.

[NOMAD]

umm, no, you want to max the camber, set the toe, then max the castor as much as it'll go without affecting the other two settings.

Less Castor will not help with turn in. It may feel easier to turn the wheel but the more castor you have, the more the wheels will automatically "gain camber" when they are turned. This will maintain your contact patch in tight turns.

Adding castor is essentially moving the top of the strut back towards the driver. When you do this and then turn the wheel hard right, for example, the top of the wheel will lay further to the right than the bottom of the wheel, giving you more camber. If the strut was absolutely vertical there would be no change to the camber as the wheel rotates.

To help with initial turn in, you want 0 toe, or slight toe out. this gets the car moving much faster and makes it "twitchy" for street use. Typically, for autocross you can run toe out for best results, but the higher the speed you need a more neutral setup, so closer to 0 toe.

You really just need as much camber as you can get, but be sure to balance front to back settings, if you can't get much in the front, then don;t max out the back. A neutral setup where the front gives way close to the limit of the back is more ideal than fighting over or understeer all day.

You didn't mention sways, what are you running if not stock?