Over the past couple of years I pretty much have had my hands on just about every S2000 in Jacksonville.

If there is anything that I have learned its that everyone wants something different. They want an alignment to meet their driving style. Even if they don't know what that is.

Whenever I align a car my goal is to always try something different

I've had these discussions with Jeremy on the frequent but I am pretty sure that he is getting tired of hearing it. So I have decided to share it here so...

Let me brake it down for you we have 3 basic parts of an Alignment; Camber Caster, and Toe

Camber is the angle of the wheel, measured in degrees, when viewed from the front of the vehicle. If the top of the wheel is leaning out from the center of the car, then the camber is positive ,if it's leaning in, then the camber is negative. If the camber is out of adjustment, it will cause tire wear on one side of the tire's tread. If the camber is too far negative, for instance, then the tire will wear on the inside of the tread.

Caster is the relation of the tire to the top of the strut mount. Positive caster is when the tire is closer to the front of the vehicle. This helps with steering wheel return after a turn. Negative caster is when the tire is more towards the rear of the car, this makes steering easier but you loose high speed stability. (95% of Vehicles only have front caster)

Toe measurement is the difference in the distance between the front of the tires and the back of the tires. It is measured in fractions of an inch in the US and is usually set close to zero which means that the wheels are parallel with each other. Toe-in means that the fronts of the tires are closer to each other than the rears. Toe-out is just the opposite. An incorrect toe-in will cause rapid tire wear to both tires equally

(More later I am almost tired of typing)

Now the most magical part of an alignment in my eyes is Caster....

I love caster my car has 10.5 Degrees of caster. (Sorry S2ks its a 240 thing)

What is so magical about caster is not only the high speed stability that you get when changing lanes at anywhere above 65 MPHS, but when you turn your wheel at any speed it rebounds your Camber in relation to the turn.

For Example

My Car has 2.0 Degrees of Negative camber in the front and 10.5 Degrees of Caster. When I even begin to start turning left my camber is directly affected.

At full lock to the left my front camber looks like so.

+1.0 (Left) -4.5 (Right)

No go through it mentally when you throw your car hard into a left hand turn the body rolls which direction; To the right. So with all the camber on the Right hand side and even postive camber on the left hand side my front tires are perfectly planted on the pavement and I get ideal traction.

Now say I only going into a sweeper turn and its not so sharp that I need to go full lock. At one full turn of the wheel to the left caster doesnt effect your camber so strongly. My car looks as follows

-0.5 (Left) -3.0 (Right)

So with the slight left hand turn the body fo the car doesn't roll as much so not as much camber is needed to plant the tires.

Stock Caster for an S2K I belive is roughly 5.7
UK Specification for an S2K is 6.0
Some people like Jeremy....have 8.0 (Thats pretty much maximum)

 

Whachou talkin' bout Willis?

 

good info, my setup feels pretty good so far, but it's hard to tell b/c of the bump steer on the rear. I'm waiting to do the TC Design rear anti-bumpsteer kit (BSK) until I sell these damn wheels, but hopefully I should be back up there soon.

 

My setup feels pretty good in the rear so far, but I won't really know till I push it, and I don't like to do that too often on the street. Thanks man!

 

ryan has done mine a couple times and it gets better every time. ill be in to see you to get another one done since im running bigger tires now... as soo as i can get into my S ...

ryan does my 1 year warrenty for goodyear transfer over to honda lol

 

I got you covered like a jimmy hat dog.

 

ahahahah swwwwweeeeeeeeet

 

mee tooo mee tooo

 

That one year warranty is long since busted....but I'll take your car one last time courtesy

 

I will be updating the very first post with more and more info as times goes on...
It would mean alot to me if even one person understands their car a little bit better. The more you know the more I can help.