I just purchased a set of Clubsport Kit Coil-Over for 2009 running on AP2V3 stock wheels with 225/255 tires. The car will be lowered no more than a inch front and back(recommended factory setting) .

When I take my car for an alignment should I stick to factory setting or change settings.
I daily drive my car and drive aggressive and take it on nice weekend rides.
Just want a proper setup for the car and lasting tire life. Please tell me what setup would be best for me.

Front -
Caster: ?
Camber: ?
Toe:?


Rear
Camber: ?
Toe: ?

 

Front -
Caster: 5.5-6.5 (AutoXers like to max this out, personally I like to run as little as possible for lighter steering with better feel)
Camber: -1 to -2.5 (less = slightly less "camber wear", more = greater ultimate lateral grip)
Toe: zero (could run a smidge of toe-in for reduced tendency to wander, or smidge of toe-out for better turn-in, I've always just run zero for street and track)


Rear
Camber: -1.5 to -2.5 (less = slightly less "camber wear", more = greater ultimate lateral grip)
Toe: 0.15 - 0.25 degrees total (less = longer rear tire wear, more supposedly => greater stability but I've been happy in my AP1's stability with as little as .15 degrees total)

You can tailor handling balance with front/rear camber. More front/less rear camber => more oversteer, More rear/less front camber => less oversteer

 

Cool thanks, anyone else? Would like to get more feed back on your setup and alignment if possible.

 

More negative camber, less tire life. Can't have cake and eat it too, unfortunately. I just run -2.3 all the way around and switch the tires left to right when it appears it's time. Zero toe all the way around will extend life, though some rear toe-in is recommended on high speed tracks. I think with an AP2 & stock stagger like you have, you could get away with zero toe in the rear. Try 1.5 front -camber & 2.0 rear. Zero toe, & as mentioned 5.5-6.0 caster. Toe will wear your tires the fastest.

 

It's a *minor* impact, really, even at 2 degrees. I'm at nearly 20k on my RS-3 rear tires, running 2.0-2.2 camber. There is some "camber wear" of course, the grooves between the innermost tread blocks are nearly gone, but the 4 main circumferential grooves are still all about the same depth, ~3/32.

The cost of running 2 degrees of camber is minimal, maybe 5-10% off of tire life. The benefits to me FAR outweigh the cost, even for 100% street usage.


Toe is indeed the tire killer. I would only get ~6-8k miles on similar tires when I was running max rear toe of 0.65 degrees total. And handling sucked (twitchy in a straight line over bumps/undulations, but less responsive at corner turn-in).

 

Cool, thanks guys. Anyone else ?