How much camber to achieve neutral handling with my setup?
 

Hello,

I am currently starting to try out my S2000 on tracks, but I am not happy with the car's balance. The car is understeering.

My alignment is based on a friend's experience who also has a 2005 S2000. He says that he almost never experiences any understeer, but he uses KW V3 and 225/255 Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires.
How much influence do the suspension and the tires have?


This is my current setup:
Honda S2000 AP1 (2005, European Model, 2.0l instead of 2.2l engine, but similar to 2005 AP2)
Ohlins 10k/8k, lowered approx. 25mm
Yokohama AD08R 215/245

Front:
Camber: -1.66°
Caster: 7°
Toe: 0

Rear:
Camber: -2.0°
Toe: 0.33° (20 Minutes)


My plan forward is to increase the font camber, but I don't know how much.
I don't want to increase the rear camber much further because I also use the car a lot of time on the streets.

Any recommendations? Would -2.0° be enough?
Thank you very much.

Regards from Germany,
JagoBlitz

What wheels are you using? Going up to 225 in the front would probably help a lot if possible.
You should probably try and max out the camber in the front, don't think you will get much more than -2.0° with stock parts.

With the skinny 215 tires you have up front, you honestly will get the best improvement on the track running -3 to 3.5- however that wont be possible with factory adjustment at only 25mm drop so just dial in the max you can which should end up being around -2 to -2.25. Being a street car still, that's probably going to be the best compromise anyway.

Yokohama AD08R 215/245

OK, I will try to max out the front camber and see how much it helps.


What do you think has more influence on the balance?

Ohlins vs KW
or
215/245 vs 225/255

Yeah I know your tires, was wondering about what wheels/rims you are using :)
Still on stock 17x7"? Is your friend using the same?

You aren't really effecting the balance in either case, moving to a wider stagger will improve grip overall, but its not going to effect a handling/grip balance change since you have moved the width up equally front and rear. Changing the dampers themselves will have less to do with balance then setting either option up with a favorable spring rate to the tire grip ability and damping setting. The KW's are more versatile having a separate compression and rebound adjustment though.

You can lower the front a bit more then the rear to weight the front and get it to turn in better allowing for more possible over steer. This will also allow you to dial in more camber up front. This is called a staggered ride height, and it will effect the balance of the car.

Yes, the same 17" OEM Wheels

Ohlins is 10k front / 8k rear and KW V3 is 9k/9k if I am not mistaken.
No or little influence?

Turn in and corner entry are no problem.
Mid corner & exit is where I get understeering.

Maybe I should check the corner weights during my next alignment - just to be sure

Moving to a heavier front spring rate will make your issue worse. Your better off sticking with your KW spring rate. On throttle/maint throttle is going to lighten the front of the car and tend to want to make it push, adding more tire width up front will re calibrate this to be more balanced in that scenario, but then cause you to tend to over steer on entry and exit, so its always a balancing act, with driver inputs being the other half of the equation on what gets induced and when as far as swapping ends of grip. To get more neutral grip through on throttle applications such as running more of a "square" tire width setup, it then becomes rather essential to run a big rear wing to counter the new tendency to want to over steer everywhere else. You could try running a 225/45 and leave your 245's out back, or even move to a 235, however going with this width I would look for a 235/40 rather then the 235/45.

^^ he has Ohlins 100nm on 80nm rears
Guess you have more than 2mm of preload on rear ?