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Alignment gurus: Improve turn in?

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Old Aug 25, 2002 | 06:32 PM
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Default Alignment gurus: Improve turn in?

O.K. you suspension and alignment pro's... How can I sharpen turn in feel, and what other characteristics would be affected?

I think it's less toe, but can't remember...
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Old Aug 25, 2002 | 10:13 PM
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I'm no suspension guru but to improve turn in, you would increase toe out on the front wheels. The side effect of this change is a little more tire wear, less straight line stability and increased oversteer. Most race cars are setup with toe out and street cars usually come with toe in from the factory (for reasons of safety).
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Old Aug 26, 2002 | 03:21 AM
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Originally posted by kster
I'm no suspension guru but to improve turn in, you would increase toe out on the front wheels. The side effect of this change is a little more tire wear, less straight line stability and increased oversteer. Most race cars are setup with toe out and street cars usually come with toe in from the factory (for reasons of safety).
Right, a bit of toe-out really helps except when you are trying to go straight down the highway.. and then you get to correct every half second. I think zero toe in front is a good compromise for a street car.
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Old Aug 26, 2002 | 12:16 PM
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Yes, zero toe in the front should help you a lot.

What are your current specs?
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Old Aug 26, 2002 | 05:46 PM
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Front Caster: 6'45"
Front Camber: -1.2'
Front Toe: 0
Rear Camber: -2.1'
Rear Toe: 0'20"
Which is basically UK specs with slightly more aggressive front and rear camber.

The alignment tech, who is *very* experienced and does the majority of SCCA autoX and race cars in the area, including multiple S2000's, could not get the caster past 5.7 on the right side.
Of course this was before I put my coil-overs on... Shouldn't of affected toe, but who knows... The alignment seems to bump out fairly easily.
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Old Aug 26, 2002 | 06:22 PM
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ur lowering would have affected your static toe -
but yes 0 toe is a good track/road compromise. - umm max caster is great - but if u want to make the steering "lighter" u can try reducing caster (i wouldnt though)
would also be concerned if your L/R front caster was hugely off - mind u, u need to compensate a touch for natural road camber anyway
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Old Aug 26, 2002 | 07:45 PM
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Thanks... I'm probably due for another alignment now that I'm happy with coil-over adjustments...

Rear toe thoughts?
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Old Aug 27, 2002 | 05:00 AM
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I too think 0 toe is a good street and track compromise. I run 0 toe in my M3, as well as when I had my s2k. Be careful on the highway though, it's extremely easy to spill your beer and make a mess. j/k. Just be a bit more vigilant on the highway.

I'm not sure what folks have found to be the ideal toe for the rear, but on other chassis, people have used a rule of thumb of adding 0.1 degrees of toe-in to whatever your front end is set. However, you may need more than that to stabilize the rear and keep it where it should be, in the rear.
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Old Aug 27, 2002 | 05:36 AM
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by pfb
[B]
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Old Aug 28, 2002 | 08:15 AM
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PFB, for what it's worth, despite fiddling for over an hour, the tech (who was pretty good) couldn't get my left caster higher than 5.6 (and into Honda's specified range). As for tow, I'm now running zero toe on all four wheels. The car feels more stable at high speeds, but that might also be because I increased camber to 1.5 (front) and 2.2 (rear). On corners, it feels more neutral, with better balance and greater responsiveness to throttle steer, although those are initial impressions. I've yet to track the setup.
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