Could someone give me a good starting point for an alignment? I've used the search function and just became confussed with the massive amount of info.My car is stock with 225/f 245r es100's...thanks

 

Well, for starters it would be a good idea for you to decide how much autox you are really going to do and then find a happy medium if you are going to be driving it on the street as well.

If you are mainly doing autox I would suggest adding a lot of negative camber (1.5F/2.2R)...this would stabilize the car quite a bit. However, this camber setup will eat your tires for lunch.

Take this as an example. I had a brand new set of S02's for street use. I have put in about 10,000 miles in about 2 years...My tires are pretty much toast. I drive the car pretty aggressively though. A lot of these miles. However, about 1/3 of these miles are probably done in Kumhos driving back and forth from events...so, really I am only getting about 7,000 miles of lifetime. Today I will swam tires from left to right to wear out the other side of the tires. I have about 50% tread left on the outside of all 4 tires but pretty much bald on the inside of all 4...

Hope that helps...give us a better idea of the usage and you will get some more specific feedback.

Enjoy the car.

 

Thank you for the response!about 2 auto -x a month,and i drive the car a few miles to work and back.

 

If you don't mind having to replace street tires every year then you should probably go with a -1.0 to - 1.2 up front and about a -1.8 through a -2.0 on the rear. You can go more aggressively but I am assuming you are not going to be getting a sway bar and autox tires quite yet, right? If so, then you might even want to go a bit more aggressively. You can also adjust the camber and the caster....but that gets a little more complicated....

Are you going to replace or have you already the sway bar and the tires?

 

I have plans for a sway bar and auto-x only tires once i have done a few events.My car is due for an alignment so i thougt i could start with that.What would you recommend for the camber and caster if i were to use the minimum settings you mention above?I don't mind changing my tires more often.

 

Well, then I would hold off and do it altogether...once you take the swaybar out and install a new one, you will need to get a new alignment. Make sure you add weight (yours) to the driver's seat once you get the aligment done.

I personally would recommend Toe Out up front...about 0.25" and then either neutral on the back or maybe even just a tad Toe In...I can't remember exactly what mine was but you can really find lots if you do another search now that you have a better idea.

 

Another idea would be to get maximum Caster and then take whatever Camber the car will give you.

If you run 6.5 degrees of Caster it will add about 1.5 degrees of Camber when you turn the wheel hard.

This gives you an alignment that is good on tire wear while not sacrificing much on the casual autocross

It also has the benefit of making the car straighten up more easily if the tail gets loose.