That makes sense; it didn't seem right that the small amout of additional caster could have had a noticable effect on steering feel.

Thanks for all the help with alignments, dude!

 

....you got it beotch.

I might need to dial in a little of that toe-in and camber for myself .... I kinda liked the way your car pushed

 

I'm wondering if I went too far taking all the front toe-in out; I guess I'll let you know next time I get to the track!

 

I'm new to fussing with alignments -- so your comments would be most welcome. Here's the before and after:

BEFORE
FRONT LEFT RIGHT
Toe 0.06 -0.25
Caster 5.50 5.70
Camber -0.50 -0.40

REAR LEFT RIGHT
Toe 0.20 0.38
Camber -1.50 -1.40

AFTER
FRONT LEFT RIGHT
Toe -0.02 -0.01
Caster 5.60 6.10
Camber -1.50 -1.50

REAR LEFT RIGHT
Toe 0.01 0.00
Camber -2.00 -2.20

Sunny days and track driving only. 225/40/18s on 8" wheels (front). 255/35/18s on 9" wheels (rear).

 

I took my car to Honda Dealer for alignment today.
The dealer uses a Hunter P611 machine with PC interface running window based program.
The machine has database for Honda S2000 but I asked for custom settings since I want to use the Honda UK recommended settings.

I can say that the reduced toes in the rear improved turn-in significantly.
I know that more toes in the rear means reduced oversteer/increased understeer at steady state limit (going around in full circle).
However, the improved turn-in (less rear toes) makes the dynamic handling during cornering much more predictable to me.


Honda UK settings are published in degree/minutes and the Hunter machine take inputs in decimal degree so we have to do some translation. Here is the translated nominal:

Front Caster 6

 

Thanks asin for the translation.

I have had an ankle problem so I haven't made it to the track this year (hopefully the ortho doctor will resolve this soon). Anyways, I'm still very interested in hearing from anyone who has an time driving with the UK specs. BTW, asin was your car to US specs when they set up for the change? And if so, please don't wait for months to provide us some feedback. Thanks in advance.

 

I just got my 15K service done today, and I decided to get a 4 wheel alignment done also. I asked them to print out the alignment, here is what I got:




I use my S as a weekend fun car, and get together with other S owners for some spirited driving about once per month.

I don't know much about these readings, so any comments are welcome

 

What's the point of positive rear toe? From what's been posted, it would seem that under heavy throttle, the car squats. Thus, having positive rear toe insures that the rear tires are aligned under load and contact patch is maximized. But maybe I'm missing something. If you've gone to wider rubber (as I have), does the argument still hold? Some discussion of the theory behind alignment from you gurus would probably be helpful for the rest of us. Thanks.

 

Here's my post-track follow-up: the new alignment feels good. More neutral than the predominantly understeer tendency I had before. I was within tenths of my previous best lap time, but I was trying to take it easy, and my brakes were a bit hinky (wound up finishing off a the left front pads).

So far the new alignment is an improvement.

 

I don't have a factory manual. Can one of you help out the Newbies and post the stock factory settings as well as whatever + or - tolerances the factory allows to be considered "stock"

This thread is great. I'm cutting and pasting as fast as I can.