Perhaps your roads are a lot worse off than ours down here. Also, I don't drive like I used to on the streets(because it was dumb), so perhaps my frame of mind was not in tune with yours. Even so, if you're at speeds where realized bumpsteer is detrimental to your safety/car control while on the streets, the speed alone is a factor.

And btw, assuming tracks are smooth is an indication that you are unaware of just how bumpy portions of tracks are or can be. They may not have potholes, but they sure as heck aren't flawless to be sure.

 

Yeah baltimore streets are a little rough sometimes, when I brake under some bumpy roads theres bumpsteer so would a euro spec alignment help this and for a lowered car of 1''?

 

I think the car handles MUCH better with the euro sepc alignment



I have the euro spec alignment sheet. Send me a pm with an email addy an i'll send you the PDF

 

pm'd

 

thanks I found them from searching more thoroughly but what I noticed they are not for my04's is that ok though that I go with these specs on the 04?

 

The rear toe seems too agressive...err...for an S2000. Wasn't the stock toe spec like 6mm IN originally back in 00-01? I know it changed a little in later years...but you've got 0 toe in for the rear.

Did the spec ever change to 0?

That's going to cause over steer if the spec calls for toe IN....

Toe IN in the back keeps the car from oversteering.

Hopefully someone can elaborate on factory toe specs for the AP2. It should say in your manual.

Some general alignment specs I'd recommend for your setup/purposes:

Front:
-1.5 to -2 camber
maximum available caster (usually around 6degrees)
factory toe

Rear:
-2 to -2.25 rear camber
factory toe


You dont need a lot of camber since the car has double wishbones. Plus, you said you're not planning on driving it on a track.

 

It seems you have two related questions:
1) What settings should I use?
2) Is there anything I can do with alignment to help with the bumpsteer.

Second question first. There isn't much you can do. I would increase the rear toe to 1/4in though so that you don't get into a situation where you would have positive toe on a big bump. I'm not sure this is possible with 1/8in, but if you are sensitive to the bump steer then you may want to try this.

Leading to the first question. With the stock tire sizes I would run

Front:
Camber: -1.2
Caster: 6.5 (maxing the caster at 7+ will make the steering feel very heavy, I personally max the caster but you may not like the feel.)
Toe: 0

Rear:
Camber: -1.5
Toe: 1/4in

Regarding another line of debate:
I'm pretty sure it's possible to run -2.5 of camber in the front but your caster will be fairly limited.

 

I am another AP2 owner. I am an aggressive street driver who doesn't track my car.

My last car was a lowered RX-7, with which I played alot with the camber. After first lowering the car, it handled like crap, esp the rear wiggling around, and I found out it was due to too much neg camber in the rear. It was riding around on the inside edges too much, and took too much motion to get the outside edge to the pavement. After flattening out the camber, the handling really started to come on.

On my AP2, I have also experimeted to find that sweet spot that suites my driving style, though it is not lowered. I find that my driving style prefers flatter cornering offered by lower neg camber in the rear (lower in absolute value for you math fans). With too much rear neg. camber, the car has a ways, sometimes too far, to go before the outer edge of the tire really comes in contact with the road; this outside edge road contact is absolutely necessary before it really starts to bite and corner. This extra camber means that on lower speed turns it won't ever get to where the outside edge bites and that results in a wiggle that I don't like especially on the street; that wiggle happens especially when giving high throttle on (exit of) such lower speed corners as found on the street. (On the track, the turns can be much higher speed and more gently sweeping so what you want there is more neg camber.)

My opinion is that, compared to the numbers your talking about, you want to increase your castor and reduce your camber front & rear.

I have shared especially the reduced rear neg camber specs with other street-only drivers, who have also found the car to handle better for the street and their style.

My numbers are as follows:

Front:
Castor: 7.5 -- crank this up as high as you can go!
Camber: -0.7 -- I think a bit higher would be ok too (e.g. -0.9).
Toe: 0.0

Rear:
Camber -1.2 -- toward the low end of the spec for less rear wiggle
Toe: -0.07 -- about half of the low end of the spec as I recall

Also note that I'm using a few stiffener bars: S2X 4pt. STB, Rick's X-brace, and, both front and rear beatrush performance bars (which means the alignment has to compensate somewhat less for chassis flex).

 

Maybe I have the only car of its kind.

Ottokrat, are you telling me you were able to get 7.5* of caster? I think the alignment machine is out of whack. You are not getting that without a camber kit on this car. Also, I wouldn't be suggesting toe-out in the rear. OEM calls for toe-in in the rear.

And as far as carrera's comment, for stock height or slightly lowered, I have not seen -2.5* of camber. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that it's not common.

 

Question for everyone here who plays around with your alignments? Do you buy the lifetime alignment at a shop and keep bring it back over and over with custom specs?