Went down to visit Chris Franklin today to get my car sorted ready for Rockingham. I was there for 5 1/2 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. Not only has my geo been evened up, and set to suit my driving style, but I've learned a lot too. And finally my castor bolts have been freed.

The main changes were increased toe in at the back, and a decreased castor at the front. Everything else was evened up and sorted. I'll post my report when I get it.

Early feelings from the mostly motorway driving back: the car feels more solid. It's not so twitchy over bumps. The steering is strangely lighter yet more solid. I know that sounds contradictory, but I don't know how else to describe it. Turn in does feel more crisp, and overall the car feels a bit nimbler.

I'll give a more detailed write up after the weekend, when I've tested the new setup at Rockingham.

So this is yet another recommendation from Chris.

 

That will be the castor change. I had my castor reduced and found it made the car much more "pointy". It also makes the car less prone to correct itself, requiring more driver input coming out of corners.

I can't remember what had on my rear, but I am fairly sure it was Honda recommended. What was the logic behind the increased toe in?

Nick

 

I've never been entirely convinced by Chris' favourite of reducing the caster to minimum. It feels like you can effortlessly point the wheel wherever you want, which is good on track, but I find I sometimes miss the weightier self-centering steering feel of old. Next time (I'm sure there will be one), I might get him to add some caster back.

 

I like a nice weighty steering feel, also the self centering effect certainly comes in handy when you overstep the limit!

I guess if your increasing the camber through alignment then you will want to drop castor a bit otherwise you'd end up with too much camber on the front wheels in the corners.

 

Chris actually set me up lots of castor, which means lots of self centring and so on. This was because I asked for a "safe" setup (unlike Nick Graves' "dangerous" one!)

Next time I'll get a bit less castor for a bit more feel.

Chris listens to what you say about what you want from the car and sets up accordingly, which is why he gets such good recommendations IMO.

 

I think Dembo's point (which is also my experience) is that less castor equals less feel.

 

Yep. The steering feels kind of vague.

But more importantly, caster or castor? I think it's caster, and dictionary.com and wikipedia agrees (though that's probably American).

 

The reason for the increased toe in at the back because apparently mine, although matched, were WAY out of tolerance, with virtually none. Apparently it was almost drift spec But apparently the increased toe in (25 minutes) will give me a touch more grip at the back. Supposedly my old settings made the car dangerous in the wet.

I prefer the front. I think I know what you might mean about less feel, but to me it feels more responsive and pointy. And this is exactly what I wanted. It did require a touch more effort on the motorway, but funnily enough, the rest of the geo set up has made it less twitchy, so overall the effort is about the same.

All I can say is roll on Sunday.

 

I think it all depends how you define 'feel'

Less castor means the steering will feel lighter and will have less self centring, requiring the driver to steer the car more when straightening. More castor makes it harder to turn the wheel from straight, which might be described as more feel I suppose?

Boxsters are generally described as having great steering but my in my test drive it felt way too light (not helped by the routemaster size steering wheel) for my taste...

Oh, and on the spelling issue, it's either/or...

 

A good place to start to understand Wheel Alignement:

http://www.familycar.com/Alignment.htm

I have to get mine done again soon, and I am sh1t-scared of the state ot my bushes!