Looking at my MY02 from the rear clearly shows the camber on the rear wheels. As I understand it, the reason they are setup this way is that when cornering, tyre "roll" will bring more of the outer tyre surface into contact with the road, thus increasing grip. [Presumably when running in a straight line, the car is running on the inside of the rears, ie. with a smaller contact patch, and I guess this also decreases rolling resistance]

Much has been written on this board about the poor winter performance of S02s, but it occurred to me that perhaps some adjustment to the camber settings might improve things.

In wet/cold road conditions, when grip and cornering forces are reduced, presumably there will be less tyre roll and therefore the benefit of any camber will be lost. Equally, the fact that the smaller inside contact patch is in touch with a cold/wet road surface means that the tyre, rather than roll on to its full tread, will simply lose adhesion altogether.

Before you all comment on my ignorance, let me say that a) I sort of understand the principles of double wishbone suspension (in that it is meant to maintain the tyre at a consistent angle to the road) and b) that the use of lower profile tyres will reduce tyre roll anyway and finally c) that poor grip in wet conditions is largely explained by the use of wide rears on what is a light RWD car.

That said, does anyone think that adjusting the camber, ie. bringing the tyre to a more vertical attitude. would improve grip?

Shiskine

 

I'd just get Eagle F1's - its fine in the wet as long as you are progressive. It was fine round the Maple Cross roundabout on a damp evening in July, wasn't it?

 

Take some white shoe polish - stuff used on tennis shoes, cricket boots etc. Paint a stripe across the tread on all 4 tyres. Go for a short drive. Look at where it's worn off. It's an old trick for figuring out how much camber without taking temperatures across the tyre. I think you'll be surprised at how much of the tyres are actually working.

The main problems with the standard S02's are well known:
- The compound does not give good grip when cold. So cold, or wet which cools the tyres, don't give good grip.
- The rears have smaller rain channels at all tread depths compared to the fronts, and the disparity gets worse as the tyres wear. Hence, while you get most feedback from the front tyres, they have greater water clearing capacity than the rears, so the rears may hit problems before you've much in the way of warning.
- Tyre pressures are important for the S02s to work well. 32psi is fine normally. I've guess, but not tested, that part of the winter issue may be the S02's aren't reaching a high enough hot pressure, due to running cooler. If this hypotheis is correct, then slightly increasing the cold pressures may compensate. If this is correct, it would help equalise the mechanical grip from the tyre in the winter.

While you may get some small benefit from different camber settings for the winter, I think the benefits would be very marginal. The tyre pressure theory
may help - but it's just a theory. If you want to make the S a bit more fail-safe, running more rear toe-in during the winter would increase the self stablisation, at the cost of increased tyre wear. TBH, if you're really worried about doing a lot of miles during the winter, either run more suitable tyres, or accept the limitations of the S02 and drive with that in mind - still very possible. I don't think the costs of changing alignment with the seasons would be worthwhile. Interesting thought though

-Brian.

 

I've used both the S02s and F1s over a winter and honestly I prefer the Bridgestones, but that could be just our roads. We do run at high speeds over here, but without the very wet roads or M-ways to contend with. IMO, it's the LSD catches a lot of people out when the grip's running out - it's just so damn hard to reach that point on a road in the dry

I always run at 34, having played around with different pressures and found that to give up the best level of grip all year round. The camber at the rear will also be to correct for any tendency for bump steer, so I don't know if adjusting the camber slightly is going to be worth the effort, unless you have the facility to adjust, test, adjust, test, etc in a consistent manner to judge one setting from another.