I took a look at my front tires yesterday and noticed that the inside tread pattern is damned near gone. I have done three HPDEs and my stook is my daily driver.
What do you think this inside wear means?
1. Is this normal because of the car's delivered alignment?
2. The car tracks straight ahead. No pull in either direction.
3. Was this caused by the track?
4. Should I consider more toe-in?

So, alignment or normal wear for our cars?

Thanks,
CB

 

All,
By the way...
I've been considering the alignment parameters suggested by GrassRoots MotorSports magazine. Their goal was to improve on the already excellent S2000 delivered from the factory for a daily driver and weekend tracker. Their focus was on an autocross setup.
I'd like to strap on Toyo RA-1's - non shaved and do the GRM alignment.
Word?
Our stooks have an overstear tendancy. I'm concerned that a toe-in would increase the overstear.
Do you know of a best-alignment for the MY04? The car is a weekend track racer.
Thanks,
CB

 

Try the Euorpean alignment. Ive got 6000 miles on my tires - fronts wearing even, backs slight wear on the inside.

Front 0 toe, 6 1/2 caster and I think 1 1/2 camber someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Rear 1/4 inch toe in (total) 2 camber.

Have you ever had your car aligned? Sometimes it comes from the factory pretty far out.

 

Car not aligned. Had heard about the factory alignment being off. RFever did the European alignment on his 02 and really liked it.
I'll get the alignment checked.
Thanks for the Euro numbers. I think that I'll try the 0-toe. Can you or anyone confirm the settings? We have an excellent S mechanic here in the Phoenix area. I'll hand him the numbers and a six pack of Hienekin and see how it works.

CB

 

Do a search, they are posted somewhere in the forum, that's how I got the numbers.

 

I got mine aligned with the UK specs about 2 years ago. My first set of rear S-O2's lasted about 11,000 miles. My second still had a few thousand miles when I took them off the car a few weeks ago at 22,000 miles. The fronts are what puzzled me. They lasted the full 22,000 miles but the insides were toast while the outsides looked like they could go another 15,000 miles. I think this was due to me having the car lowered and going with 6 1/2 deg of caster. I think that, especially if your car is lowered, you do not want that much. I would probably go with less, maybe around 5 deg.

 

My front tires are pretty much gone on the inside also, @11K miles. The rears look alright. (I've got an '04 also)

Let me know what tires you decide to get (if other than the stock) and what alighnment option you have decided to go with.

 

The stock wheel alignment has a little negative camber, i.e. the wheels look like this /\ when looking from the front or rear of the car. If you do a lot of daily driving, not taking corners hard and a lot of straight line driving, there will naturally be more inside tire wear.

Tires will deform under hard cornering, putting more wear on the outside of the tire. The negative camber counter acts that, providing a better contact patch and more grip. The trade off is less straight line traction and inside tire wear when not cornering. For autocross and lapping cornering grip is more important so typically have more negative camber. Of course trading off for more uneven wear for daily driving.

Also, the car has mild steady state understeer. The car just has a sudden throttle on/off oversteer. You have to be careful with the right foot under max. cornering. It's a subtle difference, but very important. Most people over simplify and just say it's an oversteer car, when it really isn't. It's a driver's car that is sensitive to driver inputs. It's one of the best things about it.

 

Thanks all.
Fonqu, well put.

CB