You can't simply skip any technical article from Mike Kojima. You can't. The joy on his face when he speaks about serious stuff and the comprehensiveness and detail of his performance is simply mind blowing!
So I work in auto repair, I love doing alignments, and I haven't seen many auto oriented youtubers really talk about alignments in a knowledgeable way so when I saw this recommended I thought "finally!" because every time I watch a video with Mike I always learn and enjoy the knowledge he shares. Loved the video. This reminded me of tuning cars in Forza Motorsport haha, I set a lot of faster than average laps through alignment adjustments alone! I wanted to reiterate on normal car alignments: the majority of alignments are performed because of poor tire wear, most of the time it's because a car will end up with too much toe-out from bushing fatigue, road imperfections and impact, fasteners shifting(aftermarket camber bolts are junk like he mentioned), or just a terrible alignment from the factory. On daily drivers and commuters you should stay away from any toe out if you really want the tires to last. Toe out on cars that aren't heavily loaded in corners will consistently eat up the inner tread very fast, on top of that it will wear choppy/feathered with negative camber(basically triangular strips with 2 corners on the inner tread block and the third corner pointing towards the outer tread block), this will eat your all season UTQG 700 treadwear tire down in 20k miles easily. On top of that the tires are going to HOWL because they're no longer circular in shape, more like paddles by the time they need replacing. So if you want to take your daily driver on the track every once in a while but spend a lot more time in it going to work then find a middle ground with maybe 0 toe(or neutral toe) in the front, because pretty much every spec for modern cars has some degree of toe-in(or neutral depending on the car). On a regular traffic cars you want a tiny amount of toe-in for every small amount of negative camber, to deflect or flex the sidewall for a better contact patch going straight, and for better high speed stability on uneven roads - road crown and surface deviations. Also if you do this at home, it's worth it to have some sort of gauge setup like the one in the video: 0.5 degree can make a big difference. Remember to measure after adjusting something, maybe drive it around the block and remeasure, I know soft bushings with a load on them can easily hide the full adjustment on an alignment lift - typically when the adjustment is quite drastic. Really interesting info on track setups, always wondered about what worked better for these high load situations. I used to have a service writer who had a family hookup to a bmw oriented racing team and he would get free used DOT race tires for his M3 that were on the track car, they were always extremely choppy on the inner tread and vibrated like crazy because they were halfway used up on a track.
I think it depends on the vehicle and suspension setup. I've spent a lot of time with this adjustment on my vehicles. I keep noticing that slight toe out with slight negative camber near factory settings on Camber I keep getting lower rolling resistance which I'm after and I still never get a twitchy steering response because the negative camber counter acts it. I do get concerned on what my tire wear will be but for example I find on my 99 Ford Ranger 4x4 because of variable weight changes between a full to empty tank of gas plus me in the driver seat I have to run slight static toe out as once the gas tank is near empty the driver side suspension will decompress and the tires eventually will toe in a little. So there's a range of variation that happens there because if I were to run static toe in on a full tank of gas I would get too much toe in and wear the outside shoulders of the tires out and they would get chop and the truck would really have a hard time overcoming the rolling resistance from tire scrub. My 4th gen Camaro also responds the same way almost with these same adjustments. So I need to figure out how the suspension interacts dynamically during operation. the rolling resistance being lessened by these adjustments is a strong reason why I like them. The vehicle struggles way less and mpg goes up substantially and I get better acceleration performance not using half the engine power trying to overcome drag. Anytime a vehicle feels like it struggles to move and is hard to free wheel always bothers me and tires and alignments and good working brakes are usually the culprit.
I had a bit of toe-out in the rear suspension of a subaru when racing on dirt, you had to have a blazing fast reaction to keep it from snap oversteering on decel into a corner, but I liked it because it cut down on the annoying understeer from all that weight in the front and little traction on dirt.
The Dave Point... that really takes me back. The golden age of Sport Compact Car in the early 2000s was a special time, I learned so much from Dave and Mike. It's awesome to see Mike still sharing his knowledge.
I've now watched a few of your video's, generally engine builds. Really enjoy your delivery and obvious experience of the things you talk about. Very much doubt I'll ever use the things you just explained or vast majority of engine explanations but subscribing anyway.
Me last night, after first test-drive after installing sexy SPL suspension arm type stuff: "I need to work on the alignment". MotoIQ today: "Hold my Red Bull". 🤣 Thanks for the timely video!
12:50 Thanks a lot for explaining this. I always wondered why my car would sway side to side on a particular stretch of road on the way home. It tells me my car has toe out and negative camber. Perhaps this is why Hondas feel great to steer
I ran a track alignment when I first installed my angle kit. The wheel pull from the high negative camber and slight toe out requires 100% attention on streets, but the handling in corners is top notch!
I’ve always liked hearing about suspension, alignment and wheel set-ups. Plus the 240 in the background looks just like my 180sx in Australia. Keep up the good videos, nice work. 👍
Good to see I was in the ball park of what Mike suggests. Ran 4* f and 1.5* r camber in the DD SRT4 with 27psi 245x40x17. Checked Dad's Spec 944 toe and it was 1.5" out. Next race after I "fixed it" he got wrecked in turn 9 by DanDon lol
Damn , I actually read that Dave Coleman article way back in the day! Thank you for the video, probably the best summary on the topic on alignment on the net.
Heading to the track again in a couple weeks, absolutely going to take the pointers here and try some light adjustments at the alignment shop before heading out. Great video, thanks so much!!!
@MotoIQ hi Mike, I’ve seen some of your videos and pressed play as soon as I saw this come up on my feed. It couldn’t have come up at a better time! I have a model 3 I’ve been running in autocross, I made some suspension mods and got new stickier tires for this new season, chasing after those lower times. I’m a former ASE tech and do all the work and upgrades on my car. I recently started doing my own string alignments since I lower the car and adjust the camber front and rear, I adjust the toe after adjustments are made. After the end of last season I set the car back to street settings and realigned it. I noticed the car didn’t feel right and the TC light was coming on, I redid the alignment but it still felt off. After watching your video and you explaining how different toe settings can change the way the car drives I set the rear toe in a bit and set the front toe out. After I test drove it I was blown away at the difference in how it felt and how much better it drove, the car feels stable and planted again! I’ve looked for alignment info online to help me fix the problem but your video was the one that explained it the best and help me fix it. When I worked as a tech I knew how to align a car but we had an alignment tech who did them all but sometimes I had to do one. I never got to learn the fine details of aligning a car. Thanks so much for the help and I now appreciate more the importance of a good alignment!
Oval racing we use positive camber on the left front wheel we are only ever turning left and have a lot of banking so the left front is always positive on oval racing cars
Thank you 😊😎👍and I've gotten faster at forza motorsport 7 watching your videos you da man👍😁 and the people behind the scenes thank y'all too😊👍 stay cool, calm and collected😊
Love this. I'd like to see more diagrams with this stuff. It's interesting how most of my cars violate his rules of thumb, after tuning my settings for years. All suspensions work a lil different, and all drivers drive different.
Positive camber also used in nascar i believe, since theyre onky turning left over and over, 2 tires have negative camber and 2 tires have positive camber
Fantastic video as always Mike! Thank you for taking the time to make it. I really enjoyed the point you made at 24:35 when you were taking about too much Caster/camber angle, and the understeer to snap oversteer characteristic it gives a car. I learnt a heap just in that two minutes alone. Thank you again for your uploads.
Mike!!! Remember the rear beam bending that Darrin used to do for the b14s? I think that would be such an interesting topic to tackle. Tackling difficult suspension geometry from the factory and the wild ways we fix them
Thanks again, Mike! Your suspension knowledge helps reinforce what I recently learned at an SAE Vehicle Dynamics training session I attended. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on a street alignment, which I feel would be a bit harder to nail down since you have to balance tire wear with performance (obviously a compromise must be had somewhere). I'm looking to do just that on my Civic Si commuter. I was also glad to hear your thoughts about camber bolts on McPherson strut vehicles. I've heard others comment that camber bolts can slip, so it's good to know that you can just slot a damper hole to achieve similar results (for free) and still maintain enough bolt clamping force on the strut to knuckle joint to keep them from moving.
If you figure out exactly where you need setting to stay, you could put spacers in to make any slipping impossible. Basically, the spacer is a rod with cut out to fit around bolt on one side to re-fill the slot.(making an 'oval shank' bolt). I've done them for camshaft sprocket bolts when decking put cam timing out around 10 degrees and vernier sprockets not available
Another thing that negative camber does is compensate for slop in the suspension joints under high cornering g loads. And even urethane joints have some slop. But if you go to all metal joints like spherical bearings and heim joints you can run less negative camber, like down to -2 or - 1.5 deg. And the best way to check all this is to record your tire temps across the tread.
You are right that you can run less negative camber with bearings but no, you don't go to that camber level on a race car on modern race DOT radial tires or radial slicks even if you have spherical bearings. The only time you might consider this is with a bias ply slick but you don't run into those much anymore. You still need to account for the tire's deformation and the development of camber thrust. We often run over 4 degrees negative on the front of race cars, the least we ever run is around 3.5 depending on the brand of tire. look at F1 cars, they run much more than that. If you don't believe me you can do some reading www.millikenresearch.com/rcvd.html this is an excellent reference book.
@motoiq I'm running in budget endurance road course racing. Using 200 wear rating DOT tires. Running all metal joints my tire temps are telling me that two deg is okay. In this series 3° is standard with soft joints. Most of the cars are 2500 lb and 250 to 300 horsepower. Not really a good comparison to F1. You guys should discuss tire temps because that's the best way to tell if your setting is right
Your tires will last longer on the track if you run more negative camber than what you run and you will run 1-2 seconds a lap faster. Tire temps are not the all proving thing that your camber is correct. They are mostly a snap shot of the last turn. Also the insides of your front tires are typically 10-20 degrees hotter than the outer edge if everything is right, not even across the tread. The spread is typically less on the rear of a rwd car but the bias will be slightly to the inside when all is correct. camber just doesnt make the tread flat but there are several aspects of the tires carcass that contribute to overall grip beyond that. See Milliken's research on this. That is why race cars run much more than 1.5-2 degrees. Run less tire pressure and more camber and watch your lap times drop and tire wear improve.
I understand from the video that its tough to narrow it down to a single number, but what would you say is the maximum negative camber one can set on the fronts for a FWD car that sees mainly street use but is also frequently pushed on touge style narrow mountain roads, without sacrificing too much in straight line stability and tire longevity? Also, goes without saying, but thanks for another AMAZING vid!
Hello @motoiq, I hope you could ask Mike to make a video about proper wheel size and width to tire size (width and profile) ratio for performance. Theres a meaty look, stretched look and square. Been curious on the ideal size ratio of wheel and tire.
Hey Mike. Thanks for such a detailed video. Do you remember your C8 Corvette track alignment? Did you add any toe out to counter the understeer? The GM recommended alignment calls for 0.1 toe in.
For the longest time, I've been seeing a big trend of running high caster, 7-9 deg being common in road course awd and rwd..... Everyone seems to like it, me included. Perhaps we're using this as a Band-Aid? Would love to get more insight on how you arrive on optimal Caster
hey mike 99 solara everyday driver....slightly lowered...! I was told -1 cam and zero toe........Will be just enough....wd you agreet? TU FOR A RESPONSE..heading to alighnment shop monday!
Great video as always…I’d appreciate some feedback on a friend’s car that I’m helping to setup. It’s a 2018 BMW M3 F80. We are severely limited in terms of modifications for the time trial series that he’s competing in. He managed to win his class last year with the following setup (otherwise stock): front camber plates, 285 Goodyear 3 (not 3R) on 20x10 square, alignment was around -3 f, -1.5 r, ~0 toe or slight toe out f, slight toe in r, and caster at 7. This year we are moving up a class and going to use 295 Bridgestone 71RS on 18x10.5 square. For the alignment I’m thinking we will want a bit more camber f/r, toe about the same, and maybe a bit more caster. These cars have somewhat vague steering feel, so I was thinking a bump to 7.5 would help in that regard. Also, I’m thinking it might help to swap to a slightly stiffer front sway bar (we cannot do springs or coilovers). Any thoughts you could share would be greatly appreciated!
Yes I would do something like 4 degrees negative with 1/8 toe out in the front. I would leave the caster or even reduce it to 6. Wide tires/wheels don't like being tipped too much. Best grips is going to be found somewhere around 28-34 psi hot, probably something like 32 would be my best guess, watch your pressures closely. Measure as soon as the car comes off track preferably in the hot pits. In the rear something like 1.7-2.2 negative is going to work well with 1/8" toe in. A stiffer front bar may help with the added front camber.
@@motoiq wow, thank you so much for replying so quickly! Lol, I saw you at BRP last weekend, but I was busy coaching and driving, I didn’t get a chance to say hello. I’m glad that I was somewhat in the range (I definitely need to learn more about caster), but awesome…I’ll try out your recommendations and report back!
Question: Will some negative caster at the front give you better acceleration when applied to a FWD car? My reasoning being that the direction of the force applied by the wheel while accelerating will match the one the shock needs in order to compress. Just like how you get better use of the weight transfer to the front under braking with positive caster. I know negative sucks for handling.
A simple example of negative caster is when reversing a car. If you let go of the wheel the steering will whip around to full lock because the steering is trying to self-centre but with the front wheels facing the other way. It's not a fun experience!
Sucks when you set it up only for dry weather, then drive it in the snow. That old photo of the 350z reminds me of that article from sportcompact car magazine.
Can you speak for 10 inch or wider tires for heavier cars? 4° camber on a 275 low pro will load the rim lip to a point of failure. Im interested in the much wider tires then the 255 your talking about. Think about 275 to 315... please.
Hey Mike! Love the wisdom you share on all your videos. Your info about toe in / out die performance caught my ear. Is toe always measured in distance over degrees? If I were getting it aligned, would I say 1/8 inch as spec and the tech can do it correctly? Or would I say a fraction of a degree or a degree or two? What toe spec would you recommend for a VA wrx for autocross (full bolt-ons, full suspension, e20, 200 tw tires - - rt660 presently). Not much straight line drag or anything, but what toe would you recommend front and rear for cornering? Awd obviously.
I've got a rear-heavy Cayman. When you say -4 camber is preferred, do you mean on the front or rear axles? (I realize the type of tire and sidewall will also factor as you say)
I just use string tied to some jackstands, tape measure, eyeball. Gauges are nice, but make sure how they attach is true, most are counterproductive. Take your time, go for a drive then do it again when it's settled. It's torturous at first, but becomes easy after a few times. Make SURE your spot is flat or you will waste your time. You can make some cheap turn plates from wax paper and cardboard, or any slippery plastic sheets (hdpe, trash bags) if doing caster so the wheels turn with less friction. Wiggle the steering wheel after each adjustment and make sure no preload is in the tires.
The NC Miata and even more so the ND, are designed with 6-8' degrees of caster from factory. Why is that? Some formula cars run even much higher castera than that (double a arm). Is it because of the relatively high KPI that negates camber gain to some devree?
You can't simply skip any technical article from Mike Kojima. You can't. The joy on his face when he speaks about serious stuff and the comprehensiveness and detail of his performance is simply mind blowing!
For real!!
Couldn't of said it better myself
"But if you want to go faster, stick around and let's talk about stuff"...😂 sold
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂📈
Mike is the everlasting gobstopper of motorsport knowledge. Mike is the man!
So I work in auto repair, I love doing alignments, and I haven't seen many auto oriented youtubers really talk about alignments in a knowledgeable way so when I saw this recommended I thought "finally!" because every time I watch a video with Mike I always learn and enjoy the knowledge he shares. Loved the video. This reminded me of tuning cars in Forza Motorsport haha, I set a lot of faster than average laps through alignment adjustments alone!
I wanted to reiterate on normal car alignments: the majority of alignments are performed because of poor tire wear, most of the time it's because a car will end up with too much toe-out from bushing fatigue, road imperfections and impact, fasteners shifting(aftermarket camber bolts are junk like he mentioned), or just a terrible alignment from the factory. On daily drivers and commuters you should stay away from any toe out if you really want the tires to last. Toe out on cars that aren't heavily loaded in corners will consistently eat up the inner tread very fast, on top of that it will wear choppy/feathered with negative camber(basically triangular strips with 2 corners on the inner tread block and the third corner pointing towards the outer tread block), this will eat your all season UTQG 700 treadwear tire down in 20k miles easily. On top of that the tires are going to HOWL because they're no longer circular in shape, more like paddles by the time they need replacing. So if you want to take your daily driver on the track every once in a while but spend a lot more time in it going to work then find a middle ground with maybe 0 toe(or neutral toe) in the front, because pretty much every spec for modern cars has some degree of toe-in(or neutral depending on the car). On a regular traffic cars you want a tiny amount of toe-in for every small amount of negative camber, to deflect or flex the sidewall for a better contact patch going straight, and for better high speed stability on uneven roads - road crown and surface deviations. Also if you do this at home, it's worth it to have some sort of gauge setup like the one in the video: 0.5 degree can make a big difference. Remember to measure after adjusting something, maybe drive it around the block and remeasure, I know soft bushings with a load on them can easily hide the full adjustment on an alignment lift - typically when the adjustment is quite drastic.
Really interesting info on track setups, always wondered about what worked better for these high load situations. I used to have a service writer who had a family hookup to a bmw oriented racing team and he would get free used DOT race tires for his M3 that were on the track car, they were always extremely choppy on the inner tread and vibrated like crazy because they were halfway used up on a track.
Thanks for this 🙏🏽
This is a very helpful comment, thanks. My WRX is lowered and the tires have started howling on me and I believe this is exactly why.
25:55 "Some is good, more is better, too much is way bad." -Mike. 😂 Thanks again for this absolutely legendary information. 👍
Holy shit channel started to blow up. Couldn’t be happier, Mikes enthusiasm is infectious.
Mike Kojima is such a legend. I've been following him for like 25 years.
🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍👍🏽
“If you wanna go fast, uhh go fast for free… come on… let’s uhh talk about some stuff.” -This needs to be on a MotoIQ Tshirt.
I did NOT think front toe out could actually reduce tire wear. Great info
I think it depends on the vehicle and suspension setup. I've spent a lot of time with this adjustment on my vehicles. I keep noticing that slight toe out with slight negative camber near factory settings on Camber I keep getting lower rolling resistance which I'm after and I still never get a twitchy steering response because the negative camber counter acts it. I do get concerned on what my tire wear will be but for example I find on my 99 Ford Ranger 4x4 because of variable weight changes between a full to empty tank of gas plus me in the driver seat I have to run slight static toe out as once the gas tank is near empty the driver side suspension will decompress and the tires eventually will toe in a little. So there's a range of variation that happens there because if I were to run static toe in on a full tank of gas I would get too much toe in and wear the outside shoulders of the tires out and they would get chop and the truck would really have a hard time overcoming the rolling resistance from tire scrub. My 4th gen Camaro also responds the same way almost with these same adjustments. So I need to figure out how the suspension interacts dynamically during operation. the rolling resistance being lessened by these adjustments is a strong reason why I like them. The vehicle struggles way less and mpg goes up substantially and I get better acceleration performance not using half the engine power trying to overcome drag. Anytime a vehicle feels like it struggles to move and is hard to free wheel always bothers me and tires and alignments and good working brakes are usually the culprit.
Man this guy really seems to know mechanical and racing stuff so completely. So much car knowledge from so much experience.
The happiest guy on UA-cam
I had a bit of toe-out in the rear suspension of a subaru when racing on dirt, you had to have a blazing fast reaction to keep it from snap oversteering on decel into a corner, but I liked it because it cut down on the annoying understeer from all that weight in the front and little traction on dirt.
Such an underrated channel.
The Dave Point... that really takes me back. The golden age of Sport Compact Car in the early 2000s was a special time, I learned so much from Dave and Mike. It's awesome to see Mike still sharing his knowledge.
It's nice knowing that I am not the only one.
#OneOfUs
Agreed, I thought I was the only one who still remembers the ancient tomes in the pre-internet days.
@@Redmongoose-rdm Oh bro, we are out there
I've now watched a few of your video's, generally engine builds.
Really enjoy your delivery and obvious experience of the things you talk about.
Very much doubt I'll ever use the things you just explained or vast majority of engine explanations but subscribing anyway.
Grew up reading your articles, now my sons watch your videos for their car stuff.
i love mike he's so wholesome like a dad 😁
MK/SCC is the reason why I know as much about suspension as I do. BTW the "lead point" is also known as the "Dave Point" 😅 as per older issue of SCC
Now I see it was brought up later in the video 😂
Legend has it that he’s still smiling right now
Me last night, after first test-drive after installing sexy SPL suspension arm type stuff: "I need to work on the alignment". MotoIQ today: "Hold my Red Bull". 🤣 Thanks for the timely video!
Mike! You’re the best instructor I’ve ever seen or heard. 👍🏼
Finally, somebody explained it all to me. Thanks
12:50 Thanks a lot for explaining this. I always wondered why my car would sway side to side on a particular stretch of road on the way home. It tells me my car has toe out and negative camber. Perhaps this is why Hondas feel great to steer
Mr. Kojima is a Legend in the Tuner World…Truly Appreciate you sharing your Knowledge and Experience….Thank you MotoIQ 🙏
This is gold
I ran a track alignment when I first installed my angle kit. The wheel pull from the high negative camber and slight toe out requires 100% attention on streets, but the handling in corners is top notch!
Came here to say that I’m always micro correcting on the freeway but it makes up for it on night runs 😂
this dude is always smiling hard lol love it
I’ve always liked hearing about suspension, alignment and wheel set-ups. Plus the 240 in the background looks just like my 180sx in Australia. Keep up the good videos, nice work. 👍
Good to see I was in the ball park of what Mike suggests.
Ran 4* f and 1.5* r camber in the DD SRT4 with 27psi 245x40x17.
Checked Dad's Spec 944 toe and it was 1.5" out.
Next race after I "fixed it" he got wrecked in turn 9 by DanDon lol
This man is the Yoda of speed!
Damn , I actually read that Dave Coleman article way back in the day! Thank you for the video, probably the best summary on the topic on alignment on the net.
Heading to the track again in a couple weeks, absolutely going to take the pointers here and try some light adjustments at the alignment shop before heading out. Great video, thanks so much!!!
excellent video, a lot to digest
Kojima is just a wholesome man, automatic like for this great being 🫶🏼
@MotoIQ hi Mike, I’ve seen some of your videos and pressed play as soon as I saw this come up on my feed. It couldn’t have come up at a better time! I have a model 3 I’ve been running in autocross, I made some suspension mods and got new stickier tires for this new season, chasing after those lower times. I’m a former ASE tech and do all the work and upgrades on my car. I recently started doing my own string alignments since I lower the car and adjust the camber front and rear, I adjust the toe after adjustments are made. After the end of last season I set the car back to street settings and realigned it. I noticed the car didn’t feel right and the TC light was coming on, I redid the alignment but it still felt off. After watching your video and you explaining how different toe settings can change the way the car drives I set the rear toe in a bit and set the front toe out. After I test drove it I was blown away at the difference in how it felt and how much better it drove, the car feels stable and planted again!
I’ve looked for alignment info online to help me fix the problem but your video was the one that explained it the best and help me fix it. When I worked as a tech I knew how to align a car but we had an alignment tech who did them all but sometimes I had to do one. I never got to learn the fine details of aligning a car. Thanks so much for the help and I now appreciate more the importance of a good alignment!
Oval racing we use positive camber on the left front wheel we are only ever turning left and have a lot of banking so the left front is always positive on oval racing cars
Omg perfect timing, I was gonna email them to make a video on this.
Great video, i think you'd make an excellent teacher with how well an informative you are keep up the great work
This man is perpetually chill 😆 love it! Great info!
Exceptionally nice video, greetings from Greece.
Thank you 😊😎👍and I've gotten faster at forza motorsport 7 watching your videos you da man👍😁 and the people behind the scenes thank y'all too😊👍 stay cool, calm and collected😊
Great information thanks for sharing
thanks
awesome info thanks
Love this. I'd like to see more diagrams with this stuff. It's interesting how most of my cars violate his rules of thumb, after tuning my settings for years.
All suspensions work a lil different, and all drivers drive different.
Positive camber also used in nascar i believe, since theyre onky turning left over and over, 2 tires have negative camber and 2 tires have positive camber
Fantastic video as always Mike! Thank you for taking the time to make it. I really enjoyed the point you made at 24:35 when you were taking about too much Caster/camber angle, and the understeer to snap oversteer characteristic it gives a car. I learnt a heap just in that two minutes alone. Thank you again for your uploads.
Sport compact car and Grand Tursimo all you needed to learn this back in the early 2000s . Who was at supet gt when it came to the states at Fontana.
Mike!!! Remember the rear beam bending that Darrin used to do for the b14s? I think that would be such an interesting topic to tackle. Tackling difficult suspension geometry from the factory and the wild ways we fix them
these tips are what made me subscribe, so much usefull information to use when setting up a project car!
I enjoy your passion, therefore I learn and enjoy mine! Thanks!
Thanks again for passing your knowledge on
Thank you for this. Very useful
Thanks for sharing your knowledge….. (motoiq)
nice work Mike... as expected and as usual!
Thank you so much Mike !
I LOVE Sport Compact car. I still have every issue.
Love your content Mike, you are the man!
awesome awesome info here! Damn! 🔥 Thanks Mike!
Just spotted the clean p10 primera
As always good info!
Thanks again, Mike! Your suspension knowledge helps reinforce what I recently learned at an SAE Vehicle Dynamics training session I attended. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on a street alignment, which I feel would be a bit harder to nail down since you have to balance tire wear with performance (obviously a compromise must be had somewhere). I'm looking to do just that on my Civic Si commuter.
I was also glad to hear your thoughts about camber bolts on McPherson strut vehicles. I've heard others comment that camber bolts can slip, so it's good to know that you can just slot a damper hole to achieve similar results (for free) and still maintain enough bolt clamping force on the strut to knuckle joint to keep them from moving.
If you figure out exactly where you need setting to stay, you could put spacers in to make any slipping impossible. Basically, the spacer is a rod with cut out to fit around bolt on one side to re-fill the slot.(making an 'oval shank' bolt). I've done them for camshaft sprocket bolts when decking put cam timing out around 10 degrees and vernier sprockets not available
You explained it. I’m gonna tag this for refreshers. I can never remember all that. Question who’s Evo I want it.
Can you do a breakdown of Ackerman for drifting
thats a good idea
Great tips
I'll use them on my '99 Corolla 😀👌
Another thing that negative camber does is compensate for slop in the suspension joints under high cornering g loads. And even urethane joints have some slop. But if you go to all metal joints like spherical bearings and heim joints you can run less negative camber, like down to -2 or - 1.5 deg. And the best way to check all this is to record your tire temps across the tread.
You are right that you can run less negative camber with bearings but no, you don't go to that camber level on a race car on modern race DOT radial tires or radial slicks even if you have spherical bearings. The only time you might consider this is with a bias ply slick but you don't run into those much anymore. You still need to account for the tire's deformation and the development of camber thrust. We often run over 4 degrees negative on the front of race cars, the least we ever run is around 3.5 depending on the brand of tire. look at F1 cars, they run much more than that. If you don't believe me you can do some reading www.millikenresearch.com/rcvd.html this is an excellent reference book.
@motoiq I'm running in budget endurance road course racing. Using 200 wear rating DOT tires. Running all metal joints my tire temps are telling me that two deg is okay. In this series 3° is standard with soft joints. Most of the cars are 2500 lb and 250 to 300 horsepower. Not really a good comparison to F1. You guys should discuss tire temps because that's the best way to tell if your setting is right
Your tires will last longer on the track if you run more negative camber than what you run and you will run 1-2 seconds a lap faster. Tire temps are not the all proving thing that your camber is correct. They are mostly a snap shot of the last turn. Also the insides of your front tires are typically 10-20 degrees hotter than the outer edge if everything is right, not even across the tread. The spread is typically less on the rear of a rwd car but the bias will be slightly to the inside when all is correct. camber just doesnt make the tread flat but there are several aspects of the tires carcass that contribute to overall grip beyond that. See Milliken's research on this. That is why race cars run much more than 1.5-2 degrees. Run less tire pressure and more camber and watch your lap times drop and tire wear improve.
Would positive camber in the rear also help cars set up for drag racing? Seeing as though they're squatting pretty much from launch until the line
Yes, absolutely
I understand from the video that its tough to narrow it down to a single number, but what would you say is the maximum negative camber one can set on the fronts for a FWD car that sees mainly street use but is also frequently pushed on touge style narrow mountain roads, without sacrificing too much in straight line stability and tire longevity?
Also, goes without saying, but thanks for another AMAZING vid!
Maybe 2.5 to 3 degrees.
Great Info, thanks
5:01 one of best sleeper fwd cars right there 😆
Mike out here singlehandedly shutting down all the forum fools and their myths about car setup.
Hello @motoiq, I hope you could ask Mike to make a video about proper wheel size and width to tire size (width and profile) ratio for performance.
Theres a meaty look, stretched look and square. Been curious on the ideal size ratio of wheel and tire.
Hey Mike. Thanks for such a detailed video. Do you remember your C8 Corvette track alignment? Did you add any toe out to counter the understeer? The GM recommended alignment calls for 0.1 toe in.
We ran 1/8 out on ours.
Just finished the triple adjustment coilovers video just to have this drop right after. It's going to be a good Friday.
This was incredibly helpful. 👍👍👍👍
For the longest time, I've been seeing a big trend of running high caster, 7-9 deg being common in road course awd and rwd..... Everyone seems to like it, me included. Perhaps we're using this as a Band-Aid? Would love to get more insight on how you arrive on optimal Caster
More caster makes the car more stable at high speeds. Holds a straight line better. Which makes it less unpredictable in a turn.
THE BEST
hey mike 99 solara everyday driver....slightly lowered...! I was told -1 cam and zero toe........Will be just enough....wd you agreet? TU FOR A RESPONSE..heading to alighnment shop monday!
you guys need to sell a bobble head mike on your website
take my fooking money
yeeees!
Drift cars also sometimes run no front sway bar. Lots of suspension travel upfront. Great reason to increase neg toe.
but its not the right way.
Great video as always…I’d appreciate some feedback on a friend’s car that I’m helping to setup.
It’s a 2018 BMW M3 F80. We are severely limited in terms of modifications for the time trial series that he’s competing in. He managed to win his class last year with the following setup (otherwise stock): front camber plates, 285 Goodyear 3 (not 3R) on 20x10 square, alignment was around -3 f, -1.5 r, ~0 toe or slight toe out f, slight toe in r, and caster at 7.
This year we are moving up a class and going to use 295 Bridgestone 71RS on 18x10.5 square. For the alignment I’m thinking we will want a bit more camber f/r, toe about the same, and maybe a bit more caster. These cars have somewhat vague steering feel, so I was thinking a bump to 7.5 would help in that regard. Also, I’m thinking it might help to swap to a slightly stiffer front sway bar (we cannot do springs or coilovers).
Any thoughts you could share would be greatly appreciated!
Yes I would do something like 4 degrees negative with 1/8 toe out in the front. I would leave the caster or even reduce it to 6. Wide tires/wheels don't like being tipped too much. Best grips is going to be found somewhere around 28-34 psi hot, probably something like 32 would be my best guess, watch your pressures closely. Measure as soon as the car comes off track preferably in the hot pits. In the rear something like 1.7-2.2 negative is going to work well with 1/8" toe in. A stiffer front bar may help with the added front camber.
@@motoiq wow, thank you so much for replying so quickly! Lol, I saw you at BRP last weekend, but I was busy coaching and driving, I didn’t get a chance to say hello.
I’m glad that I was somewhat in the range (I definitely need to learn more about caster), but awesome…I’ll try out your recommendations and report back!
Awesome, keep me posted. I was helping KW with the calibration of their new R33/R34 GT-R suspension.
@@motoiq will do! Very cool, was that the car that Sean was driving? I remember seeing a stockish looking 34 out in the Advanced group.
Yes
Question: Will some negative caster at the front give you better acceleration when applied to a FWD car? My reasoning being that the direction of the force applied by the wheel while accelerating will match the one the shock needs in order to compress. Just like how you get better use of the weight transfer to the front under braking with positive caster. I know negative sucks for handling.
No to both assumptions
A simple example of negative caster is when reversing a car. If you let go of the wheel the steering will whip around to full lock because the steering is trying to self-centre but with the front wheels facing the other way. It's not a fun experience!
Thanks Mike #sportcompactcarforever
Sucks when you set it up only for dry weather, then drive it in the snow. That old photo of the 350z reminds me of that article from sportcompact car magazine.
Me listening to this about to autocross my semi-trailing arm rear super beetle with not enough toe-in: Yeahhhh
You migh not get everyones likes…but you got mine 😊
Good stuff, not that regular degular
Can you speak for 10 inch or wider tires for heavier cars? 4° camber on a 275 low pro will load the rim lip to a point of failure.
Im interested in the much wider tires then the 255 your talking about. Think about 275 to 315... please.
No it won't, we routinely run that much and more with that and wider tires and just go fast.
Hey Mike! Love the wisdom you share on all your videos. Your info about toe in / out die performance caught my ear. Is toe always measured in distance over degrees? If I were getting it aligned, would I say 1/8 inch as spec and the tech can do it correctly? Or would I say a fraction of a degree or a degree or two?
What toe spec would you recommend for a VA wrx for autocross (full bolt-ons, full suspension, e20, 200 tw tires - - rt660 presently). Not much straight line drag or anything, but what toe would you recommend front and rear for cornering? Awd obviously.
1/8 to 3/8 out, zero rear
I've seen it both, but without a nice rack distance is easier to measure.
@@motoiq thanks so much =), I'll see about adding a little toe out. Excited.
@@nobodynoone2500 cool! I'll see about trying to specify that. Thanks for the info and replying =)
can i balance fast and daily drive?
did you ever worked on a honda crz ?
No
2001 corolla is wider in the front than rear. Toe is my question for rear. The same technique.
I've got a rear-heavy Cayman. When you say -4 camber is preferred, do you mean on the front or rear axles? (I realize the type of tire and sidewall will also factor as you say)
The back of a cayman is usually 3-4 degrees due to struts
I love Mike ❤ #nodiddy
What about cars that oversteer on breaking with semi trailer arm on the rear?
He mentioned it. Add toe in at the rear.
Whats a good compromise of tire wear and handling?? -2 or more camber and small bit of toe
I had -3 camber and nearly zero toe and had very little wear. Toe causes the most wear drive is makes your tire scrub
if you ran 3 then a little toe out might actually help wear
Any recommendations for a tool/setup/method for doing an alignment at home?
Smart strings and camber tool. I am considering buying one for myself
I just use string tied to some jackstands, tape measure, eyeball. Gauges are nice, but make sure how they attach is true, most are counterproductive. Take your time, go for a drive then do it again when it's settled. It's torturous at first, but becomes easy after a few times. Make SURE your spot is flat or you will waste your time. You can make some cheap turn plates from wax paper and cardboard, or any slippery plastic sheets (hdpe, trash bags) if doing caster so the wheels turn with less friction. Wiggle the steering wheel after each adjustment and make sure no preload is in the tires.
What is inch in degrees?
The NC Miata and even more so the ND, are designed with 6-8' degrees of caster from factory. Why is that? Some formula cars run even much higher castera than that (double a arm). Is it because of the relatively high KPI that negates camber gain to some devree?
Skinny tires work pretty good with higher caster angles, it also depends on how much KPI the geometry runs, they work against each other.