Camber and toe in for track driving

Macen · Post by **Macen** » March 14th, 2006, 3:37 pm

I need some help on my suspension setup. I have red Konis and H&R springs. What camber and toe in settings are recommended for track driving? I'm gonna use 15" 195/55 R-tires. I have no camber bolts or camber plates. Do I need plates or bolts to get a good setup?
I think I will live with that my street tires will be worn uneven, but that's probably worth it on the track.

Mazdaracer · Post by **Mazdaracer** » March 14th, 2006, 4:13 pm

you can get a little camber just from stock, but not much. Camber plates are best, but crash bolts can get you about 1-1.25* of neg camber. But in my experience, crash bolts don't hold up well to the abuse of racing.

I'd try to get max neg camber up front (1.5-3.5*) and maybe 1.5* neg out back. Rear camber adjustments can help with oversteer/understeer corrections.

for a track car, toe should be minimal, ~1/8"

worn street tires are not the best choice for a track...

jaydog5678 · Post by **jaydog5678** » March 14th, 2006, 6:23 pm

With plates up front you won't be able to max the front out anyway. Your springs are too big in diameter for that. You'll need Ground Control's or something similar.

What are crash bolts? Are they just a smaller diameter bolt than stock?

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » March 15th, 2006, 12:54 am

I'm not sure what the best setting would be, but for what it is worth the Ground Control camber plates have camber and caster adjustment. You have to call to order them b/c the ones for the MX-3 are not listed on their site. They sell for 500 or 600 a set. I cannot remember which.
The ones I use, but haven't had a chance to play with at the track yet are Cusco. Payed 2-300 for them. They only have camber adjustment, but I didn't really think I'd want to play with the caster anyway. They have a huge range of adjustment, from +4 to -4 or something like that. They are both spherical bearing mount designs with good quality aluminum for the base.

I am going to try about -2 degrees of camber at the next race and see how it feels with a stock camber on the rear (no camber bolts for the rear yet, but they shouldn't need much adjustment b/c we are front drive and a more 0ed rear camber will help with the understear)
Jaydog did my alignment and said the Cusco plates were awesome and set perfectly. The only time he has ever gotten a camber adjustment exactly Perfect.
Also, the GC plates do not have tics for measuring where you are inbetween camber measurements. That is a must for me since I payed for a alignment with -1 and -2 markings on the plates only. This will allow me to sort guage where I'm at from 0 to -3* with some accuracy while at the track without alignment equipment. So the Cusco were a better coice all around.

Oh, the camber plates will raise your car about 10mm in the front so you'll need coil-overs to work the car back to level.

My next step before the racing starts again is corner weighting my car so that I have even weight on all corners (or close to it).

Macen · Post by **Macen** » March 16th, 2006, 5:37 am

Thanks for your replies.
So with my current setup, I can go for maximum possible camber. And if I want even more I should go for plates or bolts.

I'm not gonna use worn street tires. I'm gonna use Bridgestone RE540 R-tires.