Alignment setups

My car is headed to the alignment rack here shortly, it’s going to see a fair bit of autocross and back road fun as well as being a daily driver, need some advise on alignment specs. Currently the car is on kyb gr-2 strurts with ebay lowering springs, thise will be getting swapped for cx racing coilovers with 12k front and 10k rear springs here soon.
I am leaning towards these for alignment settings
Front
2* camber
Max caster
Zero toe
Rear
2.5* camber
1/2* toe in
Let me know anything you would recommend changing

Any reason in particular why you’re looking for more negative camber in the rear than in the front? Unless you’re going for something very specific and specialized, that likely isn’t what you want. Is your camber adjustable? If so, what camber kits do you have? How daily driver miles do you put on the car annually? What sort of tires will you be using? Will you have separate tires for daily use vs autocross use? How much do you care about tire wear vs performance - which is more important?

Without knowing answers to those questions I’d say you’re pretty much on the right track. For a good balanced setup which helps performance a bit but won’t wear out your tires too quickly (especially if you’re regularly driving aggressively and/or on track) I’d recommend something like:

Front:
-1.5 to -2.5 deg camber
0 toe
caster is not adjustable so you are stuck with whatever it’s at (don’t worry, it doesn’t matter)

Rear:
-1.0 to -2.0 deg camber
0 toe

Camber: Typically you will want more negative camber in the front than in the rear. There’s more weight up front and thus more weight transfer so usually it’s more important to have more neg camber there.

Toe: There’s usually no reason to bother with anything other than zero unless you’re really trying to tweak some extra performance out of the car. Toe (in or out) will be more of a factor in regard to tire wear than will camber and won’t give you the same benefit that camber will in terms of performance. A little toe IN in the rear may provide some added stability, but unless there’s something very strange about your car or driving style you don’t need that. If anything it’s more common for people to dial in a little toe OUT in the rear in order to help the car rotate more easily. This can be very helpful for autox. But it’s also very dependent on driving style, car setup…etc Personally I’d suggest you just keep it simple unless you’re really trying to be competitive in your local autox and hoping to make nationals.

Camber arms front and rear, car will be on rt615 tires for autocross, and should be about 8-10k miles a year, I am basing my setup off what I have seen other track/street cars on here running. I may drop the rear toe to zero, the guy that handles my alignment is pushing me to run a bit of toe in on the rear. Also might swap the camber setting front and rear so it would be 2.5 up front and 2 in the back

You’ve seen other track cars running more negative in the rear? I find that very surprising. Talk to you alignment guy and see what he says about the toe - ask him WHY he suggests his settings and what handling characteristics that setting will give you vs another setting. For example, toe IN in the rear should provide some high speed stability but it’s likely not needed for your situation and since you’re going to be autocrossing you may even want to go a hair toe OUT in order to help the car rotate. This does depend a lot on your spring rates, driving style, sway bar setup, tire pressures…etc…etc as well. Regardless, I would for sure run more negative camber up front than in the rear.

I talked to the guy that will be doing the alignment last night about it, I am going to be driving the car in the snow and ice which is why he is recommending some toe in on the back, I would like to try zero toe first and see if it’s terrible in the snow and ice, if it is I will put a touch of tie in on the rear till everything melts off. Not sure what sawy bars I will be running yet, still weighing my options and I want to see how the car does with the coilovers and stock bars first. I am hoping that a full set of rt615 will last me all summer with 3-5 auto cross days thrown in

Ah, you have to drive in the snow, I imagine that’s a big factor! A performance setup and a snow setup will be a lot different! :slight_smile: Have you bought the Azenis yet? There should be a lot better tire options out there… But I’d expect them to last a summer no problem.

I will be grabbing summer tires next spring, have kumho ast on my wheels currently so I am in okay shape for the winter haha.