So to follow up from my first post. After my January 2022 event, based on tire temps and tire wear, it was obvious the front needed more camber on the front, and most likely the rear. I knew the factory set up wouldn’t get my camber to -3 degrees on the front. I had heard guys could get to -2 on the rear, but I had two shops tell me my car had no adjustment left in the rear. If you are in Houston, PM me and I will let you know the shops so you can steer clear.
I had Vorshlag camber plates installed. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of them before the install. And the install photo doesn’t show much other than they are already maxxed out, at roughly -3 degrees.
But the results of the camber plates are below. Without widening the top of the strut tower, I was able to get to just about -3 degrees on both sides.
I also had the shop put as much camber in the rear with the factory set up as they could, and unfortunately was told they could only get to basically -.09. I don’t think they even tried. The Vorshlag plates are very well made, and definitely a high-quality product. There is no clicking, grinding, or other odd noises coming from the front that I have experienced with cheaper products. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to install camber plates.
Also, I did not install the Vorshlag plates myself, but took them to a shop here in Houston. This was because I do not have a spring press at home, and the janky ones from the auto parts stores just scare the hell out of me, even though I’ve used them before.
So back to the car. February 2022, I ran with SCCA. With the new camber plates, the grip from the front is astonishing. The GT350 is not a light car, but I am able to come into corners with much more of a point and shoot approach, as opposed to having to get the car set up just right to get it around the corner. In addition to the camber plates, I dropped weight. I pulled the subs in the rear seat, pulled the deep cycle battery, and pulled one of the amps. With the DSC tuner, I saw my rear ride height go up 5 mm in the rear. The subs, amp, and rear seat weigh in right at 70 lbs. The battery another 27 lbs. Nothing like 100 lb weight reduction with minimal effort.
The results are immediate. 29th out of 159. Top 20%.
Here is a video of that run. As you can see, I left a lot of time out there. Even at that, I was impressed with the newfound responsiveness of the car.
Most of the February event was learning the car with the grip in the front, and weight loss in the rear. While the front gripped extremely well, the rear, at ~-1 degree camber, left a lot on the table. After the February event, I had a better feel for the car, and began researching what to do with the rear of the car. This meant sleuthing M6G again, as well as other forums, for the best options. In the mean time, I left the car alone, and focused on improving my driving. If anyone knows about Texas u turns, they are a good test of grip!
I get to the March event, feeling good about how the car reacts both on the throttle and let off, having found some open parking lots to “practice”. Well that is perfect because this course has a lot of shrinking radius corners that really exacerbated the let off oversteer. I also showed up with water to cool the tires this event, as last time they got pretty warm and I could feel the grip fading. The following video is my “two” best runs. I in the first run, I caught up to the car ahead of me (transmission issues, in a 2022 Caddy CT-5 V). I am certain the 1st run was faster, but I also thought I clipped a cone, so I stopped, for “safety”, and got a rerun.
Well that got me 17th place (of 187), top 9%!
Better yet, it got me closer to the competition in CAMC, where I was 2.76 seconds back in February, I was now 1.43 seconds back, and I ended up in third place in CAMC.
Eric and Chris who beat me, also share notes with me, so would be lying if I said their advice, tips, and tricks haven’t helped me immensely. Eric also drives a 911 that is an absolute monster, and has been co-driver in an NSX, GT350, GT500, and plenty others I can’t remember. Chris has pulled about 400 lbs out of his car and done a lot of work to the suspension. It’s something to watch it at the track, absolutely planted around corners.
Back to my car. I still had issues with rear grip. So I reached out to my suspension guru, who said my car SHOULD be able to get to -2 degrees rear camber in bone stock format. He also suggested AAD camber arms for the rear, and all my reading and research was leading me towards AAD anyways. So I ordered a set, and waited for their arrival.
In the meantime, I continued weight reduction. I pulled the remaining two amps, the welded brackets and everything that held the amps in place, the crossovers mounted in the rear dash and the controller, and most of the power cable. What I thought would take me two days to do ended up taking an entire week, from pulling panels, labeling wires, organizing wires for future use, and keeping everything from damage so I could sell later. All said and done, I pulled another 60 lbs out of the car. The car had 160+ lbs of audio equipment! The following photo is the result, looking from the drivers side door into the trunk.
That has got me caught up to about two weeks ago. Since then, I received my camber arms, and got them installed. I ended up with the AAD camber arms, as well as the vertical link and toe link. First to go on was the camber arms, since I’ve heard and read they are pretty rough to get on without dropping the rear cradle. The AAD system is pretty simple, and I wish I would have took more photos of the various bits. As I said in my first post, I am learning. Basically there is two lockout washers that are offset, so if you are drag racing you can get your camber more vertical, or if you are roadcourse/autox, you can flip them 180 degrees for more camber. These lockout washers go where the camber arm mounts to the subframe, and then you slide the camber arm right in the middle. Then there is a simple dish shaped washer (Sorry, don’t know the technical name) that bolts to the spindle. The camber is then adjusted by loosening the middle bolts, and installing a new shim plate (The silver piece in the following photo) which has the hole drilled in a slightly different spot, left or right depending on if you want to add or remove camber.
The set up is pretty slick. While it lacks the infinite adjustability of a threaded type camber adjustment, the arm also doesn’t have threads at point where the arm feels the most bending force. This is just my opinion, but it looks incredibly strong compared to the others I researched. And camber adjustments take maybe 20 minutes from when I start jacking the car until I am climbing in the drivers seat to go for a ride. Here is the arm compared to the factory arm. It is about 2.4 lbs, where as the factory arm was around 5 lbs.
So the car went up on jacks, beginning on the driver’s side, started unbolting, easy-peasy. In my head I thought what were all these guys complaining about? This came right out.
Well I spoke WAY too soon. Getting out was no big deal. 2 hours into trying to get that freaking bolt on with the new camber arm, covered in blood sweat, dirt and grease, with my hand jammed between the bolt and a gas line, the shock, spring, sway bar, ride height sensor, and various brackets removed, I finally got that stupid bolt in! Lesson learned, the drivers side is brutal. Here is the finished install.
The passenger side only took an hour, and that was mostly trying to get the top bolt in again. I didn’t have to remove the shock or anything else, and it really was significantly easier without that gas line in the way.
With that, I got the string lines out, and figured out how much I had jacked up the toe, and where I was at with camber.
The toe is massively off, at 7mm in both sides (I am looking for 2 mm toe in), the camber was at -2.9. A little more than I wanted. So new shim in, and I got it back to -1.8 degrees. Toe still not right. Close enough for now. Here is the final install, without fixing the toe. That will be done once I put the toe arms on. (Yes I could have done them at the same time, but due to time constraints, and my wife wanting her half of the garage back, they are on hold until next week).
It's difficult to tell in the photo, but the front is at -3 degrees, and the rear at -1.8. My next autox is April 24, so I have some time where I will install the rear seat delete, vertical links, and toe links.
Finally, I want to give credit to @AADPerformance for awesome camber arms. They are very tough, and the paint held up perfect even after the beating the drivers side took last night trying to get it in. Not to mention the red looks awesome. And Parker over there has been incredibly helpful with purchasing, and quick deliver. In fact, all their S550 parts are in stock (Except for blue camber arms, which was my first choice), which is rare these days.
I appreciate everyone reading. I will follow up at some point next week with the next bit of install. Many have reached out, and I promise I will respond. Just trying to keep my head above water at work right now. Appreciate the feedback!